Finally, we made it to the
Catlins! This is a breathtakingly beautiful place on the south island between Dunedin and Invercargill with dense forest, towering cliffs, rocky coastal bays, and wildlife galore! Winter seems a great time to go, it seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves.
We got there on a Friday, a day that the sun never really came out, but it was still beautiful. We started the weekend with a short walk to the Waipapa Lighthouse. There were signs telling us that there was the potential to see sea lions or seals, but we weren't really holding our breath!
We were thrilled when we saw two sea lions playing/fighting/whatever around in the water incredibly close to shore! If that had been all the wildlife we saw that day, I'd say it was great!
There was the mandatory stop at 'Niagara Falls'-obviously whoever the was surveyor was a bit cheeky!
A short walk across some farmland we were at the southern most point of the south island: Slope Point. I thought we were a little closer to the South Pole than that! It's a beautiful with Stewart Island in the background.
After a quick stop at our adorable beach front cottage to slip into long johns, we were off to Curio Bay. At dusk the rarest penguins in the world,
yellowed eyed penguins, return from a long day of fishing and waddle up the beach to their homes nestled in the trees just off the beach. They make their trek to the ocean at dawn and come back at dusk-we went to see them at dusk. There was only one other couple on the beach hoping to see them. Almost immediately we saw a pair of penguins just hanging out on the rocks drying their feathers. Then slowly but surely they worked their way up the beach, hopping on to rocks and shuffling over the sand. Another pair came out of the ocean and took their place ....we saw 3 pairs and one single penguin altogether. The single penguin seemed to be the leader, he was calling the few stragglers on the beach with what seemed like a 'Get up here right now! Don't make me come down there!' tone as he stood on the edge of the forest. Oh, these guys were so adorable! Waddling up the beach, they look exhausted from their long day at the office, but they stay in their pairs, waiting for each other to hop up the rocks together-I love them!
And there are no pictures-we had read that the flash from cameras seems to stress them out and the last thing I want to do is stress out the rarest penguins in the world!
We also had the compulsory ridiculously huge meal. This one was a platter of chutneys, pate, cheeses, sausage, and a special 2 dozen mussels for Keith.
A stop at the local information center pointed us to a walk that promised great views and maybe a little more wildlife. About half way down the beach, I spotted something that moved in the surf-Keith thought it was just a big rock-he was wrong. It was a giant sea lion that was working his way up to his prime napping in the sun spot.
The track goes through the sand dunes to get to another beach-that sounds easy right? In theory yes, but in reality no. Just steps off the beach there were a number of land mines in the form of giant sleeping sea lions. The question was if we even try to get past them. There was one napping about 3 feet from the path and we wanted to stay on the path....the idea of stumbling on even more giant sea lions if we got off the trail was not appealing! Slowly, quietly, holding our breath we made it past with just a pair of sleepy eyes barely opening, then deciding we weren't worth waking up for, and going back to sleep. We made it!
And on our way to Cannibal Bay we got a great view of Surat Bay. It was a gorgeous, unexpectedly warm day...thank goodness no one was around when we jumped out of all our unneeded layers!
On Cannibal Bay there was what looked like a family unit of sea loins. We think it was one male and either a couple females and a adolescent, or maybe a male with a bunch of females (a harem if you like!)-if anyone can tell, feel free to correct me!
These guys couldn't decide if they wanted to nap or play and they put on quite a show! One minute one would be so asleep/relaxed that it was slowly rolling down the beach as if it was passed out, then it would pop up and start after one of the other sea loins-and we were the only people there-it was amazing! We saw a total of 9 sea loins in just a couple hours!
There are a number of waterfalls in the area. We made it to both McLean Falls and Pūrākaunui Falls. While I had read that Pūrākaunui Falls is one of Otago’s most-photographed sights, we had both falls all to ourselves.
Our last stop in the Catlins was Jack's Blow Hole. It was named for Ngāi Tahu chief, Tuhawaiki, known to early European settlers as Bloody Jack - apparently he was fond of using the expletive...wonder what my nickname would be (like I don't already know!). The blowhole is in Tunnel Rocks Scenic Reserve. At 55 meters deep, some 200 meters from the sea, it was formed when the roof of a large subterranean cave was eroded by the sea and fell in. This is an exposed coastline and heavy swells from the southern ocean can create an impressive display. The waves are compressed through the underground tunnel and explode into the blowhole.
Now we're back for the usual week of Keith working two days here, three days there. We're in Tapanui for the last time this week and hopefully we have to time to catch the community theater's prodcution of the Wizard of Oz-can't wait!
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