Curio Bay, Purakaunui to Dunedin

Wednesday

Curio Bay; wow! It was an overcast morning today but as is quite typical in NZ the cloud burns off by about 11am. Therefore after packing up my tent and having a slow breakfast I enjoyed a slow meandering walk along the beach. Lovely long white sand beach, with lots of wildlife. I saw a sea lion and some doldins and loads of birds! (Camera pics coming soon!) 

  

I then moved my car from the campsite to the public car park as walked to the Petrified Forrest on the shore, very cool! I’m not quite sure how to explain the technicalities of this but in brief, a long time ago there were floods and trees were washed out of the ground and carried away. The same floods also cause mud slides and slips and covered these trees before they rotted, and that mud/soil dried fast enough that the logs of wood were preserved inside (i think. Dad you’re welcome to correct me in the comments if I’m wrong if you you wanna add anything!?) photos of this is also on my camera.

I then walked into the neighbouring living forest. Apparently this is rare and one of the only palces on earth that there is a petrified forest so close to a living forest! Who knew! 

I drove till lunch time (about an hour and 45) with a quick break to stretch my legs and see a waterfall, before then stopping at Florence Hill Lookout for a bit of lunch. This wee camping stove has also proven to be a great wee investment! 

I had initially intended to drive straight through to Dunedin tonight and stay in a hostel but decided against that and looked out the closes DOC campsite, which was only $8, on a beautiful beach, and only 15mins drive away, so there really wasn’t much of a dilemma there! 

The campsite was truly serene and with only one other van there when I got there I got to choose whichever site I wanted, and I set up my sent so that the door looked out onto the beach towards the sea! Happy Fi! I had a wee nap after I’d set up the tent and before making myself dinner I took a wee walk along the beach as far as I could get in both directions. By the time I returned a few more vans had appeared, but they were all quiet and kept themselves to themselves. That’s the main difference between DOC sites and Holiday Parks (other than the spectacular views that come with the DOC ones) they’re a bit more secluded and remote so if you make the trip out to them you’re there to be respectful of nature - not to party - and are generally quiet and chilled. Saying that, just before sunset a party of five guys appeared and set up camp along from the rest of us and invoted all the girls round for a campfire haha but even they were quiet and respecting and I actually didn’t even hear them after I zipped up my tent for the night. 

After I ate dinner I sat on the bonnet of my car, looking out to the beach and sketched for a bit, then read for a bit, adding a layer every so often as it got colder. It was quite a surreal experience as the view reminded me so much of Dal Mòr- a beach at home on the Isle of Lewis - with even the slight wind and the sound of the Oyster Catchers , closing my eyes I could have sworn I was in Lewis! There were some extra bits noises around that were foreign to my ear though, and when I opened my eyes again the landscape was far flusher worth a lot more trees to actually be lewis haha but it has definitely been one of my favourite campsites so far!  Bringing a tent on my travels was a very good idea! Thanks Franny!!!

Thursday 

An early start as I though I heard specs of rain on the tent, so I was packed up and on the road by 7am. 

There was another bush walk with a waterfall locally so I walked that path and then carried on towards Dunedin. 

 

Driving into Dunedin was quite and experience! Other than Christchurch it’s the first big city that I’ve driven into, and it went from being in the middle of the country side to being on a big motorway to being in the city in a matter of minutes! I wouldn’t say that it was a stressful experience but it sure woke me up from the lul gently winding of the country roads. 

As it turned out all the hostels were out of rooms when I got to Dunedin about 2pm. I couldn’t believe it! This has never happened before, and I didn’t expect it either since it was a only Thursday, anyway the lovely lady at the 2nd hostel I tried for cancellations (unsuccessfully) led me to a holiday park not too far away from the city centre where I could camp for the night. It worked out quite well; although it had very little atmosphere it had great facilities and WiFi (even though it was a bit crappy). So I had a long free hot shower, cooked dinner in their kitchen and  did some research for things to visit in Dunedin tomorrow.