The Real Cape Palliser - Night 75

The windy, rainy weather doomed our sailing plans for the day.  To compensate for our cancelled plans, we drove the two hours out to Cape Palliser to perform another seal count.  At this point, I must confess to you, dear reader, that I have lied.  Last week I errantly stated that we had done a seal count at Cape Palliser when in fact it was a much lesser known cape that we were on.  The real Cape Palliser is a much longer drive through windy mountain roads and is also quite a bit more spectacular as far as scenery is concerned.  I doubt this is not the first factual error I have made and likely will not be the last.

A Wary Seal

Quite surprisingly, upon arrival the rain stopped and the sun came out.  The wind, however, refused to abate.  Cape Palliser is recognized as the main home for the seal colony in this part of New Zealand.  Our count of 257 seals verified this.  Huge males sunning themselves on rocks, smaller females watching the pups play in the water, seals were in abundance.  The whole kilometer long stretch of rocks stank foully of seal urine.  Most of the pups and females would hurry to water once we approached, but the larger males barely raised their heads to acknowledge our presence.  Their fear of man has been minimalized.

Looking Southwest from the Cape

Being Christmas Eve, we prepared a large traditional New Zealand meal of lamb chops, mashed potatoes with a shrimp cocktail appetizer and tiramisu dessert.  A feast in all senses of the word.  Drinking of red wine began at the meal and continued well into the night. Around 9pm we opened the gifts that Lauren, the house advisor, had given to us.  Later in the evening we engaged in a few games of drunken Clue 

What I Learned Today: The New Zealanders call their Clue game Cluedo.

Cape Palliser Lighthouse