Census of the Seals - Night 65

And then there were 6. We lost two volunteers this morning, Melissa and Kathleen. Melissa, had just spent a semester at Western Australia University in Perth and was headed home to Chicago for Christmas. Kathleen has been at GVN for the past two and a half months and now too was headed home to New Hampshire.

Cape Palliser

The clouds hung freakishly low this morning,

Seal on the Rocks

the perfect weather for a seal count. For our duties, we drove out to Cape Palliser, the far southeast corner of the North Island of New Zealand. Out along the coast, the weather was even more dour. Cloud after cloud rolled in off the sea, battering the mountains that rose from the water. In order to get to the seal colony, we had to park at the end of the pavement and walk a few miles over an easement through private land. The property, a sheep farm, commanded a beautiful, braided river valley between two sets of mountains. The grass and vegetation was strangely brown and though only a 40 minute drive from Wellington, it looked like a completely different world. I’ve never been to Scotland, but it reminded me of what I think Scotland should be like….sheep running all over, low gray sky, wind, wind, and more wind.

The count itself wasn’t all that successful. We only found three ancient males beached on the rocks and one solo crab left in a small tidal pool. The hike, however, was well worth it. Rock hopping amongst the giant boulders, letting the ocean spray fall just feet away, unperturbed by modern civilization. A grand day on the coast.

What I Learned Today: Some places are just meant to be gray and in fact look better that way. Cape Palliser is one of those places. The gunmetal sky and rocks perfectly compliment the violent surf pounding away on the rocks, lending a sense of absolute rawness to the place. Bleak, desolate, nothing between us and Antarctica but miles and miles of ocean. A bright, sunny day would have taken away from the experience somehow.

written by

exumenius on December 14, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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You must have lived in Seattle at some point.

written by Kim Ramirez on January 9, 2008

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