Waikawa & Cathedral Caves- Catlins

 Catch-up

Our next camp on our whistle-stop tour through the Catlins was at the NZMCA Park at Waikawa just a few kilometres from Curio Bay. 

Curio Bay & the Petrified Forest

I have tried several times over the years to catch a good sunrise from Curio Bay and just as I've done in the past, I was out the gate early and up at the lookout platform well before sun up. The cloud cover didn't look promising but you never can tell what it'll do and Murphy's Law suggests that if you don't drag your butt out of bed, it'll be the most magnificent sunrise you'd have seen in weeks. 

So there I was in pre-dawn gloom patiently waiting as the cloud slowly thickened up overhead and when I finally saw a golden glow appear on the horizon I sighed in disappointment, one more Catlins sunrise covered in cloud. Although once I processed the photos they didn't look too bad. And it was my only chance, the next two days were grey & overcast.

I drove over to the Curio Bay/Porpoise Bay Headland lookout afterwards & took a few more photos as the sun rose steadily behind the cloud cover. I didn't spend too much time there though as I wanted to see if there were any Hoiho/Yellow-eyed Penguins heading out to sea for the day. I've had several fantastic encounters with Hoiho in both bays but, although I heard them calling, none made an appearance this morning.

On the way back to camp, I stopped near the middle of Porpoise Bay to check for any Hector Dolphins in the wave line. All I found this time were several Red-billed gulls doing their morning ablutions in the stream. 

So with no luck on the bird & mammal front I hunted out some inanimate subjects; the jetty at Waikawa Wharf...

...and the old boat shed.

I made one more stop on the main road as I was heading home. To take a photo looking across the Waikawa River to the NZMCA Camp. This end of the river is very popular for whitebaiting, the old caravan on the slope below the park is a fisherman's hut.  

The NZMCA Park hasn't changed too much since our first visit 7-8 years ago; the front section has been graveled to cater for the ever increasing membership and parking sites are marked out on the perimeter fence (both of these my top two per hates about our parks!). I couldn't get over how much the planted native bush had grown, you could very nearly get lost in there. And the best thing? Technology had finally come to the park courtesy of a nearby cell tower. We had no problem getting internet reception this visit. 

We headed back to Curio Bay late one afternoon picking up Fish 'n Chips from the iconic Blue Cod Caravan in the village. Unfortunately it was frozen blue cod, not fresh as I was hoping, but tasty nonetheless.  

While we waited for our order I took more photos of St Mary's Anglican Church which is opposite the caravan. I do already have photos of this church but you never know the weather could be better in this shot so I always take the opportunity of adding to my pile of church photos.

It was a lovely summer's afternoon with a lot of visitors & swimmers making the most of the waves in Porpoise Bay.

On the other side of the headland we sat on the edge of the cliff above Curio Bay & ate our fish and chips as the waves surged in and out over the rocky platform far below.

It's quite mesmerising watching the waves come & go; crashing over the rocks and spreading out in a large white frothy fans, straightening out the long tangles of bull kelp and then dragging it all back over the edge shortly afterwards. Only for it to be repeated again on the next surge.

Access to the headland between the bays is through the Curio Bay Campground, where many of the sites are tucked into clearings between thick rows of large flax. There are a handful of small sites right...

...on the edge of a small cliff overlooking Curio Bay. It's a fab site with fantastic views but I wonder how many wake in the middle of the night wondering where the heck they are and then when they remember, wondering how safe they are as they hear waves crashing in on high tide just below their vans. 

We drove to the other end of Curio Bay, to where I had come for the sunrise shot, to check if there might be any Hoiho coming home with dinner for their chicks. 

Again, we'd seen several penguins crossing the Petrified Forest platform on one of our previous visits and while we could see the guano on several of the rocky ledges, no penguins made an appearance this time, either arriving home or chicks checking for their parents return. It was going to be no Yellow-eyed Penguins for me on this visit, I hope it was just the timing and not another worrying sign of their steady decline.

From Waikawa we also did a 30km trip up the coast to visit the Cathedral Caves again. We were going to pass the caves the next day as we moved further north, but it was easier leaving the 5th-wheeler parked up at the Park than tow it into the Caves carpark. 

The carpark is at the end of a 2km narrow single lane gravel track through native bush where it's just about impossible to pass if you meet a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Having said that we were surprised to see a 5th-wheeler in the car park when we got back from the walk. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

The Cathedral Caves are open two hours before low tide & one hour after so plan well in advance if  you are wanting to visit. You can check their website for opening hours & tide times (keep in mind that internet & cell phone reception is very patchy in the Catlins). The gate is firmly shut outside open hours. 

There's a 1km walk downhill to the beach through lovely native bush...

...and then along the beach to the caves, so a reasonable fitness is required (especially for the slog back up hill afterwards). Although check this photo out! One of our neighbours at the camp made it to the caves with the help of her Zimmer frame and a very patient husband who helped push it through the sand once they were on the beach. 

Cathedral Caves are located in cliffs at the northern end of Waipati Beach, a beautiful long golden sand beach. The two sea-formed caves, whose entrances are 40 metres apart are joined at the rear and measure about 200metres in length in total. They are up to 30 metres in height.

Over tens of thousands of years, crashing waves have gouged out the cliffs of 160 million year old sandstone. Near vertical fractures in the sandstone provided weak points for the waves to slowly dismantle the sandstone faces. Over time the overhanging rocks collapsed creating the caves we see today.

On this visit we were able to get around the point of the cliffs in between the waves and onto the next beach. This was the first time this area had been accessible for a few weeks due to the rough sea conditions according to the lady looking after the carpark & ticket hut. It was obviously going by the kelp attached to the bottom of the cliffs how much time the rock wall spent under water.

Knowing that we had walked around the point as the tide was still dropping, we walked right to the far end of the beach and back.

It was a bit disconcerting to see people still rounding the point and heading off up the beach when we were jumping waves to get back to the caves on our way back. 

We spent a bit of time checking out the few rock pools, some stranded on small platforms a few meters up off the ground. This hermit crab had a very old and unusual shell that looked have had a tough life with the gaps between the ridges worn down to leave spikes. I wonder how many habitants it had had over the years. We placed this one back in his crystal clear pool, hidden under a ledge, as there were a few people  also checking out the pools and we'd disturbed him enough. 

And then it was time to head back along the beach followed by the slow haul back up the path to the carpark. 

We had one more stop for the day, back down the main road a little way and up a side road to one of the many fabulous waterfalls in the Catlins; McLean Falls. The road in is gravel with a downhill section and sharp corner towards the end above the large carpark. 

It was pleasing to see that this section was being widened and the sharp corner cut off to allow bigger vehicles to easily drive in. You can tow your caravans & 5th-wheelers in there now without worrying about getting back out. We found out from the stop/go guy that quite a number of tour buses had been having issues climbing back up the hill around the sharp corner.

One thing I remember vividly of the falls on our first visit to the Catlins- which was also one of first areas we visited when we came to the South Island (and not long after we hit the road fulltime)- was the luxuriant & intense green ferns & mosses that carpeted the forest floor and draped off every available branch overhead as we walked to the falls.    

I can confirm that nothing has changed. The walk & the falls were just as I remembered them, none of the gloss had diminished even though I've now seen & photographed many, many more waterfalls & bush walks.

McLean Falls, Catlins

And with not many tourists visiting I had to be quick to capture this shot with some people in it to give the falls some perspective. You can also see why photographers enjoy slow shutter speeds when shooting water.

Revisiting The Catlins

Catch-up

With a dose of cabin-fever threatening after nearly two weeks of inclement weather and the forecast promising sun on the horizon, we decided it was time to leave Invercargill. 

Originally we'd planned to head to one of our favourite places, Mavora Lakes, for a couple of weeks but with no internet & a 20km drive to make a connection, we decided we'd head east to the Catlins for another visit instead. Not having the internet wouldn't usually have worried us but during the busy holiday season we needed to be available should anything urgent happen at the cottages.

Fortrose Bluff- where the wind does blow

This would be our fourth visit to the Catlins so you'd think we'd have seen it all by now especially as the previous visits were for several weeks at a time. But I had a few camping sites on the radar, ones that we hadn't stayed at before, & also a few favourite places to revisit.

Toetoe Bay from Fortrose Bluff

Our first port of call was the freedom camping area at Fortrose, right on the edge of Toetoe Harbour, a large estuary and where the mighty Mataura River ends its journey. We've always stopped here for lunch on our way in or out of the Catlins, never staying overnight as our destination (Winton or Invercargill) isn't too far away. 

I'm always fascinated by the dozens of whitebait huts that line the Mataura and the smaller Titiroa Stream, not so much by the huts themselves (although one day I'm going to walk the river bank and photograph every one of them!) but the way the rivers meander back and forth several times before reaching the estuary. And the huts of course do the same so when you look across the river flats lots of  tiny sheds dot the landscape (check it out by clicking the photo to enlarge).

There's a two night maximum stay at Fortrose, the first night we had to ourselves, the second night there were a few more campers as it was the beginning of the weekend. It's nothing like it used to be though, before Covid closed the borders. Then there were dozens & dozens of campers here every night. 

We settled in overlooking the estuary on another gloomy day but by mid afternoon and as promised by the forecasters, the sun finally came out and so did a local rider, conveniently photobombing my shot as I prepared to take photos of the spoonbills.

A flock of fourteen or so Royal Spoonbills spent most of the incoming & outgoing tides sweeping back and forward in the shallow waters along the shoreline, not taking much notice of me creeping along in the mud beside them, and only disappearing  once the tide was fully in.

I love how they move in unison and in line, like mine sweepers moving their bills back and forward through the water as they slowly move forward. I'm guessing any small fish or crustacean disturbed by one flees into the bill of the one next door. 

The odd bird out was a rusty coloured female with no topknot (top right- she was always with a bigger plumed male). I've not seen any this dirty looking before, I'm not sure whether it's natural or she's been feeding in some tannin stained waters somewhere.

And the sun sets on another day....

Fortrose Sunset

While at Fortrose I took myself on a tiki-tour to visit Waipapa Point and Slope Point again, both are at the south end of the Catlins; David having seen it all before decided to have the afternoon off. 

Waipapa Lighthouse

Waipapa Point is a favourite of mine, there's plenty to take photos of; the lighthouse, sealions, shorebirds, including- if you're lucky- Hoiho/Yellow-eyed Penguins and the famous wind-blown macracapa trees.

And it makes it far more interesting when you have an unusual cloud formation above the lighthouse. 

One day I might make it here when the Southern Lights are playing, this is another great place to view Lady Aurora and photograph her with the lighthouse in the foreground.  

The beach below the lighthouse is a popular haul out pad for Sealions/Whakahao, today there is just one big boy snoozing on the sand and looking like a large clump of seaweed. On one of my previous visits there were five or six sealions on the sand and at least two dozen tourists vying for a place to photograph them without getting too close.

Today there's just me and him and he takes no notice of me. Although I saw him open one eye very slowly when a seagull landed close by.

I head up the beach checking for hoiho/penguins, it's where we saw one on our last visit. It came waddling out of the breakers and headed up into the dunes. It was just before their moult and it was probably looking for a safe haven to shelter in while it went through a rather traumatic time of the year for them.  

I didn't see any penguins this time but enjoyed beachcombing and taking photos of all the different seaweeds that had been thrown up in the recent rough seas. 

A pair of Variable Oystercatchers (who were nesting on the last visit, if they are the same pair) were also running along the froth line checking for food & treats thrown up by the sea. I thought this was a shellfish that he was stabbing & whacking on the stones but it was one of those tuber  things in the photo above.

The Black-fronted Terns/Tara had mostly finished looking after their chicks with only one or two fledglings in the flock; this one was squawking very loudly for some food. I like how all the others pretend it isn't there.

A family had arrived on the beach when I got back to the sealion, they stayed on the rocks...

...while another visitor was warily taking photos of the sleeping sealion from the sand. His girlfriend wasn't having a bar of going down to see it no matter how many times he called out to her. She said she'd be quite fine standing up on the dunes. It's great to see people giving the sealions their space although unless they are in a boisterous mood they are usually quite harmless while sleeping as long as you keep a respectable distance (10 metres) from them. 

I leave the lighthouse & sealion behind and walk the loop track back to the carpark via the old lighthouse keepers house site. 

But it's not the site I'm keen to see (that's just a small overgrown concrete pad, the house long gone) it's the square of macrocapa trees that once sheltered the house from the ferocious southerly winds that blow in here straight out of the Antarctic. They have grown into a strangely stunted & twisted row of trees. 

I smile when I see this photo; the trees look like a row of ladies baring their bottoms after having their skirts blow up over their heads!

From Waipapa Point I head north towards Slope Point which is actually the southernmost point of the South Island. Weird I know but it's because the South Island is on a slight angle. Before I get there though I take a side road to what was once a favourite freedom camping site of ours; Weir Beach.

And I'm pleasantly surprised to see the reserve looking very much like it used to; not over run with dozens of vehicles and people. Selfish I know, but things were changing before Covid, and mostly in a bad way for many camp sites with no restrictions and not enough resources to support the huge influx of visitors.

I carry on down the road to Slope Point and follow the 20 minute track across farmland  to the sign post dodging huge piles of sheep poo along the way. Who knew they could do such monster deposits! I worried for the guy I saw walking in bare feet, actually I worried for his sheets that night if he didn't wash his feet! And then there was the girl in high heel shoes...... 

The cliffs around Slope Point are very scary; high and dangerous if you get too close as they drop away into the wild surf directly below. Although when the sea is rough it's quite exhilarating watching the waves crash in on the rocks and the surge push in through a narrow gap in the land.

Slope Point done & dusted.... for a third time! David would say to me 'Why do you need to walk there again, you've already been twice?'  I'd answer, 'Because I have to, can't come that far and not do the walk'. 

Just like I have to drive further on down the road to check out the sea caves under the Point, but the tide's in and they don't show so much this time.

So I make do with a rocky point that takes in the view looking south (and I hear my mother telling me not to get too close to the edge). It is a long way down, I can imagine a few people standing out there and taking selfies for Instagram.

It's time to head for home before I do do something that needs a search party call out. 

Although it's a slow trip home because there's something like 15kms of 30kph road works and nobody working! They're doing (or were doing until they called it quits for the weekend) the road edges and vehicles are passing me at full speed.  Who leaves all the signs up when there are really no hazards other than speeding vehicles? 1 or 2kms would be fine but not 15!