Up about 8:00, showered, and breakfast, packed my car and about 9:30, headed south along the Southern Scenic Route, through Brighton, which then connects back up with SH1 a little later. Some amazing beaches with huge crashing waves coming in on them.
Left SH1 again at Balclutha. Stopped in Balclutha to get money from a bank machine, because there's no bank machines until Invercargill. Also called Hilltop Backpackers, in Papatowai to reserve a dorm. He didn't have any dorm beds left, so he said he's put my e in a double for $25. I said sure.
My first stop was Kaka Point, and got out to see if I could see any seals or sea lions, but nothing. Continued on to Nugget Point, and visited the worlds most southerly lighthouse and could see some seals or sea lions hanging out far below the lighthouse.
Then on to Tunnel Hill, a short walk to, and through, an abondoned railway tunnel, about 250m long. The sign recommended a torch (flashlight), but I didn't have one (well, I did, but no batteries), so I had to walk it in the dark. It was dark in the middle! Then continued on to Cannibal Bay, and couldn't find any sea lions yet, so then on to Surat Bay, which is where 40ish of NZ 100 mainland sea lions stay for the winter. The rest chill out on Antarctica. The beach at Surat Bay is only accessible at low-tide. I didn't know exactly when low-tide was, nor did I really know where the path was, so I wandered through a huge grassy field, with tall grass all, and some shrubs. There were lots of "paths" all through the grassy field, along with huge terds everywhere. Presumably the sea lions hang out in the grassy field, and they drag themselves around, and lie around and make these "paths". The sign at the entrance warned that there were sea lions in the area, and to STAY AWAY from them. (As an aside, the signs associated with seal colonies just say to keep about 5 metres away from seals.) So, I wandered for about 20 or 30 minutes through the grassy field, slowly making my way to the ocean/beach at the opposite end of the grassy field. Finally made it, and climbed over the ridge down on to the beach, and could see no sea lions either way. Started walking one way along the beach, and couldn't see any (even peered through my binoculars to see far away). On the walk back, I could tell the tide was coming in. My original footprints I had left earlier were now starting to get covered up with ocean water. I walked back and around the bend on the beach to see if that's where they were hanging out. Sure enough, there they were, lounging on the beach. As I was video-taping them, the tide (helped with a HUGE wave) washed right up on the beach, right up to the cliff I needed to get back up to get to the grassy plain. It totally freaked me out, I certainly didn't want to be stranded here on the beach area with a bunch of sea lions!! My adrenaline is going, so I RAN back to a low spot on the cliff, got myself back onto the grassy plain. The huge swell had even poured water onto the grassy plain at this spot. I jumped over the big puddles, and ran up over a knoll, then I stopped suddenly..... My heart skipped a beat, I'm sure. Right before me, no more than 5 feet, a HUGE sea lion, laying in the grass. I quickly fumbled for my video camera, and made a bunch of noise, and that's when the sea lion moved. He lifted his head, looked at me square in the eyes for about 10 seconds (I'm totally frozen stiff!), then puts his head back down, totally ignoring me! The scaries part is, one thing you are NOT supposed to do with sea lions (and seals) is get between them and the ocean, because you are blocking off their escape, and that's when they'll have a go at you. I was right in his escape path, squarely between him and the ocean. I silently stood there and took a little video of him, then quietly walked WAY around him and worked my way back, through the grassy field (keeping an eye out for any more lions), and back to the car. Quite an exciting and scary experience!
I then continued on to Jack's Blowhole (no jokes), a huge inland hole (also called a slurp) that's connected to the sea via caves. With blowholes, water can come rushing through the cave system to the back wall of the hole, and create huge spray's of water coming up out of the blowhole (kind of like a whale's blow hole). On the way to the parking lot, there was a sign saying the track to the blowhole was closed due to lambing, but I drove to the parking lot anyway, and when I parked and got out of my car, a farmer came out of his house, and I asked him if I could see the blowhole. He was very nice, and said sure, and told me how to get there. I had to walk through his sheep field to get there, and he suggested I walk to the edge of his pasture and check out the water rushing through the channel between the mainland and a close island. He told me that there's a big storm brewing out at sea, and there's 130km/hour winds out there, creating huge swells and waves that are crashing into the cliffs. So, I trekked through the sheep field, making sure not to step in something smelly, and the sheep are all very timid, won't let me get close to them at all. A lot of baby sheep (what are they called?...lambs?) too, but all very shy. The blowhole was cool, but there were no huge sprays coming up out of the hole, unforuntately. Then walked to take a look at the channel, and there were some huge waves crashing around in the channel, it was pretty spectacular.
Still not done seeing things, I then went to Purakanui Falls, a very nice cascading waterfall.
After the waterfall, continued on to Papatowai and went to the hostel. It's located about 1km from the highway, on a grassy (sheep-field) hill, in a newish country farmhouse. It's very nice, although the kitchen isn't designed to have 5 people in there at once trying to cook supper. :-) Oh well, the two bathrooms are HUGE and have heat lamps, and one of the bathrooms even has a tub. First hostel I've seen that had a tub for having a soak! When I got there, the guy told me he's put me in a twin room with another guy (that's two single beds) and he only charged me $20.
Had supper, watched rugby, All Black's vs. the Wallabies (Aussie team), competing for the Bledisloe Cup. All Black's won. One of the guys in staying here has a bad cold, he's sneezing and coughing all over everything. I hope I don't get it!! To bed about 11:00.
Mostly rain today, with the sun poking out a few times for a few moments.
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