Petrified Trees and Penguin Teas

Petrified Trees and Penguin Teas
Catlins, New Zealand

Catlins, New Zealand

The Catlins were and area that so many Kiwis recommended to us that we could not resist a trip, with the promise of penguins and seals we were there.

After a long drive to Gore and back again we got to a campsite on the road leading to the Catlins and just had to spend the night. We were using Campermate and Wikicamps to choose our campsites as they are the tripadvisor of the campsite world and more often than not were bang on, this campsite attracted us for all the wrong reasons. Someone actually complained that they were kept awake at night by the ***** horse on the campsite.

Turns out that this campsite was a great choice, aside from the living up to the reviews and actually having 2 ***** horses , the ex pat English owner was a real character and as the campsite was so far from anywhere he offered more or less all inclusive camping. For £35 for the night we had a powered campsite, delicious home-made pizza for dinner and a full English for breakfast. Seriously all that and all anyone had to write a review about was a ******* horse??!!

We had such fun at this campsite playing with the horses and chatting with the owner that we completely forgot that we were supposed to go to Cathedral cave that morning before high tide. We started the drive down the long, narrow, unpaved road only to be greeted by a camper coming the other way who told us the gate was locked and we had missed it. Something else to add to the ‘oh well next-time list’.

The main base to stay in the Catlins is Curio Bay as this is the home to so many of the cool features of the area and is also home to pretty much the only campsite along the route. Sadly this campsite was one of the most expensive and most unappealing site in NZ. Seriously peeing in the hedge (for Tim) and going un-showered was preferable to using the facilities. Thankfully the location more than made up for the terrible camping as just 5 minutes walk out of the campsite was a petrified forest which was so cool, 180million years ago this was a forest but due it was buried by volcanic mud slides and the logs were slowly replaced with silica producing the huge fossils now lying all over the rocks. Whilst we could only see a small section of it, this petrified forest is actually one of the most extensive and least disturbed in the world and stretches for over 20 km.

At sunset the petrified forest actually comes to life for a different reason, it is the home to a fairly large colony of yellow eyed penguins. We went down along with pretty much everyone else from the campsite to get a glimpse of these gorgeous penguins. Arguably one of the rarest penguins in the world with just 1600 breeding pairs in existence these are some pretty special birds and boy did they put on a show for us. There is a roped off section to protect the penguins and to keep the tourists out of the area and amazing two fledgling penguins came out of their nest, having spent the day like typical teenagers chilling out and sleeping, and they proceeded to stand on the rocks just a few meters from us with their wings out cooling down after a cosy day in the nest. This sibling pair were just so funny, with some of their furry feathers still showing down their backs they were egging each other on to walk further down the beach. Eventually they found themselves in a little rock pool and were playing like little children stamping their feet. We must have sat watching them for a good two hours before the sun started to vanish and suddenly we saw a glimpse of their parents headed up from a days fishing. The babies let out the most excited squawk and literally set off down the beach as quickly as they big awkward flippers would allow them. Their poor exhausted parents brought them back up the beach and right in front of the rope proceeded to regurgitate fish and feed them. What an amazing experience. He babies were not happy with the speed at which they were getting their fish and decided to have an almighty scrap kung fu kicking each other and flapping their little wings for all they were worth. It literally brought tears to my eyes to be so close to such magic.

Cold but glowing we headed back to Blondini for the night.

The next morning I headed off to the toilet block of doom and couldn’t resist stopping to have a look at the ocean views. Lo and behold before my very eyes dolphins were jumping out of the surf just meters from the shore. I knew that this bay was renowned for having a pod of Hectors dolphins but these guys were unreal. I ran down to the beach and just watched them playing in the waves meters from where I was stood. Damn why didn’t I take my camera to the toilet! Later I dragged Tim down to see the show and the tide had changed so they were not as close or active but they were still there, unreal! I love Curio bay!

I am not sure that this experience can be beaten for amazing animals but we will certainly try, next stop the most Southerly, Southern tip of Bluff and then Stewart Island the last piece of land before the Antarctic.