Penguins live on the ice, just ask Disney and virtually every documentary you’ve ever seen. So you can be forgiven if they don’t come to mind with your first mental images of New Zealand. Even Lonely Planet fails to include any penguin pictures or mention them in the list of native birds and animals at the front of Lonely Planet New Zealand. But we do have three penguin species native to the coasts of the South Island with numerous colonies, thousands of birds and a sizable tourist industry build around viewing them. And last year we discovered that even though they burrow in rocks and sand instead of flocking on ice, they are every bit as cute and penguinlike as their more southerly cousins.
Here’s a succinct overview of our fast-paced trip:

1. In Search of Penguins
2. Little Blue Penguins on the Otago Peninsula 
3. Yellow-Eyed Penguins in the Catlins

1. In Search of Penguins

Last summer we spent a few weeks around Christmas (yes, that still twists our brains, too- summer and Christmas) doing a whirlwind driving tour of New Zealand’s South Island. We were accommodating an American friend who was desperate to see as much of the amazing country and unusual wildlife as possible in just a couple of weeks. Having been here for a year ourselves but having seen only one wild penguin, we were definitely on board with making every effort to ensure penguin sightings on the trip. Our one past success had been a touch disappointing, since the floating bird more resembled a duck than any penguin we’d ever seen on TV, but we were optimistic that land sightings might be a bit more thrilling. Plus we were going in prime season so our chances of close encounters were high. The only problem was that the sheer size of the trip was stretching our budget. We couldn’t really afford the $30- $70/person guided tours and wanted to take advantage of free viewing if at all possible. Despite their oversight in the introduction, Lonely Planet New Zealand does list quite a few free penguin viewing sites around the island. We also found free sites listed in the excellent Southern Scenic Route guide provided at many iSite locations. We link to many excellent online resources, and the rest of our information came from talking to other travelers and locals once we got into penguin country.

From our home in Nelson at the top of the South Island we chose the clockwise route around the island. This bode well for faster penguin viewing since we were hoping to see the little Blue Penguins and Yellow-eyed Penguins that breed on the southeast coastline. We had learned from New Zealand Penguins site that Blues are quite numerous and can be seen in much of New Zealand. They have large, accessible breeding colonies from the Banks Peninsula all the way down through the Catlins. The much rarer Yellow-eyed, found only in New Zealand, have just 500 pairs breeding mainly from Oamaru to the Catlins. The third mainland species, Fiordland Crested Penguins, which breed on the southwestern coast have unfortunately already moved out to sea by December.

So, we clipped off the northeast corner of the island and headed on down to Christchurch. There we stuck to urban sightseeing, skipping the expensive Antarctic Centre with optimistic hopes for the southerly coast. We didn’t have time or funds on this trip to go back out to Akaroa, although Pohatu Penguins Tours claim they have the largest Blue Penguin colony on the island. Instead we headed directly to Dunedin, stopping for lunch in Oamaru. After picking up a few selections from the award-winning Whitestone Cheese factory, we drove down and parked along the small boat harbor for our picnic. After lunch, we swung by the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, but as expected we were much too early for the dusk viewings. We had hundreds of miles to cover, and the idea of paying to view from crowded bleachers didn’t really appeal, even if they did have 130 breeding pairs. So it was on to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula then for our first real opportunity. We could have pre-booked a pricey daylight guided tour of the Oamaru colony, and we left wondering if we would regret skipping that.

Driving Highway 1 to Dunedin is a fairly straight long country road, mainly rolling through green sheepy hills, and occasionally passing through small towns. Moeraki is one of the only features along the drive with its round boulders, a bit of holiday development and a few small penguin beaches.  We stopped to see the boulders, which are praised in several guidebooks, and were expecting something a bit more imposing.  Still, they were amazingly round, it was a beautiful beach and we enjoyed the walking break from the car.  It was a bit early still for dusk penguin viewing and we didn’t really have time for the hike involved, so we pushed on to Dunedin.