The last 2 days were well spent mostly on the eastern coast, in a region known as Otago.
Kurow yesterday morning was bleak, cold and cloudy. Nonetheless we went on a river stroll right behind the campground, just to say we got our morning exercise. We drove along the
Oamaru is an interesting town, but the minute we reached it, we had to hurry south anther 30km to reach the famous Moeraki Boulders during low tide. These round rocks, each the size of a living room couch, are curiously positioned along the beach at Moeraki, providing a palatable photo opportunity as well as tons of climbing fun for wee ones. There is probably an interesting geological explanation for these formations, but unfortunately we couldn’t find it at the beach.
We headed back to Oamaru and some grocery shopping. We then checked into our campground, adjacent to an awesome playground for kids. After spending a while sliding down a giant elephant slide and other fun attractions, we headed for the yellow eyed penguin show.
The yellow eyed penguins are very rare, but some colonies are easily accessible to the public along the south eastern NZ coast. Oamaru has a very good and stable colony at Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve. The penguins arrive from the ocean in the afternoon and visitors who are quiet and patient are rewarded with very close encounters (behind a protective fence) with these interesting birds.
We spent close to 2 hours watching these little fellows. At first we saw just one, then a few more. We heard them singing and yelling at each other. We even saw a mom and dad tending to their 2 chicks. Not to mention the photo frenzy. Shir and Orr lost interest very quickly and were quite content playing with the rocks in the gravel path. We just needed to remind them to be quiet every once in a while.
In the evening, mom and dad went to a performance by the blue penguins. Since it began at 9:30pm, and we already saw these penguins at
This morning we headed south and stopped only when we reached
We drove to the Otago peninsula, the farthest tip housing an albatross colony. Some can be seen soaring in the air when the wind picks up. At first just the rain picked up, and it was quite miserable. Then the wind picked up, but no albatross, just shags, seagulls, cormorants and sea lions at the bottom of the cliffs.
The wind was wicked strong and only dad and I braved outside the cars. We waited patiently and finally were able to see a few albatrosses with their gigantic wingspan. Nice.
It was almost 6pm and we still had more than a 100km left to drive to get to our Catlins destination. We drove for an hour and the hunger set in. We stopped in a town called
We continued driving and reached the Catlins area jut after 8:30pm. Before heading to
Kaka point seemed like a nice beach, but not at 9pm in the evening. To get to Nugget Point we had to drive 8km on a gravel road. It was well worth it. We parked at the end of the road and dad and I quickly ran to the lighthouse viewpoint over the nuggets. These are rocks jutting out of the ocean that at sunset gleam like golden nuggets. We made it just in time!
It was almost 10pm when we pulled into the campground. We will be here 2 nights. I can tell we will like it because it is small, scenic, and my parents got a huge unit with room for all of us to have breakfast together tomorrow morning.
Good Night!
-Hemi