Penguin watchers

After a mammoth ten and a half hour sleep, today turned into a van day........I decided I needed some time to take a shower, wash my hair and relax without buzzing all over the show, so a van day it was.  Booked in for another night, this time with power - luxury!  The decision was quite good really, as it rained off and (mostly) on  a lot of the day.

The shower was warm and the relaxation beneficial.  In the evening I once again headed along to the penguin beach (just 5 minutes walk away in still blustery and cold conditions) but tonight there was just the one penguin to be seen.  A local volunteer 'penguin minder' told me that a few years ago there were up to 30 penguins at this beach - now there were just 13 at the most, and of those, just one nest.  The penguin who came in tonight was the mother who was (oh! so slowly.....) making her way up the beach to feed her chick so she (the minder) was there to warn people off from getting too close or closing off the penguin's route to either her nest or the sea.  Fascinating stuff.  About 12-15 people all there in cold, less-than-summery conditions to watch one solitary penguin waddle up the beach.  It did make me wonder why DoC haven't closed the beach off and made viewing from the cliffs above the only option for the public. (Interestingly, the only 'safe' access to the beach from the cliffs above is via a DoC constructed stairway.......  Not too sure if or how people got onto the beach before this was constructed.) Sure, I've loved every minute of being up (relativley) close to the beautiful creature, but if our presence is having an effect on their nesting, maybe it's time to consider a change, to give the penguins 'their' bay back?