Curio Bay and the Petrified Forest

15^th February

We awoke to see the sun rise and headed for Toko Mouth – somewhere we took a wrong turn as usual and found ourselves on gravel roads in the middle of nowhere - not difficult on the South Island! We were looking for Cooks Rocks but I don’t think we ever found them – although we did find some very interesting rock pools that we had presumed were the Cook Rocks – nevermind!

From the beach we headed inland for Balclutha, travelling via the Stirling Cheese factory (this was not a tourist attraction nor would we recommend it as a stop off).

When we arrived in Balclutha, we realised it was a small town with a very large tourist information office. We then thought that perhaps we should have stopped for supplies elsewhere, given that there was no-where to buy food in town other than a shop that was a bit of a cross between B and Q, Halfords, and TK Maxx.

On a positive note the I-site did have a very helpful and knowledgeable assistant. She managed to organise for us, in advance, a trip to Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound and all we had to do was get ourselves to Manapouri. We also managed to squeeze a free 30 minute internet session.

Nugget Point

That afternoon, after a short trek, we were at Nugget Point, a place in all the tourist guidebooks which is definitely a must. We walked the 30 minutes track out to the lighthouse where we could see fur seals all sunbathing on the rocks – it was wonderful to see them in the wild. The wind was exceptionally cold so in the pictures we look like Michelin people because of all the layers we were wearing to keep warm.

We drove down the hill a little bit to the next lookout which was a bird hide where you could spot yellow- eyed penguins – officially they are on the at risk register – but we have been lucky enough to see loads due to the fact that they are currently moulting and all come ashore to shed their feathers before they head out to sea until next year.

Yellow-eyed Penguins 

From Nugget Point we drove even further to see the waterfalls at Parakunui falls which were magical and we had them all to ourselves as we arrived at about 6pm. We headed on to the Matai falls and Horseshoe falls, an hours drive along the coast and about a 30 minute walk along a wooded track. 

Parakunui falls

Our final stop was the Florence Hill lookout and from there we found the Curio Bay headland with our evenings destination planned to be the Petrified Forest for a sunset.

To our disbelief we discovered we could not freedom camp here – we went down to the sea and realised why – there was a colony of penguins who had taken residence in the cliffs just below the car park.

resident penguins at Curio bay

Rather fantastically as we headed down to the rocks to inspect the fossilised remnants a yellow-eyed penguin jumped out of the sea and made his way up towards his nest. With the racket that he made about ten other penguins emerged from the banks and we could do nothing except wait for the penguins to move before we  making our way back along the rocks to the car park.

Several more penguins came out of the water and it was great to watch. The waves were pounding the rocks all around us and the cold was unbearable but we were fixated by the penguins.

170m yr old Petrified forest at Curio Bay

Clear age rings in a fossilised tree stump

Only visible at low tide

Afterwards we drove onto the headland adjacent that we think was part of the camp site next door and we freedom camped with the sound of the crashing waves below (top forest photo - far left cliff top). 

Clear skies off NZ's South Coast