February 21, 2026
We wake up to a partly cloudy day, a bit chilly but not too windy. I walked down to the beach and was entertained by a sea lion at the far end. I watched him walk out to the water and swim away.
We had free time in the morning before our afternoon tour. We drove out to the end of the road on the Otago Peninsula to where we had watched the little penguins the week before. There were no signs of them today in broad daylight, but the views were pretty.
We walked down the road to a distant view of the penguin viewing platform. The previous week we saw people gathering at this point to try to see the penguins from afar. The viewing platform blocks seeing the small beach cove from here, altlhough I suppose it might be possible to see a few penguins coming into the beach area from farther away. More interesting to me was the view across the channel to the area we had visited in 2023: Aramoana, Heyward Point, and Spit Beach.
We drove back to the house for lunch. I walked back down to the beach, and now there were two sea lions resting at the same spot where I had seen the one earlier.
The entrance to the OPERA (Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance) was directly across the street from our beach house, and we had booked the 3 PM tour. This was a 1.5 hour tour through a preserve where yellow-eyed and little blue penguins were nesting, and it was also a rehabilitation center for sick, injured, or malnourished penguins.
There were 19 people in our tour group. The first part of the tour was a presentation and video about the preserve and the penguins that lived there. Then we split into two groups. Heinrich and I were in a group of 10. We boarded a bus that drove us through the preserve. Then we took a trail out to where penguins were nesting in the wild. We walked to hides where we were able to watch 4 yellow-eyed penguins. They were in the moulting stage where they were growing new feathers and unable to go into the ocean to feed. They were resigned to staying in their nesting area until the new feathers grew in. They were standing around and looking rather miserable.
We had about 5 to 10 minutes to view the moulting penguins, and then we had to leave for the next group to visit. We continued the walk down to a view of the beach area. We were given binoculars to see if we could find any yellow-eyed penguins in the area, but we didn't see any.
Further down the walk we passed some wooden enclosures where the little blue penguins were nesting. We saw one sitting inside.
We walked back to the bus and were driven back to the entrance. We walked to the penguin rehabilitation center. We were able to view about 25 penguins of different species. I got my very first close-up view of fiordland crested penguins.
I thought it was a good tour, but I wish I had more time to view the penguins. It seemed rushed.
After the tour we drove back to the beach house and had dinner. The new propane tank had been delivered, so we were able to use the grill for our steaks.
After dinner I walked down to the beach again, and now there were three sea lions onshore. I had some more fun viewing them. The calm weather had disappeared and now it was quite windy.
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoyed the hot tub.