Haldane Estuary

We make a little drive to Curio Bay

Where there’s the petrified forest, this for example is a petrified tree stump

And this part of a tree trunk

Another fossil, oh no, that’s me

Lots of this green moss (?) here

And seagulls

And more petrified trees like this long trunk

I love how the waves keep smashing on the rocks

And taking photos

Poor birds, one with only 1 leg, another one with no legs

Just north of Curio Bay there’s something relatively new: the ‘Living Forest walkway’, the Kiwis want to make it clear to visitors that unlike the petrified forest on the beach, this walk is through a bit of forest that is actually living. I’m so glad they mention it’s a living forest because otherwise I would never have realised this!

Kiwis are notoriously terrible when it comes to signs. Take this one. When you arrive at the start of the Living Forest walkway, you are not greeted by a sign that tells you something meaningful like how long said walkway is, noooo, it tells you how long you have just walked from eg the Visitor Centre, as if that information is of any use!

Anyway, this is part of the walkway, the whole thing takes about half an hour and is as interesting as walking in any other forest, provided it’s a living forest, not a dead one!

We decide to actually camp here at the Curio Bay campsite, it costs a bit but does come with an awesome view

We deicde to walk around some more around the bay

The weather is great and so are the views

Rachel with Porpoise Bay in the background

Lots of seaweed

Good amenities here

The weather is no nice that we decide to go for a swim, the water is cold though so I just quickly dived in and got out again, Rachel is just getting out of the water in the distance

Of course the moment we really want sunshine to dry off after our dive in the water clouds drift in and the sun is gone

And it doesn’t stop there, the weather seems to take a turn for the worse now

At least I still got a glimpse of the very rare Yellow-eyed penguin