Curio-Bay

6th December 2009 We are currently exploring the Catlins, supposedly a wonderful place for independent wildlife-watching. After our penguin experience last night, we were hoping for more encounters today, and we certainly weren’t disappointed. First thing this morning we decided to go up to the headland overlooking both Porpoise and Curio Bays to enjoy our breakfast, rather than sit in the campsite. While we were up there, I looked out of the doorway to the van, out to sea and saw a flipper, then a tail. There was a whale, right there out in the bay, a fair way off shore, but close enough that you could see what it was! Wow, just amazing to see one completely in the wild and completely by chance. ...

5th December 2009 This morning we visited the Anderson Park Art Gallery which was just a ten minute drive from our campsite. This is a wonderful art gallery housed in a grand, 1925 Georgian-style manor which itself is set in some delightful landscaped gardens. We started by exploring the grounds, including the 70 year old Monkey Puzzle tree, the bridge over the duck pond and the miniature rose garden. After a walk through native woodland which although it looks like it’s been there forever, was actually planted, we came to the back of the house and a wharepuni (Maori sleeping house) where one of the owner’s daughters was married in the 1930s. ...