New Zealand Day 4

I wish we could have stayed in this house longer. 

We woke up this morning to find out just how beautiful our little house was. Upon opening the big picture window we saw a striking sunrise over the ocean, which was nearing low tide. Since we'd all stayed together in the house, we were all able to enjoy it together.

Our goal was to drive east through the Catlins stopping at waterfalls and other hikes to see this wild, mostly unvisited place. We stopped first at a place called Curio Bay. There was a walk through a penguin viewing area, but all the penguins had already headed out to sea to fish for the day. The trail led down to the beach and then out to some tide pools. There wasn't much in the pools, though Seth kept spotting shells and barnacles, but we were standing on a petrified forest. When it is low tide, and we had made sure it was, the trees are revealed. You can walk right across them and see some old stumps and some long logs. The waves were crashing farther out, and we spotted some oyster catchers in the surf. We spent over an hour exploring as the tide moved back in.

Curio Bay was such a neat spot. 

The boys really wanted to see a penguin since we had missed the tour yesterday.

Dax is silly in pictures.

We loved being near the ocean and watching it crash against the cliffs.

The petrified trees were so cool!

Everyone just wandered around and looked for fun things.

It was neat that we went to Petrified Forest National Park earlier this year, so we could compare the two.

Seth loved finding snails and other creatures in the tide pools.

Mark spotted some more oyster catchers.

We saw lots of fun things.

Seth is the most cooperative for pictures.

Seth and Mom hung around each other most of the time.

We have enjoyed having more family pictures on this trip.

Next was a walk through an old growth rain forest. It may not seem like an exciting walk, but we did a three-quarter mile loop and saw a lot of different birds. Mark had his book out identifying tuis and fantails. It was dank and dark and wonderful, with moss hanging from the trees and the smell of wet bark heavy in the air. Mark said it was the best walk ever.

We couldn't believe how green everything was, especially since it was winter. 

This picture is dark, but that's a Tui. 

Mom loved the Fantails! They were so beautiful!

Mark was in heaven here in the rainforest.

We still weren't done at Curio Bay. Mom took a turn driving and we rode to the top of the hill. There was a sprawling view of the waves, which roared and smashed into the rocks below us throwing saltwater dozens of feet into the air. It was windy and the air was tangy and cold, but the day was beautiful. Though it had rained most of the night, we didn't see any precipitation
all day.

This overlook was amazing. I'm so glad we found it.

The coast was really amazing. 

More crashing waves!

Mark wanted a picture with a big wave. I took about 20 pictures before he accepted this one.

We spotted a white-faced heron near the beach.

Down the road we made several stops for short walks. The first, McLean Falls, was closed due to a rock slide. We also walked out along a boardwalk, but we didn't see too much. There was a short walk around a small lake that we liked, though we didn't see a whole lot of wildlife. We really enjoyed the waterfall hikes, though. The first was called Purakanui, and the walk was only about twenty minutes out and back. The waterfall had two tiers and was wide and perfectly balanced. We played pooh-sticks along the way and the boys told jokes to everyone. Next we went to Matai and Horseshoe Falls. These shared the same trail, and were only a few minutes apart. Both were really beautiful and cascaded nearly 40 feet. We took pictures at each one, and appreciated the short walk.

We really hoped to see something cool here, but we just saw a bunch of Shags.

Mark recorded 41 new species of birds on this trip. 

This is another Tui we saw in the rainforest.

The rainforest trail was so different than home.

This spot was pretty even though we didn't spot anything.

Hiking trails in New Zealand are given in miutes, not miles or kilometers.

Mark loved this day of hiking and exploring.

We wore our winter gear pretty much the whole time. 

Seth was so happy to be in another country.

The forest had a lot of green and a lot of moss.

We could have watched the waves and the water all day.

Dax liked this "Old Man Willow" tree.

Because it was winter, the waterfalls were all running high.

This was our favorite waterfall. 

It felt like we were in the Amazon Forest.

This part of New Zealand was sparsely populated and very scenic.

Horsehoe Falls was spectacular. 

Mom and Dad loved hiking on the other half of the world.

Cows were Mom's favorite part of the drive. It was just like being in Utah.

There are more sheep in New Zealand than people. It seemed like we saw all of them!

Our last stop in the Catlins was Cannibal Bay. It was a fairly long drive to the bay, but the walk was supposed to be short. We'd heard that there might be sea lions there, so the boys were really excited. At first, we didn't see any sea lions, but then we spotted them way down the beach. It was about a half mile walk, but everyone wanted to do it. Along the way, we spotted a few other sea lions and took quite a few pictures. There were stilts and oyster catchers in the water, too, and the tide was coming in fast. We even got to see two or three sea lions swim up and climb out of the water to join the group. We wanted to go all the way out to see the half dozen or so that were fighting on the beach. We stayed back about twenty yards, which was not nearly as close as the Australians who were watching as the biggest sea lion pushed and chased some of the smaller ones. Finally one of the females made a beeline for the tourists, and believe me, they move fast! We all started shrieking and giggling and running as she lurched right toward us, with all five of the larger sea lions in pursuit. They probably got with ten or fifteen feet of us before she was caught and stopped running. Seth said, "I just thought to myself, 'You'd better run so you can live a little longer' because I want to live a little longer!" which gave us a good laugh. We weren't really worried, but it was certainly an exciting moment!

The evening was perfect, and it even included a rainbow.

We had to walk along the beach to get close to the Sea Lions.

This would be such a great spot to play in the summer. 

Oystercatchers. This is a better picture of these birds.

These sea lions were hanging out in a little stream away from the ocean.

She climbed out of the water and headed up to join them.

She had to roll in the sand quite a few times before she got there.

This was the larger group we got close to.

All these males are trying to impress the one female. 

They started to run toward us. We ran laughing, and luckily made it down the beach in time.

So pretty!

We didn't want to leave the beach.

It was so fun seeing the sea lions up close. 

That rainbow is in a lot of pictures.

The boys asked for Dad's sea lion impression.

Dax wanted to show his off, too!

After that encounter, we drove back to the grocery store in Balcultha to get stuff for lunch on the next day. Then we turned west toward Clinton and Gore, which are cities along the road. It's been nicknamed the Presidential Highway. In Gore we ate at Subway (Dax and Seth had Pizza Hut) and then continued toward Te Anau. It was full dark, and since there is no moon, we decided to stop and see the stars. The Milky Way was so stunningly bright in this dark country that you could almost touch it! Best of all, the Southern Cross was directly over our heads. It is so tiny compared to the large constellations like Orion and the Big Dipper, but it was stunningly beautiful. We may never have seen a such a starry night and we may never see one that perfect again. With as exciting a day as we'd had, it was the perfect ending.