1st February Birds and Blow Hole

Last night's attempt to see glow worms was a bit of a washout! Ian and Freddie were both asleep by the time it got dark (no staying power 😄) so Amy and I thought we'd go on our own. So armed with our torches we headed out into the dark, found the footpath to get to the glow worms and got spooked! Whether we thought a possum was going to come rampaging through the undergrowth or not I've no idea but the pitch black, not knowing where we were going and the unknown noises were enough to send us scuttling back to our room 😄.

So after a good night's sleep we woke this morning to birds chirping. Noticeably a different sound to the one normally experienced at home. Maybe NZ birds tend to be more upbeat and happy chirruping in the morning than British birds.

Left our accomodation by 9.30am and made a 15 minutes journey to the Orokunui Ecosanctuary. Home to many native birds and NZ's tallest tree.

Imagine a David Attenborough documentary on rainforests or jungles with all the animal and bird noises. Well that's what it was like this morning as we saw many of the NZ bird species - Bellbirds, Tui, Kaka and Kakaruai were just some of the ones we saw.

A Kaka.

After our morning's nature walk we drove to Tunnel Beach, just south west of Dunedin.

After about an hour's walk we eventually reached the tunnel down to the beach. Thankfully there was an alternative path back which wasn't as steep as the way down.

After a stop for a picnic lunch it was then back on Highway 1 towards Nugget Point. On the minor road to Nugget Point we had to be on the look out for sea lions!

Nugget Point lighthouse at the end of the point and the 'nugget' rocks in the sea 

We spotted plenty of sea lions and their cubs swimming and relaxing on the rocks.

After our walk to Nugget Point we were heading towards tonight's accomodation in Owaka. We were just about there when Amy spotted Jack's Blowhole on the map. So a bit of off road gravel track driving and a strenuous uphill walk and we found it.

Being 200m inland, 55m deep, 144m long and 68m wide it was pretty impressive.

Just as we got back to the car Amy spotted a sea lion on the beach in the distance. So we carefully walked nearby to watch it rolling around in the sand.

With all the off road driving poor Mia got very dusty. A very tempting drawing board.

With all our walking today we didn't get to our accomodation until after 7pm so the local supermarket and nearby cafe were closed!  Staying in a pretty isolated town with the next supermarket being a 25 minutes drive away our dinner was a combination of food we've accumulated over the past few days. Cheese wraps, dip, peanuts, fruit and yogurts tonight. We'll have to be more organised in the future.

Tonight's accomodation (Caitlin Area Motel) in Owaka. Tomorrow we're heading to Invercargill.