As the sun came up this morning we had the first proper look at the van in daylight (we arrived in the dark last night after our penguin spotting at dusk)…it had paid the price for our back country driving!
Our last stop on The Catlins section of the Southern Scenic Route was at Surat Bay, a place well known for seeing the rare hooker sea lion on the beach. We set off on the well marked track through the sand dunes to the beach.
The path through the dunes was deserted, or so we thought! As we pressed on further Ben, who was leading the way suddenly stopped, no more than an arms length away was a sleeping 400kg hooker sea lion. We backed up slowly, and Ben then ventured back for a picture…or two. The advice given is to stay as far back as possible, getting no nearer than 10 metres…so to find ourselves standing next to this giant was a shock!
It had never crossed our minds that these huge creatures would leave the beach! As we thought through our next move (as the track was impassable) we watched in awe at the sleepy beauty. When it heard Ben walking through the grass and looked up, our hearts stopped, and we were ready to run (as they chase you)…but it just went back to sleep!
We did the sensible thing and walked back to the start of the track…and then decided to take the beach route, after all, if they are all sleeping in the dunes, the beach should be empty?!
How wrong could we be…as Nicola, who was walking a few feet from the waters edge soon discovered we were not alone! A large NZ fur seal snorted and reared out of the water, she ran, and Ben stopped for a photo!! These smaller, more friendly looking creatures are also known to chase you!!
Walking back along the beach (yes we had given up on this route as well) we thought our adventure was over…until we saw another huge hooker sea lion asleep in the dunes next to the beach. Talk about a fun packed morning…are you ready for this Tracy, better bring some running shoes ;-)!!
Back in the van we drove to Cannibal Bay, another location where hooker sea lions are often seen on the beach. This place however, was safer as you had the whole beach to wander along rather than being confined to the dunes. Needless to say we didn’t see any…only their tracks leading into the dunes.
After a coffee we jumped in the van and drove through to Dunedin, our stop for the next 4 nights.
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