Mt. Stuart, New Zealand
Thursday, February 15, 2007
After our romp with the dolphins we went to a forest that was over 180 million years old. There were no leaves and everything was made of stone actually. The ancient forest was petrified by being covered by volcanic mudslides for thousands of years. The rock was pushed up and eroded just right to reveal the now stone forest. Instead of staying at the lame campground at Curio Bay we kept moving north to
Papatowai where there was a cheap and relatively nice motor camp. On the way we stopped at Niagara Falls. You can quite literally step over them but the surveyor who discovered them thought it would be funny to named them after the real Niagara Fall. While we relaxed after dinner as best we could in the lounge/kitchen with kids screaming and pots boiling a lady came over to attempt to get her kid settled down and did a double take when she saw Robin. "Are you the girl that was swimming with the dolphins today?" "Yeah." She was so excited she started babbling on about how cold it must have been and then told her son that this was the girl swimming with the dolphins today
. He, of course, didn't care in the least. We were like celebrities. The excitement wore off and she left us to our people watching. It rained on and off all night which left us with nice soaking wet wetsuits in the morning, but they were no wetter than they were when we got out of them. We wanted to back track a bit down to McLean Falls a bit south of
Papatowai and stopped at a view point just before we got there. Off the coast was a small island that had a blowhole on the side of it called Spouting Cave. We also past Cathedral Caves but we didn't have the tides right so we will unfortunately have to wait to the next trip to see the huge limestone caves on the beach. Down a small very pretty walking track we came to McLean Falls. We spent a good half hour taking pictures of the gorgeous falls. In
Bluff, Karen had let us in on a way to get to the Cathedral Caves without having to go through the main gate (and pay). So eventhough the tides were wrong we went and checked it out so we knew where to go when we go back to see them. We drove right down on to Tautuku Beach where we could see it wrap around the coast, passed a little settlement that you can only access at low tide and a small spit of pasture land that we would need to walk over to get to the caves. Because the tide was high the sand we started to drive on was a bit soft for our heavy van to drive on so after a few intentional swerves and swivels we went back to the road. Soon after we started north we turned off the main road and tumbled down more dirt roads to a small holiday community where we found Jack's Blowhole
. To get to the blowhole we had to hike a good 45 minutes over farmland to a small section of maintained native bush. The blowhole was 50 meters long and must be incredible in a storm but alas, we were there on a relatively quite day for the sea and there wasn't much spray. It was pretty impressive just on its own though. Before the roof caved in it was an underwater cavern. In
Owaka we found we could see some more Yellow-eyed penguins at Roaring Bay so that's where we headed. Just before 5pm we made our way down to the hide and waited for the penguins to come in from a good day fishing. While we waited we watched sea lions fighting or flirting on the beach. After a bit of a wait we saw a tiny head pop out of the water, look around, and then surf the next small wave in. Watching him stumble up on to the beach was hilarious and then he stopped at the bottom of the cliff. Two more surfed in but immediately retreated back into the water for some reason. We got out of the hide to let more people in and moved on to the Nugget Point Lighthouse. At the point there are huge rocks sticking out of the sea that aptly look like nuggets. The view was of course stunning and the lighthouse was pretty cool too. On the way back to the car we peered over the edge of the cliffs and saw fur seals coming up onto the rocks for the evening and playing in small tidal pools. Searching for a campsite took longer than we would have liked and we were pretty grumpy and hungry by the time we found a park outside
Balclutha looking out on the ocean
. The weather wasn't much better than our mood, but luckily there was a small shelter that we were able to make dinner in. The storm got pretty fierce and we got quite a lightening show while chowing down. Just as we were dozing off to sleep we heard a car skid into the park. We looked out and saw a tiny car packed full of 5 kids skidding around the park, so that was amusing. It was up early the next morning and got to see a fantastical sunrise. Back in
Balclutha we had breakfast at a park that had a flying fox which was sub par. We walked around town for a bit and found a great second hand shop where we bought some great books: The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Merchant of Venice. Inland we traveled up the Clutha river to the Tuapeka Punt, the only one like it in the southern hemisphere. It is a cable punt that you can take your car across the river on. Unfortunately we were there on a weekend and it wasn't running, so yet another thing we have to come back for. For lunch we sat in the van outside a small church in Waitahuna and then through a gate and over to the river. Unimpressed we went back through the gate and Robin, for the first time on the trip, found herself on the wrong side of the closed gate. Stunned, she paused for a moment and hopped back over the gate. Down the road we came upon Mt. Stuart Tunnel at Manuka Creek. Robin had remembered that her Grandad told her that his family had lived by there. The tunnel was an old railway tunnel that we were able to walk the 400 meters to the other side. It was a bit creepy and damp but very cool. There were supposed to be glowworms as well, but they had apparently vacated the premises.
