NZ: Omaru to Curio Bay

December 27, 2011

By 9am we were packed up, fed, and on the road again. 

We wanted to get to the Morecki Boulders before hoards of tourists showed up, and our 10am arrival time was perfect.  On the short walk to the beach we passed our first little "permanent" tent settlement, or "shanty town" as they will be referred to from now on.  As we later found out, these are the result of freedom camping and probably why it has become illegal in so many areas.

Anyways, the Morecki Boulders were pretty cool.  Ryan thought they were lame until the info board perplexed him.  He always assumes they're wrong, but maybe, just maybe this time they were right!

When the rocks crack open they looked like dinosaur eggs or geodes or something, then some of them made these neat tidal pools.

We had lunch in a cute café in the town of Dunedin, which was full of beautiful old buildings and great smelling restaurants.  This would have been where we saw albatross but we were pressed for time and decided to skip it.  We attempted to buy cheap Christmas chocolates at the Cadbury factory, but they wouldn't even let us in the store without a ticket!

We had heard good things about Nugget Point, our next stop, but no one had told us about the treacherous drive required to get there.  We had a tiny car, but meeting camper vans on a 6km, cliff hugging, dirt road was not fun.  The scenery was beautiful, but I'm not sure it was worth the drive because we only saw a few seals in the distance and no penguins.

At the base of this weird island, very far down from where we were, there were a few New Zealand Fur Seals.  Also, the white dots are a large, rare bird with a fluffy head called the spoonbill.

At this point I'd just like to say that our pictures didn't turn out as well as we had hoped on our entire trip, so most of them really don't do the place justice.  The lighthouse at Nugget point was quite ominous and felt like a scene from a scary movie, but of course we couldn't capture that mood.

I let Ryan take over the driving as we proceeded to Niagara Falls (the New Zealand version).  The pictures in this case are worth a thousand words.

Our resting point for that evening was Curio Bay - home of a petrified forest, yellow-eyed penguins, and Hector's Dolphins.  We were both quite hungry and grumpy, so we feasted on a delicious pasta creation and then headed to the beach. 

The petrified forest was overshadowed by the super cute penguins coming in for the night, and the super annoying tourists blocking their paths.

I debated even including this picture since it made us furious, but I thought you should see it how it was.  Some people were literally standing in a semi-circle around them so they couldn't pass.  That's why we decided to leave early to let the penguins come in peacefully.

Ryan overlooking the petrified forest.

I think I saw a dolphin in the distance too, so it was a great day filled with interesting wildlife.