Annie once saw penguins before, hence her enthusiasm for persuading us that it was worthwhile. She had visited a town called Oamaru and hung around in a little shed that was built specially for the penguin fans. We found ourselves in Oamaru after too much hydrosliding delayed our departure from Dunedin and stopped us from getting all the way to Christchurch. Claims to have already seen a penguin were pushed aside and we set off for a return to Annie's magical shed.
As we've ascertained, Marine Biology is not exactly a science. It is however a branch of show business or sports-entertainment. The shed has now been replaced by a Grandstand with a Penguin educational centre attached. Everyone is to be seated by 8:15pm. The penguins are on at 8:30 and the whole show should be over by 9:30. The sun is pleasantly setting and the waters of the harbour are calm. It is a world away from blinking into a force ten gale and being unconvinced that even a penguin would want to be here.
A guy with a microphone arrives. I'm expecting a drum roll, and him to say 'Welcome! To the world of the Penguin!', but instead he's a Marine Biologist that tells us about the Blue Penguins being the smallest penguins in the world, and they can't register the yellow floodlights cos they see blues and greens, and a bunch of Marine Biologist stuff. He makes sure to remind me and 150 Koreans that no photography is permitted. We tried banning just flash photos, but people made mistakes and anyway, the auto-focus lights still mess with the penguins' eyes, and they really need their eyes for, like, fishing and stuff.
After about ten minutes, Jay, me and most people near us are bored of me and Jay going 'Look! There's a penguin! Oh no, it's some seaweed!' Annie doesn't even take Jay seriously when he says 'Look! There's a penguin!' But later we admit to being proud that Jay was the first to spot an actual penguin. They are very small, and timidly make their way up the slope before all rushing across the road at the top. Just as soon as one of them is brave enough to go for it. Once in their nests they give up the timid stuff and squawk like crazy at each other for long after we have left. Some local humans told us that the penguins are going to pay for the redevelopment of the entire harbour area. Well done, Magic Penguins.
We then return to our natural habitat, the campsite. Driving carefully so as not to run over any of the late arriving penguins in the car park (needs David Attenborough voice). And before any Marine Biologists write in, yes, the photo is of a bunch of cormerants, or shags, as we like to call them down here. In my defence, it is a good photo, there were loads of them, it's taken right next to the penguin place, and I bet lots of you did think they were penguins.
No comments:
Post a Comment