On birds and the necessary stroke of luck

06.02.

Please read the headline carefully! It says about birds....and nothing else!

Actually, I had already written this post....but thanks to the even worse internet in Timaru, who knows what happened to it.

It's cold and cloudy this morning, but it's not raining. As true campers, we have breakfast outside. At home, we would never come up with this idea at 14 degrees Celsius....

Our destination for the day is Timaru. But first, our route takes us through the Otago Peninsula. The view is magnificent, the roads first wide, then narrow and even narrower...some cliffs open up again. We forbid ourselves to think about oncoming traffic! After various viewpoints, we arrive at the Royal Albatross Center. Birds as far as the eye can see! And a lonely sea lion....the doll is a bit upset in terms of smell. Well, lots of birds, lots of bird.... Still interesting to see! Just as we're about to leave, it starts....exactly!....raining again. But after a while, we've left the rain behind, only to find ourselves in.....traffic jam!  It takes quite a while. When we continue, it's not clear what caused the traffic jam. We see some firefighters on the side of the road, but that alone is probably not an explanation.... But now it's time for a coffee break again! We've already spotted a suitable pause domicile, parked the compact lock and jumped across the road. Well....unfortunately closed because of the public holiday. Luckily, there's a bakery 2 houses down. We fortify ourselves there with pie and flat whites.

As we approach Timaru, we suddenly have navigation problems...the internet connection is failing. Various SIM cards are tried and somehow it works again. We have chosen a public campsite by the water online. After finding it and assessing it, we realize that freedom camping won't be possible today. The view of the industrial plants is too uncharming! So it's back to the commercial option. However, here the tip is given for free that you can watch penguins on Marine Parade in the evening. So we eat unusually early and meet at the beach at 9:00 pm. The animals are supposed to come ashore at dusk. 9:10 pm....we're waiting, 9:20 pm....we're waiting, 9:30 pm....we're still waiting, 9:40 pm....are they playing a joke on us?, 10:00 pm....they're not coming today, 10:10 pm....it starts raining...we're leaving. Today, we simply lacked the necessary stroke of luck.....