Taieri Beach-Night 4

We spent our fourth night at the tiny Taieri Mouth holiday beach camp, a tiny little place tucked behind the dunes, with a path giving direct access to the beach.

We parked, did our walk through to get familiar with the kitchen and bath setups, and immediately headed down through the  wildflower covered dunes, emerging onto a flat endless beach.

We picked up abalone shells and watched the sunset over the water and had to tear ourselves away to go back and cook  dinner.

Cooking was fun because we shared the kitchen with two  young French couples who had work visa’s  as environmental engineers and were also  tramping (Kiwi for long hikes) around the South Island for a year. They spoke mostly French, and since we do not, we  had an amusing time trying to talk about our travels. This ended up being one of our favorite camps because it was so small and friendly and we had such great interactions with other folks.

The showers were basic rustic cement block  but the kitchen was homey and we all fit around the table. After dinner we went back out on the beach to star gaze in the incredible unbroken darkness.

Taieri Sunrise

We met the camp owner at checkout in the morning  and she said she had come here on holiday two years ago and ended up buying the camp  so she could stay. She lives in a tiny camp house, keeps a few laying hens, grows a garden and works in Dunedin as a security guard for the hospital at night. There was also an older guy living in one of the single room camp huts with his labradoodle who just couldn’t bear to leave. He was barely getting by on his pension and was enjoying his simplistic arrangement.

 Right after the sunrise there was a rainbow, and now it is raining and we are driving down a dirt road with sheep on both sides of the road. Always sheep.

As we drive down the coast, we stop at every little cove, waterfall, trail and lighthouse that we see. There are always seals or sea lions down below on  the rocks, resting up from their swims and waiting to sun themselves on this still grey morning.

This area on the south east portion of the island is called the Catlins.  You might think it would be chilly all the time this far south, considering that Antartica is the next place down, but the ocean currents sweep down from up near the equator on the West side of the island and then hug the shore on the East side heading back north, so the weather is tempered here. On warm days there are cool breezes and on cool days there are warm breezes. Breezes being the key word.

There are little Blue penguins and Yellow Eyed penguins that nest along this shore, where there are  rocky places, protected pools and bush areas coming down to the waters edge. The parents hide the babies in the scrub brush while they go out fishing for the day, and then when it gets dark they come back and feed them regurgitated fish. We are going to see if we can spot some tonight at Curio Bay.

Tokata/ Nugget Point is the next stop on our way this rainy morning. A rocky promontory with a lighthouse out on the end and nuggets of rocks jutting out into the ocean, which has wrecked many a ship.

Tautuku Nature walk is a little further down the way and it finally stops raining. It is a jungle, one of the few left after the colonial settlers arrived and cut down all the timber.

Walking in it brings home just how daunting it would have been to arrive on this coast from a little wooden ship and try to make your way inland.

There are giant tree ferns, Liana vines, bayonet like sword ferns, huge trees and very little light. A machete would have been useful, but luckily there is something of a path for us. Suddenly you emerge through the tall strappy flax right onto a totally flat deserted sandy beach. NZ flax is not the blue flowered Linum that we know but rather Phormium tenax and Phormium colensoi, known by the Māori names harakeke and wharariki respectively. The Maori used the plant fibers for clothing, ropes and  fishing baskets.

 McLeans Falls- another short walk we came across. There are tromps and trails everywhere in New Zealand.

The last stop of the day was down the road a bit for a chance to see penguins coming in after nightfall to feed their young parked up in the bush. We sat  among the petrified tree molds in the rocks at Curio Bay for four hours as the tide came in and the sun went down. It was windy and cold and then it got dark and even colder. As usual we had layered our rain gear over quick dry hiking clothes, so we were comfortable.

We sat out until 9:30 Pm and finally manged to see one Penguin emerge from the nursery in the shrubs, which was cool. By then the crowd of 30 people had thinned to five of us die-hards.

Penguin Parent

We ended up camping way up on the bluff that night, stashed among a giant flax maze, overlooking Curio Bayon one side and Porpoise Bay on the other. We arrived way after dark and were surprised in the morning to find just how close we were to the cliff edge. No wonder it was so windy that night. The van was rocking with it and we were worried the tent would blow off but we still slept really well.

Day 6

The main part of the camp was overlooking Porpoise Bay,  where people swim with the endangered Hector Dolphins under the pretense of learning to surf. No body was out there since it was still too cold to swim. And windy. There are only three to four thousand Hector Dolphins left on the planet, with genetically separate groups  surviving only around the NZ South Island. These porpoises don’t travel from the East coast to the West coast so the gene pool stays separate and limits their adaptability.

The light changes constantly, as does the weather, and the ocean was mesmerizing to watch.

Heading inland a little ways now, the next semi-planned stop is the Cliffden Caves, to see Glow Worms, and because Jeff just has to go caving or he gets antsy.

The entrance is small but it opens up inside and there are some gorgeous formations.

There are Glow Worms all over the ceilings which you can spot as glistening spider web like threads hanging down when your light hits them. You turn off your lights and they look like a sky full of stars over your head. The cave is in very good shape considering how easy it is to find and a little strange in that there are reflector tapes marking the way out. We were hoping to do a through trip but the pool of water at the other end looked really deep and we didn’t want to get soaked. It turns out, it was only knee deep and we could have done it without getting all that wet. The reflection on the water fooled us. At least we kept our boots dry.

And now, for the rest of the day we drive on towards Manapouri and Doubtful Sound, which the New Zealand Frenzy books  
say is a better choice for a boat trip than the, for some reason more well known , Milford Sound. Since we had not reserved a space on a boat in advance, we stopped at the launch site for Real Journey’s on Lake Manapouri for information, and were inspired and lucky enough to get a space for a trip the next morning. I love it when things just work out like they are meant to be. They recommended the small, local Manopouri Holiday Park, which we had not seen advertised anywhere, and it also turned out to be a great choice.

The owners came here with their VW camper bus in the 1970’s from the U.S. ,and proceeded to build Swiss style mini chalets and campsites.

We parked in our un-powered site tucked into the trees and proceeded to make ourselves at home, doing laundry and cooking dinner in the clean and homey kitchen building. The photo on my New Zealand page is of the kitchen here.

Day 7- Doubtful Sound

In the morning we boarded the first boat to take us across Lake Manapouri, which was beautiful in its own right. At the far end is a mostly underground water powered electric station that normally we could have toured. Today, though it was under some kind of maintenance and closed to tours. That’s Ok by me as I am more interested in visiting the fjord. It is called a sound but that is not what it truly is and to get there you either have to enter from the sea (which is not likely as it is in the middle of nowhere) or you have to cross Lake Manopouri and travel overland 22 km to the Fjord and get on another boat to travel around it. When they built the power plant they built a road over that 22km stretch that begins and ends in water. There is a bus that takes us across the mountain on a one lane road where we board another boat to tour Doubtful.

It is an off and on rainy day and waterfalls are everywhere in the sound. The boat has a comfy sitting area inside where it is warm and dry and you can pour yourself some hot tea and listen to the guide. It is easy to get up and go outside and get some great photos.

Penguins and dolphins both come into the sound.

Every now and then it clears up a bit.

And then the clouds paint it back. We traveled up three arms of the fjord and they were all gorgeous.

If it had been sunny and hot it would have been very different. It was a perfectly beautiful way to spend a rainy day for us.

The captain and guide were unobtrusive yet friendly and observant, allowing us to get close enough to get sprayed on by one big waterfall.

Today was Jeff’s birthday and this is what he got, a good seven and a half hours long memory of a great day spent with a few nice people from all over the world.

When we disembarked it was time to look for our next home for the night, so we headed towards TeAnau and Milford Sound.

After a short stop at Mirror Lake we camped for the night at Knob Flats, which is run by the DOC (Department of Conservation). This was a great little camp with a ranger in residence who directed us to a great little trail to a waterfall in the woods right behind us, that we would never have known about otherwise.

We’ll start there an the next post.

-wendy lee writing at edgewisewoods