Catlin's Coast

Once we arrived from Stewart Island to Bluff, we continued our way east and north on the Southern Scenic Route up the Catlin's coast. Our first stop was at Waipapa Point. There was a short walk down to the beach and past a lighthouse. There was a few sea lions hanging out on the beach. There was one large male hanging out with some smaller ones. Sea lions differ from seals in that they are much bigger (the males can be 500 kg!), and they have a flatter nose with shorter whiskers. They are actually more endangered as well. Roberta hung out with the sea lions while I threw a line in the water to try and catch a blue cod. The tide was coming in though and I didn’t last long before it got too dangerous for my liking. I tend to be a bit wimpy about the sea being from the middle of the continent.

We continued up the coast to Curio Bay. Curio Bay is home to the rarest penguin on earth: the yellow-eyed penguin. The same ones we had seen on the Otago pennisula with my parents. They usually return in the evening to feed their young after being out in the sea all day fishing. We saw a few come in that night.

Curio bay is also home to a petrified forest that is from the jurassic period which is about 80 million years ago! The trees were buried by sand and rock before they had decayed, so slowly after time became fossilized. You can actually see the grains of wood and stumps. Quite cool.

We stayed at a campsite located on the point between Curio Bay and Porpoise Bay right on the ocean. It was quite a sweet spot. Porpoise Bay is home to Hector dolphins, the smallest and rarest dolphin in the world. You could see them riding the waves and playing out in the bay that night. They were the same kind of dolphins that we swam with on the Humpridge Track. As you can tell it was quite a cool spot for animal viewing.

Pic from the Internet

Not a bad campsite.

The next morning we decided that it was time for us to give surfing a try, so we signed up for an hour and half long lesson later that afternoon when the tide was coming in. Roberta went for a swim in the morning and the dolphins briefly visited her. I spent the afternoon gathering crabs from under the rocks for fish bait.

While looking for crabs I found a small octopus under one rock in a small tidal pool. There was some kids around so i gathered them over to check it out which they got quite excited about. It was changing all different colors and actually shot ink out once.

While we were concentrating on the small octopus, a yellow-eyed penguin walked right up beside us and we didn’t notice until it was really close! It hopped along the rocks into the bush. I sat on the rocks just watching it and the dolphins playing out in the bay right in front of me for a while. Quite an awesome experience. I went to go get Roberta but the penguin was gone by the time we got back.

At around 4 o’clock we got all suited up in our wetsuits and booties to give surfing a try. The instructor gave us some instruction on the beach and we practiced some things on the beach before heading out on the water. We both got up the first time!! We were using beginner boards but still. I actually managed to get up quite a few times which was quite surprising. I should have tried this surfing gig earlier. We both got quite tired after a while and yes we did get hammered by some waves but there were no rocks around so we recovered quickly. Unfortunately, the dolphins didn’t come over to visit us while surfing but hey can’t get everything, right?!?

This is probably what we looked like.

After surfing, I tried fishing for blue moki with crabs as bait. It was hard to keep the crabs on the hook. I had one bite but wasn’t able to catch anything. I don’t seem to be having to much luck in the fishing department these days, but hey that’s fishing.

The next morning we got back on the road and headed north along the coast. We stopped at 3 different waterfalls along the way.

The best was definitely the last: Purakaunui falls which is definitely the most well known of the three as well.

We stayed that night at Purakaunui Bay, another great campsite. It rained off and on part of the day and over the night. The farmers were probably quite happy to see the rain.

Drinking tea

The next day we headed further north up the coast. We stopped at a place that was supposed to be crawling with sea lions and didn't see a thing, so we continued on. The next stop was Nugget Point. What a sweet name, eh? It was actually quite a nice place although there was quite a high number of people around.

After this stop we headed back to Invercargill to go to a job interview which we succeeded in landing. We start work the first week of April for a dairy practice that will last one month. It will be hard getting back into work mode but it is a necessary evil as the bank account is on life support.

Toodles