Invercargill, Waipapa Point Light house

Sunday, November 20, 2011

It rained throughout the night and we awoke to rain as well.  We left TeAnau, and headed for Manapouri where we had hoped to do a beach walk, but since it was raining, we took a quick picture, and headed out on the southern Scenic Driving Route along the coast.  We drove directly to Invercargill, with rain the entire journey.  We grocery shopped at the local Countdown, and then headed to the i-site and the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, which is attached to the i-site.   I checked e-mail and other internet related items for 20 minutes, while Donna began to explore the museum, which ended up being really nice.  There was a senior citizen’s concert going on while we walked around the museum (performing Christmas carols).  We saw Henry, the 100 year old Tuatara, a lizard like reptile, that has remained unchanged for 220 million years.  They had interesting exhibits on the Subantarctic islands, early NZ colonization and exploration, a small but well done natural history exhibit (albatross are truly huge birds!) centering on southern NZ and the NZ subantarctic islands, an exhibit on Burt Munro, (they made a movie about him starring Anthony Hopkins a few years ago – “The World’s Fastest Indian”), he was from Invercargill, and set a land speed record at Bonneville Flats in Utah in the 1950’s and 60’s.  So a nice way to spend a few hours on a rainy day. 

When we left Invercargill at 4 PM, it was still raining – the most sustained rain during the day of the trip.  We headed into the Catlins region, a land of lush farmland, native forests, and rugged bays.  By the time we arrived at Waipapa Point lighthouse, it was 5:30 PM, and the rain was letting up.  We walked to the lighthouse, and then down to the beach, where we walked a more difficult gravelly section.  As we were headed back to the van to get Donna’s sling, a German couple along the path asked if we had seen the sea lion.  We assumed it was back down on the beach.  As we headed to the edge of the grassy bluff, there was the sea lion, not 3 feet away, tucked into the tall grass.  Donna had walked past him (or her) without knowing it was there, not 30 minutes prior to read the sign at the edge of the bluff.  When we got back to the van, we decided to go ahead and have dinner (spicy Indian food with brown rice and veggies – Yum!)  A man stopped Donna near the toilet after we had finished eating.  He was from New Caledonia (near Fiji) and only spoke French.  We figured out that he and his wife were worried about the sea lion, and wanted Donna and I to drive to a nearby farmer’s home to call the DOC to help the sea lion.  I was not keen on the idea, since we didn’t know for sure the sea lion was ill, and well it’s a cold cruel world out there – you know survival of the fittest and all that – so we told them that we would wait until morning, and if the sea lion was still there, maybe we’d stop on our way out.  The wife with her English-French dictionary, said “dead” – Obviously they were not optimistic, nor did they think survival of the fittest was the way to go.  But they stopped pressing the point and seemed resigned to the sea lion’s fate.

  We took another walk on the beach, where Donna found at least a half a dozen paua (abalone shells), which have made it all the way back to Colorado, along with numerous assorted shells and sand from both Fiji and NZ. (should have brought the bigger suitcase!).  We also came  near 6 male bachelor sea lions at one end of the beach, that prevented us from going any further on our evening beach walk.  They are huge animals, and can be very aggressive, so we observed them at a distance (although I got some good photos with the zoom lens).  We walked the beach from 8-9:30, when the sun was starting to set.  The sunset was spectacular (pictures below).  As we came back up the bluff, heading back to the van, we saw the New Caledonians near the spot where we has seen the sea lion, and it was gone.  So our good buddy the sea ion apparently wasn’t sick after all, he (or she) just liked lying way up on the bluff. 

About 6 or 7 campervans all freedom camped in the car park (it was allowed here) of the Waipapa Point lighthouse….. a great spot, looking out at the sea with pleasant toilets to boot.