Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Then to the southern bluff of the South Island, looking over at Stewart island. It was a beautiful day and took advantage of the lack of sandflies here and ate lunch on the sea front, then on to find somewhere to camp. The Catlins are home to New Zealand's rare and boisterous Hooker's Sea Lion and many other fascinating sea creatures, including The yellow-eyed Penguin. We first found a camp spot at the Waipapa point lighthouse( the same designed lighthouse as Pouto point on the mouth of the Kaipara Habour on the North Island, apart from not having a porch!!!)
Anyway here we stayed in beautiful weather and views along side the beach, home to our first encounter with a sea lion!! At first we couldn't even get a photo of his head and body (he was quiet rightly hiding in the sand and seaweed) but with patience we waited until all the tourists had gone and caught the sea lion get up and shuffle/waddle down to the sea and flop down before gracefully swimming away for his dinner! We free camped taut night at the lighthouse carpark as it was a beautiful spot, we missed seeing the sea lion go in for his morning swim but saw his shuffle marks in the sand! From there we drove to Curio bay to see the petrified forest on the rocks. It was amazing. In the late jurassic period the bay was a floodplain with active volcanoes which which flooded the forest with lava and ash preserving them to this day. You can still see the shapes and texture of the fallen trees and stumps, it looks as if they have been calved out of stone! We loved it and wandered round for ages just staring at it. THe bay nextdoor was called Porpoise Bay and we were told that (funnily enough) there were often dolphins swimming in the sea there. The beach was beautiful and we chilled out there reading our books and watching the sea and waiting . . . we did not see any dolphins, but we did see two sea lions charge out of the sea to people on the beach (luckily not us!) That evening was magical. The Petrified Forest is home to the yellow eyed penguin and at sunset we watched them hop out of the sea and waddle, strech and call to there partners who were with the chicks hidden in there nests. The partners then came waddling out of the bush to spot and then run to meet them and they greete each other with synchronised streching and beak rubbing. Debs was extreemly excited to see her faverouite animal for the first time in the wild! We stayed for hours fixated in watching them.
That night we camped at a free site just up the road from the penguins. In the morning i (Debs) got up early and went for a run in the bush (normally if we stay at a site with walks next to it we go for a run to explore the area). This run was beautiful with a stunning waterfall and was very tricky under foot . . . Slippery roots, mud, rocks etc. I was really proud that I didn't fall over!! But once back in the van I stepped out the side door to go to the toilet as I was bursting for a wee and my foot rolled right under and the next thing I know I am on the floor in lots of pain. James immediately jumped to help but all I could think about was going to the toilet so he scooped me up to carry me (wearing only a t-shirt and my knickers), we must have looked like a comedy act! I soon hopped down though and realised that I could walk/hobble luckily.
We soon sorted ourselves out and drove out to the coast and along. We stopped at a nice cafe (Niagara falls cafe) at the side of the road as we needed to charge our camera battery and I needed ice for my ankle oh . . . and some amazing breakfast! The waiter was really nice and we asked him about the 'Niagara falls' up the road. It's pretty funny as basically the guy who named the falls was a complete joker, he thought the falls were so small and insignificant to have a name that he called them Niagara. Well we had to take a look for ourselves and it was hilarious it was barely a slope that the river was flowing down, to make it even better the falls are marked on our map as a point of interest!
We stopped off at a more impressive falls down the road called the McLean falls. It was a small walk there and it was stunning - much more impressive than Niagara (The kiwi one!). Next stop was cannibal bay - named as on the past human remains were found among the hundreds of sea lions that used to live there. There are a lot less now due to the hunting that used to take place. We saw a male and female chilling out and napping on the beach then we walked through the dunes (I was pretty nervous that one would pop out and give us a fright, especially as I could only hobble!) to Surat bay where we saw another male and female swimming/dancing round each other in the sea having a good old flirt!
That night we camped at Hill View campsite. It was suggested to us by a guy called Ben that we met at Moke Lake who funnily enough went to uni in Falmouth when we were there! The campsite is run by a guy from Derby and it is basically his garden/land that he is slowly turning into a fully functioning campsite. He had a good setup and even cooked us a full English for breakie!
Our next stop was nugget point which is the home to more sea lions and seals but the cool thing about it is the view of all the tilt little islands/nuggets at the end of the point. We were so lucky on our walk back to the van though as we saw three more yellow eyed penguins going out to sea which is so rare in the daylight!
Our next stop was the albatrosses on the Dunedin Bluff. We had been told that it was quite pricy to pay and see the nests but if we wanted to see them fly we could try to see them from the carpark but they only fly when it is just the right wind. Well, we were really lucky! Just as we were walking to the cliff edge to look I was asking James how I could spot them as there were so many seagulls flying around, he said we would just know . . . Next second one swooped over our heads and it was breathtaking! I definitely knew it wasn't a seagull!!! We were lucky enough to see about six. A couple watching with us said they had come the day beforehand none were flying. We stopped and stared for ages admiring how huge and gracefully they are and how they fly more like how you would imagine dinosaurs to!
- comments