I can only spot a few yellow penguins at their beach, but the setting is beautiful. I wind up returning to this Bushy Beach the next day, by foot, just to wander around on the pleasantly deserted sand and rocks. After climbing over some rocky bits, and upsetting a few seals who are gathered around a dead comrade, I come across a wonderful fossil in a large rock. It's from some type of shelled critter. I'm very tempted to keep it, but it's just too heavy for a backpacker, so I give it to the woman who owns the YHA. Turns out she collects fossils and is overjoyed to have it. Sometimes tis better to give than to receive.

Getting back to the penguins, even though the entrance to the blue penguin colony area is excessive, the show you get is excellent. These are just the cutest little penguins and they scamper off in groups to their burrows. I had a great time here.

Oamaru maintains a series of walkways outside of the town. Some parts are far better marked than others but I wind up walking all of them during my visit. One starts from near the fine botanic gardens and heads north of town, offering some great overlooks before swinging back and popping out of the woods near the basilica. Most kiwi towns have little parks with war memorials, but those here are special. I'm drawn to one inscription below a simple urn, set in a rose garden: "Their's, the Bow of Burnished Gold, the Arrows of Desire." Whenever I see monuments like that I thank God that I never had to fight in a war.

Some of the older streets in Oamaru look like they could still be in a Dickens' novel. As I learned from Bruce, they were profligate with the limestone since they quarried it near here. However, some of the slabs were put in upside down, so the water seaped the wrong way in them. Thus some sections are in perfect condition while others of the same era are crumbling.