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| Living like a gypsy |
We arrived in Curio Bay, on the southern most tip of the South Island, around 5pm on Monday. Aside from Patagonia, and Stewart Island (off the coast of South Island), it's as far south as you can get on any landmass. So even though it's almost mid-summer here, and the sun was shining, it was pretty chilly and windy. Not exactly summer frock weather. Our accommodation was at Nick's Surf School, in an old gypsy caravan in his garden, which was directly on the beach: Curio Bay. Now, as much as we have established over the past weeks that we really DON'T like motorhoming, spending a night in a converted gypsy caravan is a completely different thing. Decked out with BBQ, wifi, TV, sofa and huge, very comfortable bed, and an outside shower and loo, this caravan had us at 'hello'. And Nick was the coolest surf dude I've met since living in Los Angeles. I'd guess in his late forties, he runs surf camps and a backpackers surfing hostel and has a perpetual grin on his face. Totally cool and totally fun.
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| Curio Bay |
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| Beaches and sea lions |
We woke up the next day, cozy in our lovely caravan bed, with the winds howling and thick cloud overhead. Curio Bay is known for it's beautiful beach, the surf, rocky outcrops, petrified forest, penguins, dophins and sealions. The first three of those were on our doorstep, the fourth, a short drive away - and really quite astounding. Essentially an entire forest, fossilised, and lying at the sea edge. You could see the fibre of the wood and even count the rings in the petrified trunks. The same area is home to various penguins, but they either weren't home or coming out to play, so we headed off, leaving the wild sea cliffs and pounding waves, to our new digs. We had hoped to stay at Nick's caravan a second night, but it was booked, so he found us a beach-side studio a few doors down. It's so relaxed here, that we just drove into the driveway, the owners weren't home but the door was open and we made ourselves comfortable, watching the waves crashing 50m from our door. It was still furiously windy, but the sun was out so we decided to walk to the end of the bay. I was sifting through sea shells and watching the wind blow the sand in beautiful patterns when Duncan yelled across at me "Look, there's a dead seal on the beach over there". We started walking towards it, when, with only 10 meters or so between us and it, it raised its head and looked at us. And it distinctly wasn't a seal, it was a 300kg sea lion! Hanging out on the beach, enjoying the wind, as is fairly normal in these parts. Obviously we had a little bit of a shock and backed right off, but he (she) just lay there, looking up at us every now and again, completely relaxed about sharing the beach with us (as long as we weren't going to get too close).
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| Same view, different day |
By the next morning the weather had turned completely. Our beach view was blurred by lashing rain on the window and we could barely distinguish between the sea and the sky. We were leaving Curio Bay, making our way up the coast and given the weather, stopping off wasn't much of an option. If memory serves me correctly, our only stop-off was to go and see the world's smallest waterfall (there's even a signpost) named Niagra Falls. It wasn't worth it. Our destination was Kaka Point, and as we had nowhere to stay, around midday we stopped and booked an Airbnb, listed by Norm. We hadn't had a confirmation by the time we arrived in Kaka Point, so we tracked down the property and knocked on the door. Norm runs the local craft brewery (under his house) and while he hadn't had time to reply to the booking, was more than happy to welcome us. He was a completely character; originally from the Outer Hebredes, he's the brewery owner, local internet provider (he was so fed up with the poor internet he organised it himself and now supplies the local region), fireman and search and rescue guy. We made ourselves scarce while the room was being made up, off to Nugget Point. Nugget Point is a dramatic rocky outcrop, and home to many seals and the very rare yellow eyed penguin. Having spent some time watching the seals and
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| Spot the penguin |
hundreds of spotted shags on the rocks, we walked down to a DOC hide, from which you can watch for penguins. The rarest in the world, there were 20 mating pairs on the beach below, all with young chicks. The males leave early in the morning to catch food, returning between 3pm and 5pm each day, when they feed the chicks. After a 15 minute handover with their missus, the female then swims out to feed all night. We were there around 4pm and waited for about 40 minutes, watching the waves coming in. Nothing. We were about to leave when suddenly the ranger pointed out a penguin coming in just below us. He rode the surf onto the sand, stood up and started hopping towards the rocks. Really wonderful to see - we didn't think we'd get to see penguins - especially this very rare breed. He preened and dried himself for a good 10 minutes before hopping across the rocks to the nest, and out of view. David Attenborough would have been proud.
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| Seafood platter with Catlins Brewery beers ;) |
Back at our digs, after dinner, Norm came knocking on the door. Would we like to try some of his beers? We'd had some with dinner, but weren't about to turn this invitation down, and so followed him into the basement brewery - or more accurately - man cave. Darts board, TV, a couple of large fridges and 6 brews on tap. I can highly recommend the Catlins Brewery Pilsner infused with Earl Grey. Sadly it's not exported outside of New Zealand. Yet.
By the next morning it was Thursday, and we needed to get to Dunedin. We're into the last few days of our trip and the weekend is booked to spend with Anne Weschendfelder, Duncan's family friend, in her house in Herbert Forest. It was a good few hours drive through farmland, but not far from the coast, so we decided to take a backroad and get some more of the fabulous views of the bays and beaches on this side of S Island. With time to kill, we headed down to a deserted beach - a mile long, and no-one on it. Stopping for a picnic and a nap on the sand, we finally felt like we're winding down from this crazy itinerary we seem to have followed over the past months. We never meant to be on the go as much as we have been - maybe we should have taken more time to lie on the sand/grass/rocks, than we have...
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| Dunedin railway station |
Dunedin is a good city. It has history, good architecture, cafe culture and some good restaurants. It was fun to sit out in the sun, on the Octagon, with a glass of wine and people watch. Brunch at No 7 Balmac, a visit to the historic railway station, a visit to the Otago Peninsula, hoping to see albatross, but not willing to pay $100 to do so, and a drive up the Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world (only to yelled at by a grouchy local at the top) about sums up our 24 hours there.
We were due at Anne's for Friday dinner. Our last 2 days in New Zealand, before flying home. I love Airbnb; we've met some really interesting people and stayed in some great places, but I'm glad we'll be with friends for our last couple of days.
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