Little Blue Penguins & Black Backed Gulls- Moturata Island

Today we walked out to Moturata Island just off shore from the Taieri River mouth to see what birds were making the island home.  It's the nesting season on the island & it's a very sensitive area so we were well aware that we had to take our time & try not to disturb the birds too much. The island is only accessible at low tide and only for about 40 minutes either side so our timing had to be precise. The waves start rolling back in and over the sand spit spilling into the river very quickly once the tide turns. We didn't want to get caught out over there like a family staying at the campground did last summer. They had to be rescued by local boats after dark & then only because someone on the shore heard cries for help.

To give us plenty of time we left for the island two hours before low tide and had to wade through shin deep water for quite a way but at least we knew we'd have plenty of time.

Once near the island we could see that most of the rocky cliffs contained dozens & dozens of Black Backed Gulls (Karoro) and their fluffy grey chicks of varying sizes. The chicks were everywhere and very well camouflaged but if we stayed still long enough we'd catch them moving. There were quite a few down at ground level, maybe they've fallen off their rocky ledge at some stage.

We found a couple of Little Blue Penguins(Korora) under some rocks and in a burrow nesting, there were signs everywhere that there were plenty of penguins about. And it didn't take us long to find these Little Blue in a rocky crevasse, seven in total, what a treat! They didn't seem to be at all perturbed that we were peering in at them. None looked like they were nesting (just resting) so I took the opportunity of grabbing a few shots before leaving them in peace. A couple had a brown tinge to their feathers & I need to do some research to see if perhaps they were juveniles.

We found a stoney alcove away from the noisy gulls & where we weren't disturbing the birds to have lunch before leaving for the mainland well in advance of the incoming tide.

Taieri Mouth

We left Moeraki with no particular plan in mind although we knew we didn’t want to travel too far south. It would seem about 100kms, give or take, a day is doing us just fine. We decided we didn’t need to stop in Dunedin either, big cities have no appeal at the moment & that's probably because we know we’ll be back to explore the city & Otago Peninsula at some time during our travels down here. It's also the wrong time of the year to catch up with my nephew Zak who is at Otago University, his exams are long finished & he’s gone home to Whangarei for the long summer break. We followed SH1 through town and out the other end. Dundein looks like a lovely city & I’ll definitely have to go back to take a photo of that magnificent railway station building.

We then took the scenic detour through Brighton and along the coast road stopping at a reserve for lunch in the quaint & sleepy little fishing village of Tairei Mouth on the banks of the Tairei River.

Other than a couple of fishermen on the edge of the river fishing for salmon & sea run trout & a family having fun on their sea biscuit there wasn't a soul in sight. A very peaceful spot.

After lunch we headed off to Waihola Lake about 12kms inland & a campground there that had been recommended to us by someone we’d met at Moeraki. When we got there we didn’t feel totally happy with the campground or the lake (although it looked great for bird watching). Maybe it had to do with it being a dull and overcast day but we just didn’t get a good vibe about the area, we also had a look at a NZMCA POP(Park over Property) which was in a good spot but would not have had enough room for our rig. So we made an executive decision to return to Taieri Mouth & the camp ground we knew was there but hadn’t seen on our earlier stop. There was a POP just beside the reserve where we’d had lunch but it too was a little small & compact for our liking.

So that's where we have been for the last 3 nights, parked up at the Taieri Mouth Motor Camp, a delightful old school campground. Pretty rustic with clean but basic facilities & we’re loving it. There are a few semi-permanents on the top level including the owner’s van & her henhouse with a brood of Chinese Silkies chooks, and us on the lower level along with a few vans parked up for the winter. Every night 3 or 4 travelling hire motorhomes pull in for the night but are gone early in the morning. We are enjoying the slower pace.

 Down a track from the top level this beautiful white sand beach and Moturata Island which can be walked to at low tide.

David went fishing Sunday afternoon, he caught a couple of small fish but nothing to write home about. While he fished I went for a wander up the beach around the point & down the river to where we’d had lunch at the reserve. I then walked back to the campground via the road taking a few photos along the way.

The bull kelp arrives on the white sand in huge clumps looking like a large bunch of hair. This little dog & his black & white mate were having a ball racing along the beach all by themselves. David said they’d been around all afternoon so we guessed they must live nearby. And in fact we saw them both again today, way, way down the beach having fun by themselves in the waves. The dune scrub had yellow lupins & these very tall flower spikes.

Some quaint & quirky shots around the village. My first real life crib (well with the name crib on it anyway) A crib is was Southerners call their baches, a bach is what most of New Zealand call their holiday homes. Not your fancy pants, flash holiday homes with all the mod-cons, a bach is a small rustic holiday home filled with left over, old, worn & "tossed out of the big house" furniture, 1960s kitchen kitsch, old magazines from decades ago, blackened & wonky BBQs, striped canvas deckchairs & sand, lots of sand! It's where you go to relax and enjoy the summer.

The wharf had an assortment of boats and stacks of crab & crayfish pots. I love Kiwi ingenuity, when you need a cab on your tractor to keep out the winter chills, you build it! And that hedge looks like it's been cut to within a inch of it's life!

Yes, life at Taieri Mouth runs at a much slower pace than elsewhere. Just the place to come back to & stop awhile longer.