It is a perfect morning, bright and sunny with a cool breeze. Birds are singing all around us. We are off to explore. First stop, Cathedral caves. The caves are only accessible during low tide so off we go, on the trail by 9:30. Down and down we go winding our way through lush dense forest the air filled with the smell of wet earth occasionally brightened by some sweet-smelling flower. IT is tropical-like and beautiful. Final switchbacks bring us to brilliant sun dancing on rolling waves on a broad beautiful beach. No signs but telltale footprints lead us to the cliffs just down the beach. 10,000s of years of wave action found a weakness at fractures and has carved through rock formed over 100 million years ago. The result is two tunnels of about 100 meters each angled toward each other and ultimately joined deep in the cliff. Nature is pretty darned impressive.
More great works of nature, waterfalls. It rains a lot here and we check out waterfalls both great and small. Some impressive…some redunculous… Little Niagara. Some explorer guy had seen the US/Canadian Niagara and dubbed this little rock overflow as its namesake. Its real fame here, it is a prime spot for whitebait..flashback, they are not for me!
Lake Wilkie is dark reflective pool ringed by dense forest. It is a quiet spot amid virgin timber, magnificent old growth trees. They are mostly different species than at home but just as wonderous to see. Bird song fills the mature forest and these unfamiliar fellows seem even illusive in the dense growth as the ones at home.
The southernmost point on the NZ mainland, Slope point. It is a short walk across rolling sheep meadow to a simple sign but oh, the view! Rugged ocean cliffs and the roaring crashing sea are mesmerizing. A view of seemingly endless Southern Ocean is interrupted only by faint outlines through the mist of the mountains on Steward Island.
It’s been a full day. We head for Curio Bay campground and settle into an ocean front site with the waves crashing just below us. I can feel the pounding! Right here in camp we have our very own yellow penguin colony. Well, it’s just two nesting pairs but still – there are only 300 nesting pairs on the entire mainland so 2 is good. Sadly, they are not real successful here. Only one of four that hatched has made it so far and it is about to fledge. He/She came out to show off today. I still think it is so weird to see them waddling in and out of the shrubs..penguins belong on ice or in the water, right? Well not all penguins and not all the time. Mom didn’t show up before the sand flies and chill evening air ran us in. Glad to see the little fellow though.
At low tide a petrified forest appears. It formed millions of years ago when floods carried ash from volcanoes and buried the entire forest as it stood. Truthfully, this is one of those “trust me” things. They don’t really look like trees to me.
We end our day gazing out over our private little section of the southern sea, sipping tea paired with Tim Tams. Good night.