YEPs Of Katiki Point

Yellow-eyed penguins. Lighthouse-keepers of yore nurtured a colony of the rare birds, and the Department of Conservation has taken over, providing a blind for visitors to use to view them. We did this sort of thing five years ago, on the south coast, watching the birds swim onto the shore, pause a bit to acclimate, and then head for their nests to feed their mates and young. Still a thrill to see them in the wild!

Seals everywhere...no blind needed

Hard night's day

It's early, only 5:30, but some are coming ashore...we're in
luck

Thus

And thus

And thus

Moeraki Lighthouse...all in all, it was a pretty good day...
rock art, Oamaru, Moeraki Boulders, and YEPs...we drove
a bit further on, to Palmerston South, and spent the night
in a motel there

Moeraki Boulders

The Moeraki Boulders are large spherical concretions littering the low-tide beach near Kaiki Point, between Oamaru and Dunedin. They began forming some 55 million years ago--lime has something to do with it--and are appearing now due to the general uplift of the islands and local erosion. They look like so many giant marbles scattered around on the beach, many more than meter in diameter, and they apparently elicit strange behaviors on the parts of some visitors.

Oamaru

For us, the chief attraction of Oamaru was its limestone architecture--some interesting neo-classical stuff--but we found much else of interest too. Oamaru is on the east coast of the South Island, about half-way down, an older colonial settlement but with much earlier Maori habitation too. We walked about for an hour or two, then moved on, before I was really ready. The old time and tide thing, and the Moeraki Boulders...

The local limestone--Oamaru stone--lent itself to architects,
builders, sculptors, and others in the latter 19th century

Library

Interesting inscription

Forests of acanthus leaves...lots of the buildings had
Corinthian columns

Thus

More ornate limestone

More than a few of the Oamaruvians (!) were of interest
too

Here we learned much about the advanced state of home-
brewing and -distilling in New Zealand

Thus

But Steampunk (look it up) was our real
discovery in Oamaru ("that's news to me"
department)

Thus

And thus

Very interesting little town...but we didn't want to miss the
boulders at low tide, and had to move on...

Takiroa Rock Art

Next morning we continued southeast toward the coast and Oamaru (not Omarama), stopping to examine the Maori rock art at Takiroa. OK, it's not Lascaux, and certainly not very old, but nonetheless interesting. After ascertaining there was no cafe nor gift shoppe, we drove on.

Limestone cliff now; we'll see much more limestone in Oamaru

Bird (on left)

Sea serpent

Your guess...

See below for interpretation

More reminiscent of the rock art we saw in Scandinavia...but
much younger

Clay Cliffs of Omarama

We drove on from Mt. Cook, south, through Twizel (not as in Twizzlers), stopping at the so-called Clay Cliffs, on the Ahuriri River. The Clay Cliffs are billed as similar to the American Badlands. They are indeed similar, if quite limited in extent. Sensing that there would be no Wall Drug nor jackalopes, not even a Corn Palace, not even a rattlesnake, we snapped a few pix and drove on, camping at a free DOC site on the river.

The beautiful, clear, fast-flowing Ahuriri--there are browns
and rainbows in them thar waters

Clay Cliffs

Closer up

Ditto

Mt. Cook, 2

We spent parts of 3 days in the Mt. Cook area, driving, hiking, visiting the museum and visitor center, watching the movies, etc. It's a pretty spectacular alpine place.

Another day, on Lake Pukaki, looking toward Mt. Cook, now
in a total white-out of wind, rain, blowing snow...

At the Hillary Alpine Center

Tenzing and Hillary, from a photo in the museum; the best
bit of the museum is the 105-minute Hillary film, his life,
narrated by no less than Ian McKellen; an equally good film,
on all aspects of Mt. Cook--geology, history, climbing
history, tourism, environmental issues, etc.--is at the
Department of Conservation visitor center; really superb

We weathered the storm--torrential rain mostly--at the Mt.
Cook backapacka

Next day...fine weather again

Mt. Cook, again

Fine enough weather for another walk, this time up to Lake
Tasman, at the end of Mt. Cook's Tasman Glacier

Thus; Lake Tasman was not there, 20-30 years ago, starting
then as a pot-hole, then melting the glacier from beneath; it's
now 2-3 kilometers in length, and growing

Closer up of lake and glacier, and icebergs

Closer up of Mt. Cook summit ridge, a horrific kilometer-
long knife-edge of snow and ice; from southeast

Thus; OK, it's not actually my photo

Us at Lake Tasman

Looking back to the huge out-wash plain leading down to
Lake Pukaki

Last look at the big mountain and it beautiful turquoise lake