Sunday, 31st December 2017
Today it’s the last day of the year and we spent it with Kim (Ralph and Eve’s daughter) and Murray, her husband. They were taking us for a drive to Oamaru and then onto Moeraki to view the boulders laying around on the beach.
Kim and Murray picked us up round 9.30 am and driving through Dunedin, Gerry was reminded of his years that he lived in Dunedin. The first sight he had was of King Edward Technical College and he immediately wanted to get out of the car to take a picture but he was stopped by Kim as she made him aware that this would be on tomorrow’s tour with her parents – that was the Down Memory Lane Tour!
We had a pleasant drive through the hills, and although the weather was wet, the luscious emerald green meadows and clusters of fir trees along the road were a great sight to watch. After about an hour on a scenic route, we arrived in Oamaru – a seaside town which has caught on the uniqueness of being so Victorian. Down by the harbour, the Victoria Precinct is a treasure trove of once neglected buildings now filled with offbeat galleries, fascinating shops and other hip venues and museums.
In order to escape the rain, we visited a the Steampunk HQ – a museum which imaginatively up cycled ancient machines and industrial clatter of the last century.Oamaru is an ideal setting for Steampunk art and activities, given the wonderfully preserved and thriving Victorian buildings. Examples are machines like those in the writing of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and in tv shows such as Dr. Who.
The building was originally called Meeks Grain Elevator and was built in 1883. Oamaru was at that time a flourishing sea port, and bigger than Los Angeles.
After walking along the market and the coastline, we made our way back to the car to continue our drive. The next stop was at Moeraki – a Maori name meaning “a place to sleep by day” – which gave us a clue as to the pace of this little fishing village. This was one of the first European settlements in New Zealand. The reason we were here was to see the huge boulders lying off the beach. These are a large collection of spherical boulders scattered along the beach. Normally these boulders are best viewed when the tide is low, however when we got there, it was high tide and in no time, we were quite wet! But none the less we enjoyed exploring these boulders.
According to Maori legend, the Moeraki boulders were once food baskets and gourds used by ancient people aboard a famous canoe. When the canoe crashed, however, its survivors were transformed into the area’s surrounding hills, while the baskets and gourds became these gray, round boulders.
Scientists, on the other hand, offer a different idea as to how these curiously round rocks came to be. Millions of years ago, the rocks were hidden inside the area’s cliffs, but as erosion occurred, they were gradually revealed. Essentially, the sandstone-type rock was held together with calcium carbonate, while an extremely slow chemical reaction gave them their unique roundness. Finally, after about 60 million years, the stones became the fantastic landmarks they are today.
Finally back on dry land but completely soaked, it was time to have a bite to eat so we headed to Hampden for the “world’s best fish and chips”.
This little fishing village is famous for its blue cod fishing and in fact the taste of our fried blue cod was heavenly! It had stopped raining by now, so we could sit outside and enjoy our meal and Gerry could enjoy his “puff” – smoking his rolled cigarette! Here in NZ, it is ever so difficult to find places where smoking is allowed and it sometimes seems that Gerry is being isolated from the rest of the public…
Once we were feeling much better after our delicious meal, we made our way back to Moeraki and headed north to visit the Kaiks Wildlife trail which led to a lovely little white wooden lighthouse at the edge of the cliff. Katiki Point Lighthouse (built in 1878) stands on Katiki Point Historic Reserve.
The lighthouse keeper’s house is used as a private rehabilitation centre for sick and injured penguins and other birds. The centre is run by Katiki Point Penguin Trust. The trust and its volunteers protect penguins from predation by trapping feral cats, ferrets and stoats.
From here, we walked towards the cliff edge and looking down to the beach, we spotted a number of seals lazing on the beach while the huge waves beat against the rocks. I was really thrilled to see these seals and started taking pictures of them, but Kim spotted a whole load more seals just lazing around on another beach and on the cliffs. This was so incredible – we were walking among all these seals and they just lifted their heads out of curiosity and then just went back to lazing around. We also spotted a number of seals swimming gracefully in the waves and then just as we were walking back, we also spotted a family of yellow eyed penguins. This was such an amazing experience………
