Yellow eyes and surfing seals

After a stormy night's sleep we got up and did the bed "unmaking" routine that I think we are going to become very rehearsed at.  It was still rather windy this morning but we had hopes of it clearing up as we set off down the peninsular for our appointment with the yellow eyed penguins.

The penguins live in a reserve right at the end of the peninsular.  The reserve is trying to support the penguins and stop them from becoming extinct.  Unfortunately at the moment its a bit of a losing battle as another project up the road has been working on increasing the number of fur seals, and the success of this has meant more seals eating up more penguins! Nevertheless we did our bit by paying our money for an introduction to the penguins and their lives and then an hours walk around the reserve and along the coast.  We explored the reserve via covered trenches and hides so that we saw the penguins up close without disturbing them.

The most beautiful part of the walk was up onto the cliff at the end and the sun even came out for us.  From here we came face to face with a couple of cliff beached fur seals:

And watched another skillfully surf into shore:



The morning walk revived us and restored our faith in the weather.  It really was wild and beautiful and exactly why you come to New Zealand.

We had lunch with the view before heading off on today's drive inland across the Island to Te Anau.  We had another five hours to do but it was nice and flat, a relatively easy and very beautiful drive.  The camp at Te Anau overlooks the lake and we were lucky enough to get a front row site.  We quickly made some phone calls to book up the next few days camps and activities and then had our dinner of leftovers on the table outside overlooking the lake.  Tomorrow morning we're heading off on a trip to Milford sound and abandoning our camper van for the day.