Penguins and seals

Jan 25th: Another incredibly hot day. In the morning we drove to the lighthouse along the coast from Moeraki. Here there is a colony of yellow-eyed penguins. You usually see them at dawn and dusk but as these times of the day aren't very child-friendly in summer, we were delighted to come across one penguin poddling around the edge of a steep cliff. We got to about 6 feet of it (but there was a fence in between to keep people out of their nesting area as they are very rare and a protected species). We clambered over rocks and came across seals leaping out of the sea on to the rocks. At one point two members of our group were cut off from us by a seal and they had to wait until it decided to go for another swim before they could get off the rocky headland. After lunch we played on Moeraki beach again, and after tea went for a walk from our local beach round into the next bay.