Koekohe Beach Boulders- Otago

Catch-up; November 2019

Our next stop is at the Koekohe Beach boulders, more well known as the Moeraki Boulders. Did I get you? Thought that might grab your interest more than the regular name. Moeraki Boulders is another one of those 'famous in New Zealand' attractions that are a must visit if you are passing. 

It's been six years since we last visited the Boulders and I wanted to see if they have changed. Haha, no of course not...they haven't changed in over 60 million years! No, I wanted to capture some sunrise shots of the Boulders. The tides were right and to make it even easier to access them at that time of the morning, the Red-Barn-By-The-Sea CAP (costs apply parking for NZMCA members) was right beside the Boulder carpark. We couldn't get closer if we tried!

But first things first. We visited another Kiwi icon, Fleurs Place in Moeraki village, a world famous seafood restaurant located right beside the harbour and where fresh fish is delivered daily.

We've also visited Fleurs before, in fact twice. On our last visit the dinner was so lovely we went back again the next day for lunch! We resisted doing that this time and only went for dinner and it was just as lovely as we remembered.

There's a new cafe/restaurant on the wharf since our last visit, The FishWife; with, of course, seafood as the main event including freshly caught crayfish. Sadly, it was closed otherwise we'd have visited there too.

From the village we headed over to Katiki Point, hoping to check out the local wildlife.

The historic 1878 Katiki Lighthouse sits at the entrance to a large reserve where... 

...if you're lucky, you'll see Hoiho/Yellow Eyed Penguins, Kekeno/NZ Fur Seals and several colonies of Black Backed & Red-billed gulls, many of them nesting if you're there at the right time of the year. 

We had an amazing experience with the penguins when we first visited here. One waddled right past David's nose as he was laying hidden off the track (although obviously it wasn't off the penguin's track!) Two penguins made an appearance on this day but they were quite a distance away although David saw a couple up close as they moved from 'Penguin Beach' up to their nests. He was frantically trying to locate me but I was out of sight at the end of the headland checking out a seal pup who was crying for his mum. 

That's Mum lounging on the rocks middle left (not the fat 'slugs' sleeping in the seaweed at the bottom of a cliff), and the pup hiding under a rock in the water. Mum got up and slid into the water to check on the pup and then hauled back out. He stayed in the water crying and kept peeping out to see if I was still there (bottom right). I backed off and left them to it. 

I walked to the Boulders in the middle of the afternoon and was immediately pleased that we were staying overnight; there were people everywhere. I did know this though because of the amount of cars and campervans that were parked in the carpark beside our camp. A lot of people were also accessing the beach from the cafe above the boulders, where you can pay $2 to use their stairway.

With so many people climbing on, lounging over and posing in front of the boulders I took single boulder photos as they became free of people. 

At least I would be able to come back later in the evening and the next morning. I did manage to capture one photo without anyone photobombing the shot.

Unlike this boulder which I was photographing when these people walked right into the shot, totally oblivious to me (I was a lot closer but stepped back to take this photo).

I gave up and headed home. I guess the boulders will be having a well earned break at the moment.

One morning a bus load of students arrived in the carpark and disappeared up the beach. An hour or so later a few came back to the bus and sat about on the grass waiting. It was quite some time before the rest of the students arrived and they all left. Later when I went for a walk along the beach, I found their sand, shell and driftwood artworks in the sand just through the track from the carpark.

Once it was high tide, the people disappeared & so did the rocks!

Although they still proved to be great subjects.

Luckily we stayed two nights 'just in case' it was cloudy at sunrise. The first morning was grey and miserable and I happily went back to bed. The second morning looked more promising when I lifted the blind at 4:45am to check the eastern horizon. I hurriedly dressed and was striding up the beach in the darkness shortly afterwards. 'Oh darn, was that head torches I could see ahead of me near the boulders?'. I wasn't going to have them to myself after all.

The tide was on it's way in and as I reached the boulders I had to weave in and out of a dozen photographers and their tripods lined up along the wave line; Americans on a New Zealand wide photography tour. Oh well if you can't beat 'em join 'em...

Although a few of them weren't too considerate, hogging prime spots to catch the sunrise ahead of me and their fellow tour members. This lady eventually got asked to move aside by one of the tour leaders so others could get in there. The boulder with the opening is a very popular rock.

I did have the last laugh though, I was wearing gumboots (Wellington boots) and able to wade into the waves ahead of them, while many of them danced and jumped about trying not to get wet. Most gave up in the end though and walked into the thigh deep water. My gumboots also filled up as the waves got larger. I felt a little sorry (a teeny wee bit) for them having to wear wet shoes and soaked pants for the rest of the day as they sped about the country looking for the next scenic photo stop.

And for the photographers out there, here are my settings for the photo below- f/10, 3 sec, ISO 50
You also need a heavy duty tripod and be prepared for the legs to be dunked in sea water and also have sand stuck in the telescopic parts (unless of course you have a lovely husband who cleans it all out for you).

Halt! Who Goes There?

Or in sealion speak "HUMPH!!" Back off now or I'll charge....

This is a Hookers Sealion (whakahao), a humungous male that has taken up residence in the little bay of Moeraki much to the consternation of the locals. Nobody can visit the beach or walk the Millennium Walk for fear of coming across this brute. And he's pretty hard to spot in amongst the clumps of seaweed & diftwood. Especially when the sea fog has rolled in. This is the view from just below our camp site. How close is that!

We first saw him on our walk to the local pub for dinner, I only had my cell phone with me so these photos aren't great but you'll get the idea of how large he is. Like a great piece of lard he was lolling about in his smelly sand pit. Keeping an evil eye on us. In fact we had seen him earlier swimming around a boat in the bay that was filleting fish. He is obviously onto a good thing.

He even stuck his flipper up just to make sure we had seen him! :)

But when he started flicking sand in the air you knew he was getting annoyed with the disturbance.

We left him then but I was up early the next morning hoping to catch him leaving the beach but when I got there he was still snoring away. I knew he was still there before I saw him, the smell was well, very....unique.  The fog was thick, I couldn't see any boats when I first arrived but slowly as the sun came up the mist disappeared to reveal the boats at anchor.

 

He stuck his head up a few times but continued to rest on waiting for the sun to warm his back no doubt.

 

I think he's actually quite cute, look at that soft rounded nose & big beady eyes. He had a well defined mane too.

"Hey, you Mr Oyster Catcher, don't come too close"

I waited it out in the fog & then the brisk morning air for about 90 minutes but this is the best I could get of him stirring. And then he flopped back down again. When we left the camp site a couple of hours later he was gone. For all his faults, what a beautiful animal he is.

And while I was waiting & the fog began to retreat this fogbow (rainbow) appeared for the briefest of moments. I managed to get two shots & then it was gone. Very unusual don't you think.

Penguin Encounter

We had the most amazing experience Thursday evening & it's taken me quite awhile to process the photos and get this blog post ready but I think you'll agree it's been worth the wait!

The third reason we stopped at Moeraki was because there is also a Yellow-Eyed Penguin (Hoiho) colony nearby. Yellow-Eyed Penguins are one of the rarest penguins in the world & are unique to NZ. There is an estimate of only 450-500 pairs of penguins nesting on NZ's mainland, this is up from 150 pairs in 1990 when the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust & others began their work in saving this endearing little penguin.

Nearby the colony was a hide(bird) which overlooked a tiny sandy bay surrounded by rocks & this was where most of the visitors to the colony could wait & watch for the penguins arriving home from the sea. The penguins are nesting at the moment, one stays with the eggs or chicks while the other feeds at sea and then brings home dinner in the early evening to feed it's mate or the chicks.

I went down to the hide while David checked out another track, he soon came racing back to get me as there were two penguins already up on a ridge just above another bay & much closer than where the hide was.

These two penguins spent the entire time we were in the area, about 2 hours, in this spot preening & preening & preening some more! I didn't once manage to get a photo of them both looking up.

I wanted to see a penguin arrive in on a wave but with no action happening we moved further on along the peninsula and just about stood on a seal enjoying an afternoon siesta.

All around us in the grass and on the rocks & sand below were seals snoozing.

And another Blue Spotted Shag rookery or should that be "round table". If you look closely (click on the photos to make them bigger) there's also a couple of seals that I didn't see when taking the shot.

We headed back to the penguin beach to see if any more had arrived, the two we had seen earlier were still doing their ablutions.

And another penguin had arrived on the beach! And he had set about preening himself too.

But not for long as once he had finished he then did a series of wing exercises. Preparing for what he was about to undertake.....

He waddled forward towards the steep bank and jumped and flapped his way up. When he got to the top he waved his flippers in the air, very proud of himself....

Just then another penguin made an appearance just to the left of where we were sitting, he'd come up from the bay on the other side of the rocky outcrop. He looked a little startled to see us sitting there but just stayed where he was for quite awhile before waddling off in the direction of the point.

Next minute (nek minnit) right in front of us & not three foot away, the penguin from the beach exercises, appeared on the other side of the fence.

He took no notice of us, we stayed very still & he proceeded to climb underneath the wire and jump out in front of us. How thrilling was that! They are just so darn cute, their flesh coloured legs look like baggy socks & they look like little old men when they walk.

The foreign tourists who had followed the track to this end were just as thrilled to see a penguin passing by on the wrong side of the fence.

We thought he must be heading for one of the tracks up the grassy hill behind us. Up until then we thought the tracks had been made by people but now we realised that they were penguin tracks. But he fooled us again and took a dive under the thistles and disappeared up an unseen track.

He was heading straight to where David (Attenborough) was laying!

Once he reached the fence on that side of the hill he started climbing, and climbing, and climbing.....

We circled around and climbed to the top of the hill where we found this nest box & a patiently waiting partner.

But he fooled us again. Somewhere between our last sighting & the nest box he had disappeared under the fence to be reunited with his partner (not the one above) where they were both performing an elaborate greeting ceremony of trills and calls before he fed their hungry chick. I caught sight of the chicks beak in between the two once of twice & you could certainly hear it squeaking for a meal.

So we were thrilled to see so many penguins, seven in all. There was another nest box close to the track that on our return now had a penguin sitting outside it as well.

And before we left our camp site, Moeraki had one more surprise for us much closer to home. But you'll have to wait to find out about that until the next post.