Penguins and Bentleys

Feb. 10 - We had been told that Curio Bay was a lovely place so that’s where we ended up today. The campground is REALLY rustic, so we decided to pass on having showers (and only used the washrooms when absolutely necessary!) All the individual camp sites were surrounded on 3 sides by huge stands of flax bushes which looked very much like enormous aloe plants so maybe there’s another language issue there! Anyway, these huge bushes kept the wind off which was nice as it was freezing! The whole point of going to Curio Bay was to see the wildlife and the petrified forest. Curio Bay is actually just a small part of a larger bay called Porpoise Bay for obvious reasons. A pod of Hector’s dolphins (very small and very rare) live there as well as sea lions and rare yellow-eyed penguins - all of which we saw! The dolphins were playing as we left on the morning of Feb. 11 and a sea lion waddled down the beach just as we were about to leave. Such an expenditure of energy just to get a few yards! The evening before, we pulled on our long underwear (AGAIN!), our toques and gloves and went to the “hide” to watch the penguins come in from the sea after their day’s fishing. They all have chicks waiting for them at this time of year, but we were a bit late in the evening and the light was already fading by the time we got there. However, we did see one penguin come out of the sea and sit on the rocks preening him/herself. We could hear chicks crying piteously from the bushes where the nests are, but this particular penguin was a great deal more interested in his coiffure than his parental duties. We went for a walk around the headland in the afternoon and the waves on the rocks were quite spectacular - huge displays of spray. The petrified forest was in a little bay around the corner, 16.000.000 years old and the largest in the world. We were lucky to be there at low tide so we could see most of it and we sat on the beach and watched the waves for about ½ hour until a tour bus came along loaded with damn tourists …!!!
Feb. 11 - enough of this rustic stuff! We decided to drive to Invercargill today and set off quite early, me driving so John could take photos as we went. About 5 minutes out, a very old vintage car drove by the other way, causing John to almost tear his shorts off, trying to get his camera out. Just as he was grumbling that we’d never see anything like that again, along came another one - and another one - and on and on. We came across one that was parked so we stopped to talk to the people, a very nice English couple who spend their winters in New Zealand driving their vintage Bentley (must be nice). Anyway, they were part of the vintage Bentley association and 30 of them were driving round New Zealand, so we saw plenty more old cars. When we stopped in Invercargill for gas, he got talking to a guy with an old MGB and THEN we went to a hardware store that I had read about. It was in my guide book and I thought it would be worth a visit - and it really was. Not only is it the largest hardware store either of us have ever seen (probably covers at least ½ a city block), it probably has almost everything you could possibly want - cut glass crystal, camping equipment, saucepans, hammers, Wellington boots etc. etc. The draw card though was that it is the home of the World’s Fastest Indian. Burt Monro was born just outside Invercargill in 1899 and he was a motor bike aficionado. He raced some of the bikes that he tinkered with and in 1967 he claimed the world record for a 1000 cc bike with an average speed of 183 mph, a record which still stands. Zoe and Andy [and Mark, seeing that you had a bike!] (and anyone else interested) - there is a movie called “The World’s Fastest Indian” starring Anthony Hopkins which I think you would enjoy. I rented it for John and me a couple of years ago and didn’t tell John what it was about, so you can imagine his enthusiasm when I showed him the DVD cover! But of course he loved it! Anyway, this hardware store not only had that bike, but also lots of other old bikes, so John was in there for ages. We are staying at a civilized campground tonight and we both hit the showers almost as soon as we stopped the van! We’re off again into the wilderness tomorrow and again, not sure when we will have internet coverage. So keep checking the blog …..