Whiskers galore, fab Fleur and little Blues!

1st March

March started with A Wow day!  

Went to the North end of the Catlins first of all. Beautiful and deserted beaches and lots of young seals lolling on the rocks and playing in the sea. We were able to get pretty close, within a few metres today. Could see their long whiskers and watched in fascination as one of them scratched his nose. Hadn't realised that they have long "claws" at the end of their flippers. 

Fur seal

Then on to a long and fantastic lunch at Fleurs Place in Moeraki. Guess this is a non commercialised version of Padstow. Rik Stein has been to Fleurs Place and loved it and we completely understand why. Moeraki is a tiny fishing village with an active fishing fleet. Fleur specialises in fish (though meat is also on the menu) and she serves whatever came in on the boats that morning. We had a shared plate of the fresh fish of the day and steamed vegetables and it was gorgeous! All in a very quirky little building with Fleur herself overseeing the action. Busy place, serving all day and into the evening yet a very relaxed atmosphere. Huge thanks to Bruce Blomfield for recommending this place.

Selection of fresh fish

retro hand cooler in the loo!

Fleur herself

Our next stop was at a group of curious spherical boulders in the sea just up the road from Fleurs. We needed the walk on the beach and the boulders were interesting! The Maori legend is that they were baskets of food sent in by the gods but there is a more complicated geological explanation! Suffice to say that these malteser shaped rocks have been around for a while and more may form over time. 

The boulders

Boulders close up

Boulders when they crack

Mags in a boulder

Great day thus far but it was to get even better. In the evening we put on lots of clothing and went and sat in a cold, open air stadium by the sea in Oamaru. Just as dark was descending, groups of tiny (about 10" high) blue penguins came waddling out of the sea and up the rocks to their nesting boxes. They are so cute! This is a conservation project which has succeeded in increasing the breeding numbers have four fold over the past few years. These tiny penguins can live up to about 19 years old. They come back every night, relying on their hearing to find their way to their nest. We were only able to see them as there were sodium lights which the penguins can't see, so as far as they were concerned it was pitch black! Unfortunately no cameras allowed so the picture below is from a commercial source.

 

We'd been to see blue (or fairy) penguins before in Australia but this time the nests were much closer and the noise the penguins made was incredible! A sort of mix of baby cries and snoring. 

Fantastic day with lots of wonderful things to see and eat.