3/7/18
A beautiful day in Fjordland, but we needed to do some internet stuff in the morning and felt like we had to move on. We drove to Invercargill and did some shopping stuff there, then onto the Catlins. We drove to Curio bay where we scouted for rare yellow-eyed penguins. At dusk we saw 4 waddle ashore from their day of fishing. Very cute little guys! We camped that night near Haldane
I should mention that we have started calling our little campervan Bongo. She's tiny, has small wheels, but she's tough and could take us on some surprisingly rough roads. Bongo does have a traction problem, so on occasion, we had to push her out from sand or mud after a night of camping. And no one would ever mistake her for a cheetah. You definitely need a lot of open road in order to overtake a vehicle. On the other hand, boy can she sneak into tiny parking spots
3/8/18
We spent the day in the Catlins. We hiked to the southern most point in NZ, walked around a lighthouse area where we saw some huge sea lions. We headed to Curio beach where we were lucky to stumble upon a yellow-eyed penguin in broad day light. Maybe our favorite thing of the day was visiting Cathedral Caves. We hiked steeply down to these U-shaped caves (200m long) formed by wave action. We visited 2 really big caves and a couple of small ones. You have to make sure to visit these caves during low tide. Otherwise you'd be swimming amongst dangerous current and large waves to get them. As we visited at low tide, we could just walk along the beach and into the caves. However, the ocean down here is wild and unpredictable, so on a couple occasions, we got caught by some big surprise waves that got us wet and knocked some other people down. So the next time when we had to pass through that area, we sprinted at full speed to get past the waves, lest we get trapped by the waves up against the rough rocks. I made it through without a splash, but Elisha did take another wave up to her waist. When that group of rogue waves came in, there were some older folks trying to see refuge behind rocks, but still getting wet.
As we continued driving, we visited a very interesting gypsy wagon museum that Elisha loved. We hiked to Jack's Blowhole, which is this area 250m inland from the sea where you can peer down several hundred feet and see the ocean surge! This is because the ocean has created a tunnel under the land and then there must have been some sort of sinkhole here.
We drove out towards a peninsula where we watched, from a hide, 3 more yellow-eyed penguins waddle in from their daily fishing trips. We then walked out to a lighthouse and viewpoint at a place called Nugget Point (near Kaka point). The view here was beautiful with all these rock islands (called nuggets) arrayed out towards the sea from the point. We saw lots of NZ fur seals down below with cute pups playing in pools of water. On the way back, we stopped once more at the hide and saw 2 more penguins. We had dinner and wine by the ocean and then camped at Balcutha.
3/9/18
Drove to Dunedin in the morning. We walked a bit in the historic city centre. We spent a good portion of the day at Dunedin's very nice library while I worked on my paper. We had a late Thai lunch and then drove out to the Otago Peninsula. We saw lots of Royal Albatrosses flying about! Their wingspan is just so huge! It feels like watching airplanes. I paid to go up to a hide where I could see the nesting area and even 5 chicks. But the best is watching them fly and soar and zoom through the air and around the cliffs. Once it got dark, we went to a night time viewing (lit by man-made light at an intensity and wavelength that doesn't bother the penguins) of blue penguins. The parents came ashore in "rafts" after a day of fishing. The chicks wait patiently for the parents to come feed them, except for one funny chick (which Elisha named Bilbo Beggins, after the Lord of the Rings character Bilbo Baggins) which ran out from the tall grass any time an adult penguin to shore and really harassed the adult trying to get food from it. It was funny to watch, and it squawked like crazy. In all, we probably saw about 30 blue penguins come ashore. That night we camped out on the Otago peninsula.
3/10/18
We hung out around the Otago peninsula b/c it was a very nice day. We visited a couple of beaches, then hiked to some cool cliff overlooks (Chasm and Lover's Leap). We also did a cool hike (all in bare feet) from Sandymount to Sandfly beach. It was an interesting hike on a sandy mountain with dense vegetation that ended with crossing small sand dunes to get down to the beach. The beach was nice with a couple sea lions sprawled across it. We spent the afternoon in Dunedin where we ate some Korean for lunch and then drove to the mystical rocks of Moeraki. They are these crazy, giant, perfectly round boulders (~3-4 feet in diameter) strewn upon the beach. Camped the night outside of Ranfurly.
A beautiful day in Fjordland, but we needed to do some internet stuff in the morning and felt like we had to move on. We drove to Invercargill and did some shopping stuff there, then onto the Catlins. We drove to Curio bay where we scouted for rare yellow-eyed penguins. At dusk we saw 4 waddle ashore from their day of fishing. Very cute little guys! We camped that night near Haldane
I should mention that we have started calling our little campervan Bongo. She's tiny, has small wheels, but she's tough and could take us on some surprisingly rough roads. Bongo does have a traction problem, so on occasion, we had to push her out from sand or mud after a night of camping. And no one would ever mistake her for a cheetah. You definitely need a lot of open road in order to overtake a vehicle. On the other hand, boy can she sneak into tiny parking spots
3/8/18
We spent the day in the Catlins. We hiked to the southern most point in NZ, walked around a lighthouse area where we saw some huge sea lions. We headed to Curio beach where we were lucky to stumble upon a yellow-eyed penguin in broad day light. Maybe our favorite thing of the day was visiting Cathedral Caves. We hiked steeply down to these U-shaped caves (200m long) formed by wave action. We visited 2 really big caves and a couple of small ones. You have to make sure to visit these caves during low tide. Otherwise you'd be swimming amongst dangerous current and large waves to get them. As we visited at low tide, we could just walk along the beach and into the caves. However, the ocean down here is wild and unpredictable, so on a couple occasions, we got caught by some big surprise waves that got us wet and knocked some other people down. So the next time when we had to pass through that area, we sprinted at full speed to get past the waves, lest we get trapped by the waves up against the rough rocks. I made it through without a splash, but Elisha did take another wave up to her waist. When that group of rogue waves came in, there were some older folks trying to see refuge behind rocks, but still getting wet.
As we continued driving, we visited a very interesting gypsy wagon museum that Elisha loved. We hiked to Jack's Blowhole, which is this area 250m inland from the sea where you can peer down several hundred feet and see the ocean surge! This is because the ocean has created a tunnel under the land and then there must have been some sort of sinkhole here.
We drove out towards a peninsula where we watched, from a hide, 3 more yellow-eyed penguins waddle in from their daily fishing trips. We then walked out to a lighthouse and viewpoint at a place called Nugget Point (near Kaka point). The view here was beautiful with all these rock islands (called nuggets) arrayed out towards the sea from the point. We saw lots of NZ fur seals down below with cute pups playing in pools of water. On the way back, we stopped once more at the hide and saw 2 more penguins. We had dinner and wine by the ocean and then camped at Balcutha.
3/9/18
Drove to Dunedin in the morning. We walked a bit in the historic city centre. We spent a good portion of the day at Dunedin's very nice library while I worked on my paper. We had a late Thai lunch and then drove out to the Otago Peninsula. We saw lots of Royal Albatrosses flying about! Their wingspan is just so huge! It feels like watching airplanes. I paid to go up to a hide where I could see the nesting area and even 5 chicks. But the best is watching them fly and soar and zoom through the air and around the cliffs. Once it got dark, we went to a night time viewing (lit by man-made light at an intensity and wavelength that doesn't bother the penguins) of blue penguins. The parents came ashore in "rafts" after a day of fishing. The chicks wait patiently for the parents to come feed them, except for one funny chick (which Elisha named Bilbo Beggins, after the Lord of the Rings character Bilbo Baggins) which ran out from the tall grass any time an adult penguin to shore and really harassed the adult trying to get food from it. It was funny to watch, and it squawked like crazy. In all, we probably saw about 30 blue penguins come ashore. That night we camped out on the Otago peninsula.
3/10/18
We hung out around the Otago peninsula b/c it was a very nice day. We visited a couple of beaches, then hiked to some cool cliff overlooks (Chasm and Lover's Leap). We also did a cool hike (all in bare feet) from Sandymount to Sandfly beach. It was an interesting hike on a sandy mountain with dense vegetation that ended with crossing small sand dunes to get down to the beach. The beach was nice with a couple sea lions sprawled across it. We spent the afternoon in Dunedin where we ate some Korean for lunch and then drove to the mystical rocks of Moeraki. They are these crazy, giant, perfectly round boulders (~3-4 feet in diameter) strewn upon the beach. Camped the night outside of Ranfurly.
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