Southern Scenic Route Continued... (Dolphins, Penguins, and Waterfalls - Oh my!)

DAY 4

After a night in Southern Comfort, which was a hostel with a very homey feel, we left Invercargill (just after the rains stopped - woohoo) to continue our journey on the Southern Scenic Route. We managed to leave the sprawl of the city and find ourselves back in fields once again. More sheep, more cows, more sheep, more horses, and then some more sheep. I found that I quite enjoy watching the sheep as we pass by... sometimes I even say hello and watch their reaction (I'm sure I learned this odd behavior from my mom). Anyway, some sheep simply look at me with their head cocked as if to say "say what", others sort of look up but continue munching without paying a lot of attention to me, others ignore me altogether, and some bolt in the opposite direction (sheep look quite funny running on their stubbly little legs).

Soon we could see slight shades of hills in the distance beyond the fields and after a little bit longer, we were in the midst of rolling fields... covered in a patchwork of greens with clumps of trees springing up here and there, and lots of little white dots (yup... more sheep). A few streams started running along our path as well and in the distance, the hills were covered with trees once again.

We saw the coast once again when we hit Fortrose and decided to stop for lunch. Our lunch was breif because as we munched on our cheese sandwhiches, the sand flies were munching on tired legs (yikes!). We quickly got back on our bikes and took the inland route to Curio Bay, which is a little longer than the coastal route, but doesn't have any gravel. We stopped with about 10km to go to see NZ's version of Niagra Falls... someone had a sense of humor, because these falls would barely classify as a ripple in the river to most people. We reluctantly got on our bikes after this stop and trudged our way through the last 10km... it had been a long day for us. After a few more ups and downs we arrived at Curio Bay.

Before setting up camp, we went for a swim in the neighboring Porpoise Bay to cool off and look for dolphins. Hector dolphins, which we found out are native to NZ and have a population of less than 8,000, are known to love this area. As we were walking out in the large waves, we saw a dolphin catch a wave directly in front of us... the dolphin glided along with the water and we got a wonderful front view of its grey and white body until he disappeared under water with the wave... we then saw several more dolphins playing a short distance away. When the water finally turned our lips blue, we said goodbye to the dolphins and went to our nearby camp to set up and have some dinner. Our campsite sat on a cliff overlooking a large rocky platform below and the roaring ocean. Turns out the large rocky platform was a petrified forest of fallen trees from over 170 million years ago. We took an evening stroll down through the fossil forest and walked among the stone logs and stumps. As we were looking at the incredibly old etches of trees in disbelief, we saw a Yellow-eyed penguin walking in the forest along with us... only about 100m away. He was flapping his wings, cleaning himself off, and waddling about. We were told to leave the forest since the penguins were out and went to a platform above where we watched this penguin and his friend waddle around. Not bad for evening entertainment. When the sunlight began to fade, we wandered back to our campsite to enjoy another lullaby from the ocean entitled "thrashing waves on petrified forest".

We woke up this morning to the start of a rainstorm :o( It took a lot of motivation to go out in the chilly rain and begin to get packed and ready for a day of wet cycling. However, after whining a bit, we finally got on our bikes and headed out of Curio Bay back to join the Southern Scenic Route again. When we turned onto the main road, we saw a sign with a squiggly arrow and 56km written below it. These signs indicate a windy road, but our experience in NZ tells us that a windy road also means a hilly road (oh dear). We did, in fact, spend most of the day going up then down... then up then down... then way up and way down, etc. etc. However, we were now passing through the wooded hills that loomed in the distance the day before. To both sides, the road was lined with ferns, grasses, small plants, shrubs, and large trees with leafs of assorted shapes and sizes. We passed sign after sign indicating stretches of scenic reserves... and our route was truly scenic. Even in the rain, the smells of the forest permeated the air as if we were going through a garden in springtime. It was hard to let the wet and hilly day get us down with a path like this. To top it off, the cars continued to be sparse... we often had the road all to ourselves for long intervals.

We stopped in Papatowai for lunch at the one store in "town". Our legs enjoyed the break and our tummies took in heaps of fuel. As we began to chill in the rain and look at the hilly ride ahead of us, we pondered calling it an early day and finding a dry place to read, but we finally decided to go to the next town (30 more km away).

We were happy we continued on... despite another large climb. The rainclouds soon lifted and the sun began to peer out at us. Along the way we stopped to walk down a path where we saw two splendid sets of waterfalls... one set of three drizzling falls that flowed down to another gushing waterfall. We then continued along through the forested hills and soon came out to more rolling fields of farms and sheep (of course)... eventually we rolled into the tiny town of Owaka. Here, we found a cute hostel where we can dry out our soggy selves and spend a night sheltered from the rain that has started to come down once again. Hopefully tomorrow will be dry, but another rainy day with beautiful rolling hills wouldn't be so bad either.