February 26, 2021

The penguins continued to elude us today, as did the dolphins, but we got some great views.

We woke early to get to the Roaring Bay penguin hide soon after sunrise, but we only saw a Sea Lion and a pup and a trawler.

This is our 3^rd time at the hide, so we give ourselves an A for effort, if not for result.  Seals are predators to penguins, so not a good omen.  Also, we have recently read in the NZ Herald that there are now only 167 breeding pairs in the whole of NZ.  Some penguin chicks are dying from a respiratory illness which is pushing the numbers of this endangered species in the wrong direction.  All in all, it’s not surprising that we haven’t seen them.  We have very fond memories of seeing the yellow eyeds from a hide on the Otago Peninsula in 1994.

We came back for a hearty breakfast of our farm fresh eggs (laid yesterday).  Then Jim had a call with the US, so Frances went for a walk along our Kaka Point beach.  We have a one call in the living room at a time rule.

We then drove west to Maclean Falls.  These were probably the most spectacular falls that we have seen here.  The forest walk to them was lovely too, if treachorous – lots of steps, a section where we were encouraged to keep moving, and a lower and upper falls.

Further west we stopped at the Florence Lookout.  The views speak for themselves. 

We ate our picnic lunch at Porpoise Bay, where we were hoping to see Hector’s Dolphins – a small dolphin (1.5 metres) with a round dorsal fin.  But they must have been having lunch elsewhere.  We did see some interesting birds.

Curio Bay is famous for having a petrified forest, buried in ash some 170 million years ago.  Most of this is visible only at low tide, and we were not there then.  Nonetheless, we did see some petrified logs at the south end.

Lastly, we visited Slope Point.  This was really just so that we could say we’d been to the most southern point of the Southern Island.  Turned out to be a lovely walk through farmland, and we could see Stewart Island (Rakiura) in the distance.  We met a lovely couple from Wellington, with whom we had a perfect 10 minute conversation about the joys of exploration.

There were a lot of road works and one lane bridges along the Scenic Southern Highway.  We’re happily home.  Tomorrow is our last day in the Catlins.  Another early start to try to get to Cathedral Caves for the morning low tide (7:30 am).