On the 20th, my flight back to Christchurch had been delayed. The unusually warm weather was making trouble for the ice runway over at the Pegasus Airfield. Flights had started to land only in the coldest part of the night—if they could land at all.
I woke to find a new boat in the harbour, and the road to Hut Point was open. So, Matt and I went scouting and found…A PENGUIN! (That’s right. A, singular, penguin. And I liked it.)
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- New ship, as seen from my dorm
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- Turns out it’s the Oden
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- The radome (radar dome) is awfully smokified
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- Gangplank still there; it’s not leaving yet
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- One last MOGAS picture. Mo’ Gas!
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- Movement in the water…
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- …it’s a penguin!
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- An adélie penguin
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- It stands around, and moves its neck funny
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- Then moves a little, briefly (I almost miss it)
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- Done moving
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- Time for more standing and neck bending
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- Wings out for balancing to waddle a little further
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- Time for some wing flapping
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- Wing flapping and stretching! Adorable
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- And then it’s back to standing and bending
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- Bending for the sake of grooming [?]
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- And then a bit more flapping
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- Grooming around the tag on its wing
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- Bending its head around…
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- …until the head disappears. Headless penguin!
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- We come back later (with Annamarie) to find our penguin friend in the spot most inaccessible to people. Clever
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- So I take a few pictures of not-penguins
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- Including one of a few skua that were circling
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