Dans Hill

The warmth of the bed was a huge pull when the 6:30 alarm went off this morning but the thought of possible dolphins frolicking in the waves and a lovely sunrise had me wrapping up warm in my layers whilst tactfully remaining under the warm Duvet.

Rob was too sleepy and so I left him in bed to explore and let him know of any dolphins. I thought I might have seen some from the cliff edge, a 30 second walk from the camper, so let him know and then headed to the sand. It was a gorgeous morning, mostly clear skies and the tide half out, leaving behind a long flat expanse of smooth sand dotted with rocks. I was completely alone save for the oyster catchers that really remind me of creature comfort characters. They are so funny to watch, sticking their bills into the sand and chasing each other put of their territories. I couldn't spot any dolphins but the sun was coming up behind a collection of rocks that made up the East of the bay so I watched for a while and then chambered along the rocks to watch as the huge waves came crashing in from the Southern Ocean. The spray was huge and it felt pretty awesome standing there alone in it all.

Eventually Rob appeared with his camera. I tried waving but not sure he could see me for the sun. Eventually I made my wave over and we enjoyed a little stroll along the beach before going for breakfast. We had bought eggs too so we didn't even have to have peanut butter and jam!

Showering was a pain, they took two dollar tokens and as the office was closed I couldn't get a second for washing my hair (each only gave 5mins hot water). The showers had no benches either so everything got wet and then I stupidly decided to wash my hair anyway. It was painfully cold in my head! Brrrr!!! I returned a bit flustered but ready to drag Rob back to see the dolphins 😀 (there was of course no dragging...they are dolphins, who doesn't want to see them!?)

Sure enough there they were, just around where the waves were breaking. We saw them surf in the waves again and a fee did some fantastic leaps and backflips, it was incredible! I tried not to let the people swimming in pursuit of them ruin it but it really was quite sad to see, especially as they always swam away. I even told a girl who was thinking about it about the signs and why she shouldn't in the end.they should probably make the signs more noticeable.

We watched some more whilst wandering up and down the beach and I had to be torn away for some lunch, during which I learnt that the yellow eyed penguins are the rarest in the world and they are here because there is still a large amount of tall vegetation in the dunes and cliffs, so we are pretty lucky.
We made sure to have one last gander at the dolphins before we left for further up the coast.

On route to our current camp near Nugget Point we stopped at several waterfalls. There are lots on the drive on the Catlins coastal track. The first was a ridiculously muddy walk, it turns out it isn't really an officially signposted waterfall and two people have tried to just make it more accessible with the placement of logs, stepping stones and balance beams over water. It is still precarious though and involved clambering over slippy rocks to get to the falls. It had such an enchanted feel to it, a mist hung in the air from all the moisture and every surface was wet and covered in some sort of green moss. It felt like a fairytale forest, so beautiful.

After cleaning our shoes we headed to the next water fall, McLean Falls. Another beautiful forest and a huge waterfall. It fell metres into a big pool and then down more cascades. I managed to clamber over some rocks in the big pool to get a bit closer, it was very very slippery though, perhaps more so than ice, and I ended up stepping on the mosses and clinging to them on the rocks by the edge to avoid slipping all the way down. Coming back down the cascades from the big pool Rob managed to lose his footing on landing (he will insist in wearing flip flops on these walks) and now he thinks he may have broken his toe...again! Last time turned out to just be bruising but now he is limping and it looks a lot worse than last time 😥.

Next up was Purakaunui Falls. To get here I got to drive along some great unsealed roads, one of them a detour from a closed bridge that took us all the way to the source if the river and around, it was ridiculous! Apparently I did a Scandinavian flick in the car, not intentionally at all, hit some hidden gravel and the car did a lovely little drift. Rob was jealous, I nearly had s heart attack and drove like a snail thereafter.

These falls were a very shirt walk and like another enchanted forest. Rob commented on how could just really picture the Kiwi running around on the forest floor here and it kind of felt like dinosaurs could be lurking around here too. The falls were three tiers of really wide cascades. I think our favourite so far. They fell into a tranquil pool surrounded by trees that stretched horizontally over the waters edges, covered in moss and with leaves that dangled a little like rags. Rob has once again got some beautiful photos today.

Walking back gave a new angle to all the trees we had just walked passed, some totally hollowed at the bottom with roots like bars that you could step inside and some trees were only about the thickness of a branch and yet ridiculously tall, it seemed to defy physics to me that they weren't all bending over.

Finally we arrived at the camp, pretty small and basic and therefore nice and cheap. Lovely owners,the guy is from Derby and after 19 years still sounds it. We chose to get pizza from them as a treat and are now settled down. Fingers crossed the sheep in the field are quiet in the night, we have an early start to catch the sunrise and hopefully more penguins tomorrow.Read more