3 May 2015

Hello friends and family

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Slowly the penguins are going back to the sea. We are now down to 8 in care and 3 more will start their soft release this week. Letting penguins go requires decent sea conditions as well as a healthy bird – some juggling is required. This is the first season that we have used donated fish as their main diet and they have done well. Thank you Penguin Place for your Jack Mackerel and Silverside. The penguins are reaching 6Kg OK and then are released.

When the sea is rough, the wild penguins either stay at home or stay at sea. The only way to tell the difference is to check for footprints in the morning. Twice this week the tourists have left the reserve in a timely manner – there was a howling southerly on both occasions and the track down the hill is very slippery. Twice also, tourists have come, and not seeing any penguins, have gone down onto the beach to follow/chase/look for them. They have climbed the fence and gone past Keep Out signs to do it.

North Otago wears autumn well and even after very high winds, the drive through to Oamaru is a visual feast. On Thursday I had my meeting with the building inspector and soon my shed will be built. The water tank is almost full.

The battery charger was unable to spark the ride-on lawn mower into life so I will need to get that repaired again as the grass is beginning to grow with the rain that we have had. I have retired my tomato plants and will put some spinach in the hot house over winter. In the meantime, the Native Spinach is growing well and I am enjoying eating that.

Yesterday Elaine and I repaired her garden shed that had blown over in the high winds. We have made it stronger but time will tell!

Have a great week!