South: p-p-p Pengu

After our exciting time in Christchurch, we drove out to Tekapo. Such a pretty lake and a nice relaxed town. They had a cute little church, but it was sure chilly out.

The next day was supposed to be where we stopped to see Mount Cook. However, it was raining and cloudy so we decided not to bother driving over there, as it was out of the way. Mt Cook eluded us!

From there, we drove to Oamarau famous for penguins. We got settled in a campsite and it promptly began to pour. Back to town. I spent the whole day dreading sleeping in the tent.

We checked out the town and got news of a few exciting engagements - congrats guys! A year of weddings for us.

Oamarau was full of pretty limestone buildings and cool shops that were closed for Christmas holidays. And it was pouring. Yay!

Finally, after hanging around all day, it was time to see the penguins. Folks we saw two penguins. That's it. And they were small. However it was cool to see them in their natural habitat swimming out of the waves. The kind we saw is one of the most rare kinds and best of all it was free!

There he is!

We decided dinner out was in order if we were going to brave camping. It had stopped raining now for awhile. Some yummy pizza made everything a lot better.

However as we drove and it poured I broke. I had visited the bookings desk three times asking about local accommodation and could just not face an awful night in a wet tent. It had been awful enough on a nice day. Andrew and I decided to stay at a cheap lodge in the area. Upon arrival we found out that if we had come a half hour earlier we could have seen lots of penguins as close as a metre to us. Oamarau town of disappointments! Lesson learned, follow your instinct about crappy days to camp!