We finally got around to leaving Oamaru and headed for the Catlins Coast. On the way, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders. These round rocks, up to six feet in diameter, look like they were dropped from the sky onto the beach.
They are actually calcite concretions that formed under water in the grey smectite mudstone. The process by which they formed is similar to the way a pearl is made. The concretions could have started as a piece of bone or wood. Eventually the mudstone around them eroded away, and the boulders rolled down to the beach. We could see more of them still trapped in the terrace above the beach. Concretions are not rare, but such huge and spherical concretions are quite stunning. There used to be many more, but any that were small enough to be hauled away are long gone.
We also collected a bunch of wonderful little snail shells. They were less than ½” in diameter, and the center spirals were opalescent. The outer spirals were mostly black with a sort of stained glass mosaic. We’ll add them to our sand collection that we display in bowls.
We stopped for dinner in Dunedin, one of the largest cities, which was founded by Scots and has beautiful Gothic Revival architecture. The train station was superb.
Dunedin (dun-E-din) was originally called New Edinborough, but that was criticized as being unoriginal, so the name was changed to the Gaelic version.
We got to Nugget View Motel in Kaka Point after 10 PM. The long suffering hotelier let us in. Steve asked whether he liked his work. He said it would be nice to get a break once in a while. This was a very nice place to spend the nights of November 24 and 25. We had a queen size bed, a kitchenette, sofa, bathroom with a towel warming rack, and a sliding door going out to the deck facing the ocean a block down the hill. It shouldn’t be too much to ask, but this is one of the few places where we had a shelves for our stuff in the bathroom, and the sink was large enough that we didn’t get water on the floor every time we used it. NZ$120.
Most of the roads are way better here than they are in the states. Due to the low volume of traffic, most of the bridges in rural areas are one way. As you approach, you might see a sign that says “Give Way”. This means traffic coming toward you has the right of way.
November 25 we headed out in the rain to Nugget Point. From the lighthouse on a cliff high above the ocean, we looked down on sea stacks made of some sort of bedded sedimentary rock that got tilted vertically. They looked looked like gold nuggets to someone. Out on the rocks, we could see elephant seals with their big round heads. It’s rare to see these guys on the coast. Most of them live on islands.
Brown rubbery bull seaweed twenty feet long waved around in the channels between the “nuggets”, looking like enormous multi-armed creatures. New Zealand fur seals, identified by their pointed noses, playfully rolled around in the water.
We hiked to the wide, three-tiered Purakaunui Falls, said to be one of the most photographed falls in the country. We dutifully added our photos to the infinite supply.
On the road to Owatea, we saw some Spur Winged Plovers. These birds have yellow masks that look like they are made of plastic. They could be one and the same bird as the Yellow Masked Plovers we saw in Australia eight years ago. We have always been fascinated by these birds, and wonder what they look like under their masks.
Kiwis call people like me who keep lists of the birds they see listers, tickers or twitchers. Some of these folks want bird names to be standardized, because they think it is cheating to count the Silver Gull in Australia and the Red Billed Gull in New Zealand, when they are really the same bird. I prefer to make up my own rules about twitching, so I count a bird on my list if it is the first time I have seen it in this country.
We took a walk on Tautuka Beach, which may be the most southern point we reached on our journey. 46 degrees and 36 minutes South. Seems like we're at the bottom of the world, but we're only half way! We got hailed on during our walk. Later we drove by a pond and I thought I saw some Spoonbills. It was raining and getting dark, but I got Steve to turn around so I could take a look. Sure enough, they were Royal Spoonbills. Huge, fabulous white birds with long, flat, black bills with spoons at the end. We’ve seen Roseate Spoonbills in Florida, but even their pinkness was no match for the amazing bills on these guys.
The town of Owaka is the only place with a grocery store. We stopped at the gas station and saw two beautiful vintage Indian motorcycles. A woman at the station proudly told us that the owner of the motorcycles was in the movie The Fastest Indian.
