It was announced on the radio that today is the first day of Fall in NZ. Where did the summer go?

While on our way out of Moeraki Village, we stopped to photograph Kotahitanga Church, which means "one united people."  It was built in 1862 and recently moved and restored.

A major tourist attraction not far north of the village is the spherical Moeraki Boulders. We arrived at low tide so walking the 300 meters on the beach was “easy peasy.”  The boulders look like giant marbles that were washed up on the beach. However, the science is that they are septarian concretions – massive rocks that formed in mud coastal cliffs when minerals crystalized equally in all directions from a central point, and much later were left behind when the cliffs eroded. It reminds me of the way pearls form, except this was not caused by a living thing.

We continued driving up coastal Otago to the town of Oamaru, a pretty town settled in 1853. There were few trees in the area, so the settlers built buildings out of the local limestone. Even very ordinary buildings were built of the “white stone,” resulting in a town with beautiful and lasting architectural gems.  

We love the public gardens here. The gardens include a red Japanese bridge, a rhododendron dell, an azalea section, a greenhouse full of begonias, a rose garden, and many more flowers and trees. It is beautifully created and maintained.

The best attraction in town are the penguins. Yellow-eyed penguins can be viewed at Bushy Beach. We waited for a long time in a cold wind, watching from a cliff, for a single penguin to land on the beach, because most of them are molting and stay hidden on land.

My favorites are the Little Blue Penguins. These are the smallest penguins, and they are absolutely adorable. They were once considered pests in Oamaru because they were so numerous and would nest under buildings. Now there is a sophisticated complex where little huts have been constructed for the penguins and fancy stadium seating for the tourists.

The little blues had been busily swimming all day long catching fish, and at about 9 PM the penguins gather in groups, called rafts, far out at sea. Then the rafts of 20 to 30 penguins swim in together and climb up a hill in single file, and scurry to their own personal huts. Sometimes they squabble over the ownership of the huts, but mostly they are cooperative; there is safety in numbers. Tonight 112 little blues came home while we watched in awe as they struggled with their tiny, happy feet and big round bellies to climb up the hill to find a safe place to rest overnight.