The Saga of the Hoiho - yellow eyed penguin

     *Google Image of Yellow Eyed Penguin 

Dawn approaches at 7:25. We scurried down the road from our backpacker's and were the first of the few humans on site. As if the coast line of Curio Bay in the Catlins was not already impressive, add on the 180 million year old petrified forest.  The hoihos nest in the green shrubs, traverse through the petrified forest and jump into the sea to catch fish.  At the end of they day, these yellow eyed penguins, native to New Zealand, return to their nest to baby bird feed their chicks.

Curio Bay coastline

180 million year old petrified forest

our spot at dawn

We pick a random hundred eighty million year old old tree stump to sit on while we wait for the sun to rise, we find a spot halfway into the petrified forest between the nesting shrubs and the ocean, hoping that we are not in the direct pathway of the penguins' march to their food source.   While we sit in the dark the only sounds we hear are the waves crashing on the cliffs and the calling of the penguins about to start their day.

petrified log

After our eyes adjust, we see some movement in the shrubs, an interchange between grayish and white....could it be a penguin belly, or is it a cloth piece flapping in the wind...it's hard to tell.  Then we see the white penguin belly emerge out of the shrubbery... it's still very dark but you can make out the little chubby penguin waddling. The penguin calls to his friend and they meet somewhere in the middle, calling to each other back and forth... I imagine it's to make sure the other is still there... 

They reach a tide pool that falls off into the sea...they jump in reluctantly and swim for a few moments. One of the penguins gets taken by a wave into the open sea; the second penguin hesitates and sadly misses his chance.  Penguin 2 swims anxiously in the tide pool making penguin calls, perhaps trying to get more penguin pals to join him?

He gets out of the tide pool and defeated, waddles back towards the nesting grounds.  He mopes around for the next ten minutes making pleading penguin calls to his friends, probably so he doesn't have to go into the ocean alone. As he looks around and continuously eyes the shrubberies, he realizes his friends were totally screening his calls, so to speak. After some time, he realizes he needs to feed his chicks and reluctantly returns to the tide pool, he swims around a bit, waddles through the sea weed and makes the jump....great success!

hopefully you can make out the penguin waddling through, first jumping into the tide pool and the next video showing him through the seaweed and then into the ocean. 

We were emotionally involved in the saga of Penguin 2's struggles.  Will he have enough time to get food, will he have another penguin pal to join him, is his original penguin pal ok?... at the end he made it! hopefully he returns home at dusk with a belly full of food to regurgitate to his chicks.