Yellow-Eyed Penguin at Curio Bay

We've back-tracked a little, back into The Catlins National Park and have parked the van for the night at Curio Bay. This is a really beautiful area but the icing on the cake was the chance to see (and photograph) some yellow-eyed penguins returning from their daily expedition to get food for their chicks. So the main blip shows one of them on the rocks soon after it emerged from the sea, and the extra shows one of the chicks expectantly waiting for its nightly snack. It was fabulous to see them (they're the world's rarest species of penguin) even though it required us to sit and wait on the beach for almost 3 hours in a cold wind (in spite of it being "summer"!) - but it was worth it.
 
As these penguins are so rare they're carefully protected - you're not allowed to get very close to them (quite right too).