Paul and Siobhan's Travel Blog: New Zealand

Time flies when you are having fun.
This week we start by travelling north up the East Coast of the South Island via the Catlins towards Dunedin. On the way we encounter some New Zealand Sea Lions.

Not a mother's meeting as these are young males, enjoying a natter!

We found the sea lions near the lighthouse at Waipapa Point.

This lighthouse was built after a ship was wrecked on the reef.

Next stop, the most southerly point of the South Island, Slope Point, its also very windy

A long way from home.

Slope Point is exposed to weather straight from Antarctica.

You can see the effect of the prevailing winds at Slope Point.

Next port of call was Curio Bay where there is a petrified forest in the sea.

Look carefully and you can see a fossilised tree trunk.

Here we also caught our first glimpse of the Yellow Eyed Penguin.

bee po its a Yellow Eyed Penguin

Also, there was a Variable Ostercatcher practising its contortionist act.

Variable Oystercatcher

On the way to Nugget Point we saw an intriguing sign...

...so we went to investigate...what was the New Zealand equivalent of the Canadian Falls..they understand irony here too...

Niagara Falls NZ style....In memory of Clare.

Still on the way to Nuggett Point, we came across a scenic route to the estuary, full of manuka trees. These were decimated by loggers in the 1930's

Is that Siobhan hiding in the woods?

sunset at the Tautuku estuary...

At Roaring Bay we were just in time to see the yellow Eyed Penguins emerge from the sea. Something they do every night at dusk, after a hard days fishing

look here's one....

here's another two..... pppp pickup a penguin!

The next morning we visited Nugget Point to see the lighthouse and the view.

Nugget Point Lighthouse

Nugget Point South Side

The Nuggets... but no chicken here only New Zealand Fur Seals

View South from Nugget Point

View north from the road to Dunedin

Near Dunedin is the Otago Peninsula. The peninsula is billed as the wildlife capital of New Zealand so we went for a drive.

Sandfly Bay...too windy for the sandflies to come out...hurray

Travelling on we saw some real wildlife....

Kingfisher

Black swans and mallard

Portobello Bay just in the rain

After the last photo the rain arrived so we viewed everything else from the car.

The next day the weather was better so we visited Orokonui Bird Sanctuary. Here's a few of the bird species we saw.

Bellbird

Tui...or Parson bird

New Zealand Wood Pigeon...fatter than it looks

The trees were quite interesting too.

lancewood ...close up of the patterned tree bark

Next stop along the coast again, the strange Moeraki Boulders.

...look there's two

...here's another one...

...here's a few more...

...here's a broken one...

...those aren't hobbits in the distance, the boulders really are that big..

Want to know what these boulders are made of? Have a look at this link, Moeraki Boulders

Just up the coast is Oamaru, an Edwardian seaside resort famous for its Blue Penguin colony. Blue Penguins are the world's smallest penguin and, just like the Yellow Eyed Penguins, Little Penguins come ashore each night.