Yellow eye

A yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes), or Hoiho in the Maori tongue.

These are some of the rarest penguins on earth with a population of only about 4000. They feed and breed in a few places off the coasts of the south island. Hunting by day a few kilometers off shore they dive for squid and fish. And like clockwork they return in the evening to a few beaches on the peninsula to rest for the night in the flax and native bush that used to line these shores.

They are very shy, though the population on this beach has learned to trust people. It has taken years in a collaboration between a local farmer and conservationist's to restore habitat on this beach for the penguins. Now eco-tourism helps fund those conservation projects. And that is why I am here. My guiding renown has reached other ears and I've been offered some more work bringing visitors to see these rare birds.

I've never seen anything like them. Waiting in a hide on a cold beach at dusk it is a magical feeling to suddenly see penguins wash up from the surf and slowly waddle up the beach together. Upright like people, old men dressed in tuxedo suits.