We left Dunedin and headed south to The Catlins, a region in the south east that has sea cliffs and vegetation that is quite different than the rest we have seen. The Catlins are hard to see from the road and most of the sights are accessed on dirt backroads, it was kinda weird to navigate and decide what to see and what not to see. With in an hour we were turning toward the ocean to Nugget Point, there was a short walk to a look out where there could be Elephant seals, sea lions, yellow eyed penguins, and lots of birds. Out of the van and on the trail we were pleased to get out of the very cold wind from Dunedin, we took a short detour to a smaller lookout to see what DOC thought was cool to see. On a large rock in the ocean were a ton of nesting Royal Spoon bills, they had tuffs of feathers on there heads that were long and flopped around in the breeze, through the binoc's we could see they were all white with these crazy long skinny black bills that were straight except for the spoon at the end, almost like a elongated skinny platypus bill and they had long stick legs. We had fun watching them, they were busy making nests and tending to there eggs they seemed like the ocean cliffs even though they looked like they should be living in a marsh or river rather than on a rugged coastal rock. Anyway we continued on the main trail on the look out for elephant seals down below on the rocks but all that was there was fur seals and sea lions. Once we made it to the lighthouse look out we saw some really cool grooved rock formations in the sea cliffs and spotted more seals and gulls, we did not stick around to long since we have already seen a million gulls, and seals.
Back in Serena continued into the Catlins toward Curio Bay, this bay had been recommended to us by a few different people for camping and great sights. Arriving at the bay we discovered we are about one bay over from the most southern point in NZ, and I can tell you it felt very close to Antarctica with a stiff breeze coming straight from the south. The bay was very pretty and we read there was a colony of penguins living on the coast and we had a chance to see the rare yellow eyed penguins, and a petrified forest during low tide. The camp had lots of spots to camp, but the ground is not very flat, Paul found a great spot that was surrounded by 10 foot tall flax plants on all sides, it felt like we were in the middle of a corn maze weaving through all the sites and roads cut through the flax. The campground was run by a non profit organization and offered kitchen and showers for super cheap. Since the sun was out we took a walk along a rock shelf on low tide, the waves were big rolling in with antarctic water and they would crash up on the edge of the rocks and make huge sprays, Paul kept trying to get closer but would have to run in when big swells would come rolling in and drench the rocks. We watched the ocean for a bit and explored tide pools then moved to another spot when I noticed that the cliff we were walking by looked really strange with crazy lines and formations in it. As Paul investigated further we realize it is part of the petrified forest, these were tree rings that had been petrified in the cliff mud and rock, you could count the age of the trees the rings were so easy to see, it was really neat. We peaked around the corner of the cliff and realized the rest of the forest is stumps that you can see in low tide, realizing there is more to see on the other side we climbed back on land and walked down the road to another access point only after we both nearly got drenched when Paul tried to convince me to run with him in-between waves to around the cliff corner and we were turned around because the rock ledge we were running on dropped off into the ocean just around the corner (funny how he was positive it made it all the way to the other side). It was a close call but we made it back before another set of cold arctic water drenched our path. The new access point had a nice staircase down to the petrified forest and had signs posted about the yellow eyed penguins that if you see them stay at least 10meters away. They posted that the penguins come back from the sea to there nest two hours before sunset, so we figured we could explore the forest, then have some dinner and come back to watch the penguins after dinner.
The forest was cool, there were stumps sticking out and logs laying on there side, forever entombed. Just when I was getting bored I heard Paul in a loud whisper of excitement "Shabree, look a penguin!"
Holy crap the very rare yellow eyed penguin is coming back from fishing! We stop to watch him chilling on dry land cleaning himself and hopping along the rocks and then another one appears! We were so close to them, and they did not seem to be bothered by us. We watched them for a good hour, they cleaned themselves and bathed in the sun, soon we heard the mama penguins calling from the bushes where their nests were, for papa penguin to get back to the nest with the fish. It was funny, one of the mama's was up on the top of the hill, and it took her 10min to traverse down the hill, she was so clumsy on land but she made it to her husband and they went back to the nest after she kinda chased off the other penguin. During watching the 3 right in front of us interact 4-6 more penguins at different points on the beach came up onto the rocks and made their way to their nest in the thick bush, as soon as they were out of the water you could hear mama calling from the bushes and them returning the calls.
After feeling giddy about watching the penguins and being so close we went to check out the kitchen to cook our dinner, following the map to the kitchen we were shocked when we came to three small circular plaster circular buildings no bigger than an out house and one was the shower, one the bathroom, and the other was the kitchen with one burner! Hmm looks like we are using the cook stove tonight! We made our wonderful chicken curry and watched the sunset over the bay.
No comments:
Post a Comment