The Catlines
The Catlines area follows the southern coast line. Most of it is a wild beach populated by penguins, dolphins, seals, sea lions and birds. As you drive through it every now and then there's a sign: waterfalls/caves/rocky beach, etc. You can chose if you want to stop and where. Even if you don't stop the simple drive is beautiful. Our destination was curio bay camp-site. Someone told us it's possible to see dolphins from the tent. The powerful Tasman sea accompanied us on our way with diverse beaches, sometimes they were yellow sand ones with seals scattered all around them, lying in deep after noon sleep. At other times they were lined by humongous black rocks with water splashing over them and sea weeds (kelp) dancing beside.
As disciplined tourist we didn't miss the "Slope Point". This point is considered the southern most point of the South Island. Not unique in anyway (beautiful a all else) it's a hot touristic destination. 2o minutes walk to see a sign-post stating that: "5190 km to the north is the Equator, 4080 km to the left is the southern pole". We took the unavoidable picture and headed back.
Another stop along the road was Jack's Blow Hole. It's a twenty minutes walk up a hill to see - a hole. It's 200 meters from the sea and about 140 meters above it, an opening in the cliff revealing a tunnel carved by the sea. It's like being on a whales blow hole - therefor the name.
We got to Curio bay afternoon the campsite is situated on a rocky ridge that penetrates the sea. On one side of this ridge you can see dolphins jumping in the sea just as promised. On the other side resides a penguin colony. If you wait long enough at sunset hours you might see them come out of the water.
We chose the best spot we could find and put up our tent. Searching the horizon for dolphins, we suddenly saw a seal coming out of the water, walking on his fins, just like a satisfied dog. every few steps he would stop for a rest, roll over on his back and scratch itself with its fins. Surprisingly he decided to cross the boarded between wildlife's area and man's, He came up to the campground completely ignoring the "no dogs" sign.
As he got up he found a gathering of people staring him, and started chasing them and growling. The doc signs all around warned that the seals can be aggressive and one should keep a safe distance of 10 meters. Considerably a hard task to follow when this pretty fast seal is chasing you. At that point we still couldn't decide whether he is playing or attacking and tried to keep the safe distance as ordered as much as possible.
Later that evening after we waited in the cold and saw only one member of the penguin colony, we heard a rumor that the seal is still touring around the campground.
One couple was sitting in the kitchen with the door closed after that the seal stopped them from approaching their tent, Daniel tried to get into the kitchen. They didn't let him in. He knocked - they ignored. Finally they opened the door relived to see a human being. "We though you were the seal" they said in horror. They were planning to sleep in the car if he won't move. The whole camp was terrorised by the seal.
We weren't worried. Our tent was in an area encircled with thick bush and as a consequence we felt rather safe. We started to make coffee when we heard a noise coming from the bush. We thought it's a rabbit. Daniel aimed the flash light towards the noise - it got quiet. We continued to make coffee and forgot about the noise. Then we heard it again. This time when Daniel aimed the flash light we saw a big fin moving in the bush, followed by a puzzled looking face of a seal. We drank the coffee in the car.
The night was quiet, or at least we think it was - we slept like rocks. The next morning we were eating breakfast finally seeing the promised dolphins playing in the waves. The seal was no where to be found. We wondered if he was back in the sea and we might be able to see him there, when suddenly we heard a noise in the bush. It was the seal and he joined us for breakfast. This time we discovered he is really quite friendly. He was sitting near us, rolling on his back like a dog, reminding hilly of Roma, clapping his fins, enjoying the sun and minding his own business. Now that's a way to start your day - breakfast with a seal. No less!
We continued on our way, Touring the Catlines through the touristic "must" points, and through some unknown points. The breakfast with the seal was the highlight of that day.