After, we headed out to hike Wainui Falls, the biggest waterfall in Golden Bay. It was a gorgeous trek, known as a sacred site to the Maori (indigenous) people:
This wild goat was perched on the canyon wall overlooking the waterfall pool. Goats, like many other wild animals in NZ, were introduced and are not indigenous.
Wainui Bay is also known for it's population of Blue Penguins, the smallest penguin in the world. This crossing sign was near Little Greenie, and we were determined to find them!
We asked a couple of locals, including a cafe barista to figure out where the best place to spot them would be. She pointed us to the nearby boat wharf where we promptly went and then approached a fishing captain cleaning out his boat by the docks. We had already heard from our kayaking guide that they came to land to nest in the early hours of the morning and late evening. The fisherman confirmed this fact, then told us a part of the cove that conservationists had built wooden "nests" for the "wee little buggers" to sleep in at night (they go out to sea to eat fish during the day hours), so we headed to that area. He also said that he had not seen one in 2 days. We spotted a black skate in the water, but sadly no penguins were tracked down. Here is a picture of Monica looking into an empty penguin nest, and one of the skate:
Depressed that we had missed any chance to spot a penguin, we returned back to Little Greenie. There, our Weka bird friend came to say hello, lifting our spirits a bit. :)
We played a close game of Scrabble (Cameron won), caught a spectacular sunset, drank delicious wine and shared a bath. Once Monica was too hot to sit in the bath any longer, Cam stretched out and enjoyed the extra space:
We ended the night by watching a bit of the second Lord of the Rings.
Man thats a sick sunset. Looks like a fun adventure.....and the second lord of the rings rocks hahaha
ReplyDeleteVery cool... again.. the wine!
ReplyDelete