Okahau

Talking about ‘silly places’ for penguins to moult at. It would seem as if Shag Point is a magnet for moulting tawaki seeking their own private silly place to drop all their feathers.

About 500 m up the road from the public behind which Katiki decided to spend three weeks of misery, another young male penguin had a similar idea. Only this one thought the public picnic ground would be a sufficiently quiet place for him.

Well, he was wrong. While the prospects of the tawaki landing on a barbecue were slim, becoming a plaything for a family dog seemed a much more likely outcome. So, off to Penguin Rescue the penguin went (where Katiki was already enjoying Rosalie Goldsworthy’s five-star catering services).

On 20 February, with 4.2 kg of meat on his bones, it was time for the bulky boy to be released. But as the weather did not look overly promising – and the experience of Rainy’s deployment still on Thomas and Richard’s mind – it was decided that the penguin would be fitted with his tracker in the comfort of Rosalie’s garage.

Once sporting his unit, the tawaki was transferred into his personal crate and loaded on the Penguin Rescue truck. His release site was a five-minute drive across paddocks to Okahau beach. Richard joined the bird on the back of the truck, less for fear of the crate falling off but rather because there was little room for a person of his size in the front cab.

Okahau, which Rosalie decided would be the penguin’s name, peeped out of his crate as he was carried past soft release pens full of moulting Yellow-eyed penguins/hoiho. Surely, the tawaki felt sorry for the other birds that looked more bedraggled then he did but also were poorly equipped in the head ornamentation department. No crest? Not cool.

When Richard plonked down Okahau’s crate on the red sandy beach and opened the door, the penguin stepped out and appeared positively confused. Where was his pen? What was he doing here? Was this the end of the wellness holiday?

Incredulous he took a step towards the water, before having second thoughts and waddled up to the rocks that Katiki also preferred to a seaward’s departure. And there he remained for the next four days, before coming to grips with the fact that what he’s supposed to do is head south.

Okahau, followed a route that was remarkably like Christopher’s. Three times both penguins’ paths literally crossed with some satellite fixes within a just a few metres from another. But Christopher had left two days before Okahau and he would always maintain his head start. However, there is a clear difference between the two – Okahau seems not to be interested in mountains as he swam straight across the Macquarie Ridge and just kept going southwest.

Today, Okahau is about 2,200 km south of Adelaide, Australia.