After watching the albatross for about an hour, we retraced our steps around the hill to the Rockhopper Penguin colony as clouds passed overhead.

The sun soon returned and we sat and watched them for a little while, but very little rock hopping was going on here…

…but it was worth spending some time here where they seemed to be more willing to tolerate our presence.

This guy was even willing to pose for me. Those red eyes are really freaky.

It was a really large colony, numbering in the thousands.

We decided to climb down to the beach to walk over to the bottom of the hill (behind and to the right of Dale, as she practices her penguin waddle)…

…to see the colony from there and to wait for some Rockhoppers to return from feeding at sea.

We didn’t have to wait long.