The Catlins
We thought we weren’t going to have time to come to the Catlins, a relatively “undiscovered” part of NZ, on the south coast east from Invercargill and then up the east coast as far as Balclutha. I had read a lot about the area on the web and really wanted to come here, but it didn’t seem feasible as the trip progressed and we began to realize how short a time six weeks really is. But then on Sunday in Te Anau it was clear that it was going to be a very cold, rainy day, so instead of going back to Milford Sound as we’d planned we decided to head south and east, for the Catlins. It was blowing a gale, literally—gusts up to 100km/hr, enough to almost knock us off our feet. It rained intermittently, but the wind kept blowing the clouds away, and the sunlight on the wet pasture and forest was brilliant, hard to look at without shading our eyes.
The Catlins landscape is mostly rolling hills with small stands of native beech and podocarp forest interspersed with sheep pasture (of course). Lots of big tidal estuaries that penetrate a mile or two inland from the coast. Fierce surf at the ocean coast. We drove to Waipapa Point, almost the southernmost point in NZ, and the wind off the Southern Ocean (nothing between us and Antarctica) was frigid. The ocean color was still a friendly-looking blue-green, but the surf was big, pounding the beaches and headlands, and cold. Saw NZ sea lions, very similar to the Cal. variety as far as we could see.
Ended up staying in a motelin Papatowai that was part of a gas station and local general store, with a little studio unit facing the gas pump (motel units in NZ are about 80% “self-catering”, meaning they have full cooking facilities and fridges. Even if they don’t have cooking facilities, they almost always have a fridge, an electric kettle, and even a microwave.) The place closed soon after we arrived, but people kept arriving hoping for gas (not a lot of gas in small NZ towns, wise to buy a tank when you can, sort of like Baja) and it was partly funny, partly really annoying, having them right in our front yard, looking in our windows thinking we were the proprietors, hoping for some gas. So we made some ham sandwiches and drove about a mile to an estuary with a parking area with a great view, and ate them and drank a bottle of wine and watched birds in the estuary. Spent a long time tracking two royal spoonbills as they crisscrossed the mud flats (tide was out), as well as black oystercatchers, pied oystercatchers, NZ whitefaced heron, gulls, terns, etc. There are so many wonderful birds in NZ.
The next day we drove on to Kaka Point, where we are now. We’re staying in a motel with a wonderful view of the ocean at the top of a street that runs straight uphill from the beach. Kaka Point is a village on the Pacific coast with two beautiful beaches, no shops, and one bad bar/restaurant a few miles north of a place called Nugget Point where there are nesting yellow-eyed penguins. We went out to see the penguins last night. There is a hide where you can watch them without disturbing them. Of course we fell right in love. Probably it’s because they walk upright with their little wings akimbo that we identify with them so easily. The way they waddle with their toes turned out, that engaging “duckwalk” , and then when they come to an obstacle they hop, and you can see them making an effort, gathering themselves for the hop, exactly like the penguins in “Happy Feet”, if you’ve seen that. I didn’t realize they were as charming in real life as in a cartoon movie, but believe me, they are. They nest in thick brush, often in stands of flax, which is everywhere near the coast here. We could watch them hopping carefully uphill until they were lost in the bush.
Then we walked to the lighthouse at Nugget Point, on a narrow spit. There are large rocky islets beyond the point where fur seals and sea lions hang out, and where shearwaters nest. We saw many seabirds. Wonderful path to the lighthouse, along a ridgetop about five feet wide with cliffs and rocky bays on either side. I couldn’t look down without getting vertigo, had to stare ahead at the path. Got some good photos, hoping to upload some soon. I know I keep saying that—been having a tough time getting online with our own computer, so it has been next to impossible to upload anything to the blog for a couple of weeks.
Today we did some sightseeing, went to Curio Bay back on the Southern Ocean coast where there is a petrified forest embedded in the rocks, revealed at low tide. Took lots of photos, and as we were exploring the tidepools/petrified trees, we suddenly saw a pair of yellow-eyed penguins come ashore on the rocks. We watched them from afar for a long time, staying quite still, and they kept coming closer and closer to us, much closer than last night. Then other people noticed them and began to try to get close to photograph them. We got quite protective and kept signaling and finally shouting to people to stay back. The penguins are very shy of people. It’s hard to remember that their only mode of escape on land is to waddle, and if their preferred route to approach the sea is blocked, they might jump in where it is dangerous for them, just to get away from us. These yellow-eyed guys are about two feet tall standing up—they are the third-largest penguins. Emperors and fiordland crested are bigger. We heard later today that there are only about 500 nesting pairs of yellow-eyed in the wild. They are trying to create a reserve for them here at Kaka Point, but the local abalone (paua) fishermen are against it, unsurprisingly, and it looks like it won’t be successful. There are other reserves for them, and a captive breeding program.
This afternoon (Tuesday the 28th in NZ) John and I decided to institute a fine system for occurrences of “oh my god, this is so beautiful” and similar statements, which have become well over half of our daily conversation. Twenty cents for each infraction. It’s kind of unbelievable how gorgeous it is here. John keeps saying they have more than their share of beauty, and then we have an argument about comparing places and how anyone could determine what the proper “share” of beauty is for any one place, and what beauty is, anyway. We end up pretty philosophical usually, and mostly it comes round to the dharma.
It’s nine o’clock now, still plenty of light out, even though we’re facing east and can’t see the sun. Tomorrow on to Dunedin and I am hopeful we’ll have a place with an internet connection so I can upload all these blog posts (and photos) and also some emails and check in with some of the news from home. We only have two and a half more weeks here, can’t believe it has gone so fast. We will surely be back, god willing. There is so much to love here.
Dec 6, just added some photos to this entry--Nugget Point lighthouse, the view of the rocks from the lighthouse, a view of coastal rainforest at Curio Bay, where we saw the penguins, and a black oystercatcher--we see them at home, too, but they nest here, saw lots of nesting activity.
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