Sunday 27th December 2020

Visiting the neighbour

​Hello friends and family
Best wishes for 2021. I realise that 2020 was very difficult for many people, but for our penguins it was the best year for the last 8 years. We have halted the decline of nest numbers and it has been a real team effort. Our increase from 37 nests to 41 here is an 11% increase. We have also seen a lot of returning juveniles which gives me hope that we have indeed, turned the corner.

Keeping warm

​Together the members of the team have put in over 5000 hours of selfless hard work to achieve this outcome. They have done it with good humour and risen to every challenge that has come along. I feel very fortunate to have such awesome people in my life.

Family time

​When we got the sniff of resourcing, we decided to develop a monitoring app to improve the chances for all Yellow-eyed penguins to benefit. We beg, borrow and extract resources from dumps to keep going. Our work ranges from manual labour to highly technical activities and all is freely given. Thank you, team.

The beautiful native NZ Ngaio

​On Tuesday we gathered to micro-chip more chicks and Jules came up to help, signing off Patrick and Lindsey to become registered handlers. We now have now chipped 46 of the 58 chicks. Bloods have been taken and slides read.

bold siblings

Maria, Bryan and Daniel arrived on Christmas eve and we spent Christmas day out in the sunshine, enjoying delicious food and just the right amount of wine to avoid a hangover. Today we are off to Queenstown for a holiday
Happy New Year and have a great week!
Rosalie
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