Camping at Pounawea- Part 3; Exploring

Real-time

Continuing on from Part 2

We did a couple of day trips when the weather was settled, the first was to Purakaunui Falls, which we've visited on one of our previous trips through the Catlins. 

With a shortage of rain in the Catlins at the moment (really?), they were nowhere near as impressive as our last visit but the kids still enjoyed scrambling over the rocks...

...and climbing inside an old tree, with a hollow trunk, along the path.

We then drove out to beautiful Purakaunui Bay which, other than being a spectacular beach with a dramatic cliff backdrop, was also one of the locations used in Narnia- The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe.

There's a large DOC camp at the end of the road and overlooking the beach although not all the area is waterfront.

There were plenty of campers already set up for the coming holiday period and more arriving while we were there. 

The road into the bay is narrow, single lane in places and winding but the rewards for persevering with it are well worth the effort...

We may take the 5th-wheeler in on this visit but if not, we will definitely return after the crowds have gone home.

We walked along the beach to the end of the bay and back again, stopping to watch as a guy launched his jetski high into the surf  Can you spot the person sitting in the rocks in the top photo? It wasn't until after I took the shot and continued on towards the crib that I saw her sheltering out of the wind.

On another day, the families (ours and their friends) drove to Papatowai to have lunch and a walk on the beach.

Rain threatened but never arrived, the kids enjoyed exploring the rock pools, and afterwards we did a bush walk around the point to King Rock. Although by the time we broke out of the bush we were all a little weary so we told the kids the walk ended at the top and not down on the beach, by the rock below. I'm not so sure they believed us especially as marker poles marched off along the ridge.

There are some very generous people out there, here's a lovely vegetable patch you can help yourself to. I stopped to see if there were any herbs I could pick, but sadly there weren't, and while there were a few veges- spinach & lettuce, I could have had a few leaves off, I left them for the next person. 

But look what I did find, a blast from the past- a gooseberry bush! We used to have one growing wild on the farm when we were kids. It was a race between Mum and us to find and eat the ripe ones. Sadly these berries were like bullets, another month or two and they'd be lovely and juicy.

I was actually more interested in the two gorgeous donkeys in the paddock behind the fence. I was hoping they would come over and say hello but they stayed put, sheltering out of the wind beside the house.

Our last stop for the day was at the Lost Gypsy Gallery on the main road near the Papatowai settlement. You couldn't miss it, there were cars lined up and squeezed in here and there, down both sides of the road.

A far cry from when we paid a visit to the gallery back in February, 2014, when there was just a handful of people visiting the old bus.

Because we had seen it before, we left the families exploring and carried on home after checking out the Papatowai DOC Camp which was also very busy gearing up for New Year. It's a nice enough site close to the river and beach but surrounded in bush with no water views.

I haven't done a blog on random photos so I decided to slot this one in here- it's too good to leave out. A few of the guys had a game at the Owaka golf course one afternoon and Allister was the 'lucky' recipient, winning the inaugural Pounawea Camp Golf Challenge trophy. What looks like a pig's ear is a dried up sealion flipper that one of the kids brought back to camp after finding it out on the estuary. I bet this trophy doesn't find its way home in a hurry.

All too soon it was time for the family to pack up and head home, we had a fantastic time sharing Christmas and the New Year with them for another year (Mavora Lakes last year) and enjoying their company without living in each other's pockets. I know they were keen to get home and finish unpacking and sorting our their new home but it was sad to see them go.

Thank God they've gone.... (click on the link for the family joke)

And a few days later, reluctantly, it was time for us to up-sticks and move on too. You know you've enjoyed a campsite when the daisies are flourishing around your wheels and the grass has died under the mat.

If you're visiting the top-end of the Catlins and looking for somewhere to stay, try the Pounawea Motor Camp, it's an awesome family and dog friendly camp tucked into beautiful native bush on the edge of the ever changing Catlins River estuary and surrounded by bird and wildlife with some great fishing. Thanks Glenn & Lee-ann for your hospitality and a big thankyou to the regulars- camping families that have been visiting Pounawea for generations- thanks for making us so welcome.

(NB- for NZMCA members; the camp is not in the NZMCA directory or on the app (hopefully corrected soon) - but the link above takes you to their website.

Camping at Pounawea- Part 2; Fishing

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Continuing on from Part 1

David has spent a few low tides fishing in the estuary. Fishing for sea run trout along the Catlins River channel far out across the estuary mudflats.

It didn't take him long to realise that his waders would come in handy out on the exposed, windy and usually cold estuary.

Camp families come out to play, collect cockles and fish on the estuary at low tide too.

We had three weeks worth of low tides to collect cockles (also known as clams) but left it until yesterday to finally go and gather some, now I need a whole lot more because I've been reminded of a few recipes I now want to try out.

The water is lovely and clear and it's a sandy bottom, the cockles are just under the surface and huge! 

But still...I only went to hold the bag and take photos! This big boy came scuttling out of the sand and quickly re-buried himself a few feet away. Only to be dug up again a minute later. He was not a happy chappy.

After the keen fishers came home with a few trout one day, everyone, including our family, were eager to try their luck the next day. It's a wonder any fish were caught with all the activity going on.

But one of the men soon caught a fish...

And 'Southern Man' Adam caught another lovely trout, not 10 metres from where David had removed himself from the 'crowd' to fish.

You'll remember me mentioning in Part 1 that Adam caught an eel while out collecting koura, well his Dad sent me a photo. Isn't this a monster? Going by how far the dorsal fin reaches up it's back, it's length (they can grow up to 2mtrs) and the very dark colour, this is likely to be a Longfin eel rather than a Shortfin. Both freshwater eels are found in New Zealand's waterways and lakes.

Longfin eels can live up to 100 years and only breed once at the end of their lives. They leave their home territory where they've likely spend most of their lives and undertake a mass spawning migration, swimming all the way to the subtropical Pacific Ocean, where they spawn en masse in very deep water. Adam carefully returned this beauty to it's home, it might have another 40-50 years before it needs to migrate. And it's probably also why they didn't catch too many koura in this particular spot! All I could think about after seeing the photos was how much slime would have been coating Adam.

Often, while the others fished, I wandered over the estuary, checking for birds and taking photos, especially of the two amazing old tree stumps in the middle of the estuary.

Catching their reflections in left-over tidewater late one evening...

...and again the next day.

Ollie was keen to go fishing with Poppa by himself, so with his parents off having a few hours by themselves and Ruby chilling with me, he kitted himself out to catch the big one! It was freezing cold with passing showers, hence the amount of jackets and hats(3) he's wearing. He even got his 'camel' backpack out to wear in case it was thirsty work. I thought he looked like a scuba diver! 

Can you tell this is a Southland family below? They're in shorts and up to their knees in the cold water! They were out on the mudflats with David and Ollie when they had a bit of a shock. An aggressive leopard seal launched itself out of the water very close to one of the girls fishing. They all made a hasty retreat as it dived back in and swum over to the other side where another fisherman and his dog were fishing in the water just off a point. 

There was much shouting of  'get out of the water', before the guy realised there was something wrong. The seal splashed about where he'd been standing and then disappeared back into the depths. After this close encounter Ollie was a little spooked and decided he wanted to head home...without a fish. 

Murphy's Law, because the very next day after the family had left for home David came home with this beautiful Brown...

Which we smoked and devoured, after sharing some of it with our neighbours. It was very tasty too, the flesh quite pink compared with the last few lake trout we've had, more like salmon.

Ruby was more keen on 'fishing' for crabs under the rocks and in the small pools left behind by the tide, she carefully brought them home in a bucket to show everyone and then safely released them back into the tide afterwards. I'm not so sure she'd have been as keen if she'd seen the size of the one David dug up while gathering cockles.

To be continued...Part 3

Don't Even Think About Passing Me

Real-time, like really real time- 6pm (and an interruption to my two part blog) 

What do you do when you're riding your bikes down a track through the bush and come to a skidding halt when you find a large lump of blubber blocking your way?

You ride as fast as you can back up the track and come knocking on my door to tell me there's a sealion down the track. That's what Adam(back) Briarne(front) & Renae(kneeling) did this evening; they knew I was keen to see another sealion after my early morning encounter when we first arrived at Pounawea. With two friends, we all headed back down the track on foot...

 ...to find she was still fast asleep in the middle of the track. New Zealand sealions are only found in New Zealand (funny that) and are one of the rarest species of sealions in the world, numbering around 10,000.

This is a female, they are much lighter in colour than the males, predominantly a creamy grey with darker pigmentation around their flippers. They're also alot smaller (100-160kgs) than a fully grown male which can weigh in at a massive 250 to 400kgs.

It's possible that this female is in pup and due to give birth. She certainly looks fat enough. New Zealand Sealions have only recently begun re-colonising the mainland after being hunted to near extinction over 100 years ago. 

Females return to their place of birth to give birth and until recently this has been New Zealand's sub-antarctic islands. In 1993 one female, nicknamed 'Mum' had her pup on the Otago Peninsula. Now over 150 sealions live on the mainland and the Peninsula averages four new pups a year, all probably related to 'Mum'.  Sealions have also started to breed in the Catlins and on Stewart Island and because pupping usually occurs during December & January, it's might be that this one is pregnant. 

Sealions often haul themselves out from the water and into the bush to rest, although this one has come quite a way, not only swimming through the estuary and up the river, she's climbed up a winding track that has a few hairpin bends in it to the top of a small bush clad hill. The track is quite popular with local walkers, campers and their dogs, especially at low tide, as it continues around the edge of the estuary and back to camp. I wonder if she'll be there in the morning.

We left her chilling in the bush and returned to camp. Thanks guys for letting me know! 

Camping at Pounawea, Catlins- Part 1; Partying

Real-time 

We'll have been parked up here at the Pounawea Holiday Park for three weeks this coming Friday and I can't imagine where the time has gone. We've had, and are still having, an awesome time enjoying the comings and goings of camp life during a very busy silly season.

It's helped that we had the park virtually to ourselves for the first few days. Then a few days before Christmas, campers started trickling in and filling in the gaps...

...including the family from Winton in their caravan and the 'Taj Mahal' (as Rachel calls their shelter). That's theirs the blue & yellow shelter; the caravan and awning are out of sight, tucked in behind it.

Boxing Day brought a few more in...

and the 27th December was the busiest day, with plenty of new arrivals squeezing into all available spaces; caravans, motorhomes and tents of all sizes and shapes along with a few boats, plenty of children's bikes...

...and a couple of dozen very well behaved dogs....or should that be very well behaved owners who kept them on leads and under control at all times. I think one of the reasons the camp is so popular is because families can bring all their family members on holiday.

Amongst the assortment of arrivals over the last 2 weeks has been this cutie...

...and these two behemoths.

They belong to two German couples who shipped their vehicles, first to Australia for 4 months to explore the country, and then onto New Zealand for another few months.

One of the men told me they hadn't had much luck travelling 'off-road' in New Zealand- I'm not so sure they'd fit through some of the backcountry station gates or along some of the narrow gorge tracks offroad, but I gave them a few places to check out when they got to Central Otago.

The weather has been far from perfect but we have had a number of blue sky and warm sunny days. This morning was the first day we've woken up to hear rain on the roof (although we've heard it regularly on and off during the night).

And we have had quite a few grey days with passing showers, often with a cold wind blowing. It helps that the camp is tucked into a sheltered corner and often, unless you move out onto the estuary, you wouldn't know it was blowing a gale. Lets just say the weather hasn't dampened the spirits of a resilient bunch of campers.

We had a very long and relaxed Christmas Day starting with brunch and present opening in the Taj Mahal...

...followed by a mid afternoon Christmas dinner.

It was wonderful to be able to share Christmas with Ruby & Ollie although we were a little sad to be so far away from our other two grandchildren, Maddie & Joel in Tauranga.

On Boxing Day we had a lovely treat when Adam (a fellow camper) brought us over some Koura to eat.

Koura, their Maori name, as in Kaikoura (kai= food, koura= crayfish), are small freshwater crayfish that live in streams and creeks. They can be caught in small yabby traps, set similar to crayfish pots, or be enticed out from their cover by a piece of meat on a line, but Adam is a 'Southern Man', he feels for them under the water, sometimes up to his shoulder, along the banks and under the tree debris, looking for holes and crevices that they might be hiding in. 

Sometimes they'll latch onto his finger and he can retrieve them that way or he'll pull them out by a leg or the tail. It's not only koura he finds in some of the holes; I've seen a photo of him cradling, 'hugging' and laying beside (to get a size comparison) the biggest, fattest and longest eel I've seen in a long while! Bloody hell, he has nerves of steel and the 'no fear' of youth. It was possibly even bigger than the ones we saw under the jetty at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. 

Ever since we've been on the road, I've been wanting to see some Koura, I have memories of Dad taking us hunting for them out the back of Hastings when we were kids. So everytime we are near a stream or creek that looks a suitable habitat I tell David, there'll be koura in there and I have a quick scan. I'm sure he thinks I'm pulling his leg because we've yet to find any.

Adam kindly cooked the tiny crays for us...

And David showed the kids how to break their heads off and peel the tails, just like oversized prawns. They taste much the same too. Although going by the look on Ruby's face, I'm not so sure she thought they were such a good idea. But, as her Mum encourages them to try everything at least once, she gave it a go, and ended up giving them the big thumbs up too.

There were a couple of photos I didn't include in the first post on Pounawea- one of them was of the Pounawea 'Dolphin' (just for you Jenny & Robin), a historic and slightly forlorn looking structure out in the middle of the estuary 

Now 135 years old, I hope there are plans to restore the 'Dolphin' or at least stop it from keeling over (click on the photo to enlarge).

Tucked around the corner in the Owaka River estuary is an old kauri scow that has seen better days. Scows have no keel and were therefore suitable for river trading early last century, the 107 year old Portland is the last hold scow in New Zealand. Many scows were used in the Pacific during WW11 and never returned.

The Portland is privately owned although I suspect the owner would rather wish he didn't own it now. After purchasing it from another private owner he moved it down the river to where it now lays after finding much of the rotting planking fell apart as it was being moved.

To be continued...