Pertified Trees and Yellow Eyed Penguins
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
36
50
Trip End
Nov 11, 2007
Curio Bay,
New Zealand
Thursday, October 18, 2007
We also went to a place called Nugget point - it was a nice walk along the cliffs but it was so cold and windy that even the fur seals that we had gone to sea were hiding out from the wind and the rain still it was groovy view
Curio Bay Camping Ground
! I arrived at Curio Bay about 3pm yesterday and it was absolutely freezing pouring with rain and really really windy. Curio Bay is one of those places where you arrive and think "what the hell am I doing here?" There are 4 houses and a camping ground which had a tiny shop which sells bits and pieces and ice cream and thats it! The reason I wanted to stay here was to see the yellow eyed penguins which live and nest in the flax around the bay. They come in from fishing between 5 and 6 pm at night and you can watch them pop out of the sea and amble back to their nests. The thing is an hour is a long time on a freezing rainy windy evening but I waited for 40 minutes and luckily saw one jump out of the water and waddle back to its nest. I have no photographic evidence because my fingers were too numb to operate the camera and you can't get too close because they are very timid and will easily abandon their nests if they are frightened but at least I saw one!Had a pretty chilled out evening - there's no tv, no internet, no mobile phone signal so I read until I fell asleep but it was nice just to do nothing and not to have to talk to anybody.
Woke up to glorious sunshine this morning and as always a place seems so much better when its sunny so I've been out pretty much all day just walking and enjoying the sun and the crazy seagulls that they have here
Curio Bay
! Been and looked at the petrified forest which is down in curio bay at the bottom of the cliffs - amazing fossilized trees and things which have now been turned into stone so of which date back to the jurassic period.I met an old couple from Auckland in the camping ground and they were telling me basically all the places I missed on the way down and said that it was good to have a list of reasons to come back - I think I have half a book after a conversation with them!!! Tonight it'll be more chilling out and more book reading which is cool. Tomorrow the bus should pick me up and take me on to Invercargill - another scottish town after that its onto Te Anau and then to Milford Sound for a few nights before heading back to Queenstown and up to Christchurch - 11 days left in New Zealand.....
