Catlin's Coast - Night 104

The consistent rain bode poorly for my Catlin’s

Coast trip today. I braved the wet and walked down to the I-site center to catch my bus at 10. Our shuttle was 30 minutes late and once it arrived Jaime, the driver, had forgotten to fuel up so that set up back another half an hour. Normally one of the office workers, Jaime was filling in for a sick driver and it showed as he wasn’t very well organized or prompt, for that matter. Surprisingly, however, he turned out to be a great guide for the day and kept our ears full of interesting tidbits and trivial facts on the region.

900 lb Sea Lion

Our first stop was Point Waipapa, the site of the worst maritime accident in New Zealand history. Back in the 1880s the Tarurua ran aground on the rocks not far from shore but only 20 of the 150 sailors survived. In response the lighthouse was constructed shortly thereafter. Waipapa Point also happens to be the summer home of a large 900-lb sea lion. The elderly male lies on the beach not far from the carpark all day graciously posing for tourists and fishing off of the reef. The rain had let up by this point, but the wind was fiercely blowing up from Antarctica giving the air a chill reminiscent of late fall day in the Midwest. Next we pulled into Curio Bay for a warm lunch at the small stand and a chance to see the elusive Hector’s dolphins. Endemic to New Zealand, the Hector’s, the smallest of all the dolphins, live only here on the southeast coast and nowhere else in the world. Luckily we did get to see a small pod of them playing in the surf a distance down the coast. Around the corner is the strange outcropping of petrified podocarp forest, apparently the greatest occurrence of petrification from the Jurassic period anywhere on the planet.

Waikapu Point

In the afternoon we made a stop at Nugget Point to see the famous lighthouse perched upon the coastal head. Below Nugget Point is one of the only yellow-eyed penguin breeding grounds in the world. Hidden in a duck blind of sorts we watched the four adults climb from the sea, oil down their feathers and then begin the long climb up the hill to their nests and the eagerly awaiting children.

A long day of driving, quite frequently on

Nugget Lighthouse

twisty gravel roads, we finally made Dunedin around 7pm. I was much too tired to find a grocery store and then cook a meal, so I dined out at the Olive Branch and had the best kebab of my trip. Gastrointestinally satisfied, I returned to Penny’s Backpackers to utilize the free internet on site. Penny’s was one of the dirtier places I’ve stayed, but it was cheap and well located just a few blocks from the Octagon, the center of town. It was a weak nights

By the Falls

sleep as the old man below me in the bottom bunk was a prodigious sleep talker who seems to blurt out random things everytime the bed squeaked. Fucker had some sort of night time Turret’s syndrome that scared the shit out of me a few times.

What I Learned Today: In Germany all it takes to become a judge is a law degree…no experience necessary. (One of the ladies in my group is a judge in Germany at age 35 with only a few years as a barrister under her belt)

written by

exumenius on January 22, 2008 from Dunedin, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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