|
|
|
|
|
Are you curious about Curio Bay - the site of one of the world's finest fossil forests which are more than 170 million years old?
It's located in the Catlins area, southeast of South Island in New Zealand. |
The Southern Scenic Route (icon - a red triangle), linking Dunedin, Catlins, Invercargill and Te Anau, unlocks many of Southland and South Otago's secrets.
|
Florence Hill Lookout is the perfect point to view Long Point and Tautuku Beach.
Drive slowly, you will find many hidden spots off the side roads along the Coastal Route. |
Slope Point is the southernmost point of the South Island, part of Catlins Coastal Heritage Trail.
|
The lighthouse at Waipapa Point was automated in 1976.
The Waipapa Reef was the scene of New Zealand's worst civilian maritime disaster in 1881 when the ship sank with the loss of 131 lives. |
sandy tranquil beach at Waipapa Point
|
Enjoy your recreational fishing along the coast! But remember the fishing rules:
Only those people physically involved in taking paua are entitled to claim a catch within the daily limit of 10. It is an offence to sell or trade your catch. |
Can you imagine in a time before birds and flowering plants existed, a lush forest grew here - Curio Bay?
|
Petrified stumps, fallen trees and fern imprints from the Jurassic perios are more than 170 million years old.
Tuatara, the New Zealand unique animal is one of the few living relics to have survived from the Jurassic era when the fossil forest formed. |
Like a forensic investigator, scientists built a picture of a scene no person witnessed. They looked at the position and type of wood, the fossilied leaves, and digging up nearby farmland, where more fossil wood still lies.
|
Unlike animal fossils, petrified wood like this is incredibly rare.
The entir logs and stumps were preserved because the silification was within a matter of weeks or months after the flood, before decay has set in. |
You can easily see the grain of the wood.
|
dry wood and their ancestor - fossilised wood
|
Many of these stumps were once much taller but have been stolen by souvenir collectors.
'It has lasted more than 170 million years - why end it now?' (New Zealand Department of Conservation) |
The stumps at Curio Bay are all that remain of the Jurassic forest. They were fossilied by silica in the ash-filled floodwaters.
Years of pounding by the sea have worn away soil to reveal the fossilised trees. |
Cliffs at Curio Bay are home to yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho in Maori language).
September - October: Eggs are laid in nests against the bank. Yellow-eyed penguins are solitary breeders unlike most penguins which nest in dense colonies. November - January: Chicks hatch and remain in the nest. One parent guards the nest while the other fishes at sea during the day and return here near dust to feed the chick. February - April: Chicks leave the nest. Penguins are moulting. They stay on land living on stored fat. April - September: Juvenile penguins explore. Some return here to breed the next year. |
Yellow-eyed penguins can be luckily seen at Curio Bay during daytime. Best viewed at dusk or dawn.
|
Yellow-eyed penguins are shy and sensitive birds. They are vulnerable to dogs, cats and stoats as well as disturbance from people.
|
Stay at least 10 metres away from wildlife. That's 2 car lengths.
Penguins are timid and won't walk to their nest if you are in the way. They may return to sea leaving behind hungry chicks. |
Picnic lunch at Porpoise Bay, surrounded by seagulls and natural beauty.
|
There is a welcome sign board in each single town of Southland District, which claims 'People First'.
Papatowai - 'Where Forest Meets Sea' Balcoutha - 'Big River Town' Lumsden - 'Northern Southland Naturally' Kaka Point - 'Sun, Sand, Scenery' Milton - 'The Town of Opportunities' |
In deep south island, you definitely see more anmials (sheep, cows, sea lions, yellow-eyed penguins, etc) rather than people.
|
Apart from forest and wild land, dairy farmland is the main landscape of the South Island.
|
The cattles that live in an outstanding free land must produce the outstanding quality milk and beef, New Zealand made.
|
Jack's Blowhole - 30 minutes walk to deep blow hole 200 metres from the sea. Named after Chief Tuhawaiki (Bloody Jack).
|
New Zealand sea lions (rapoka in Maori language) are best seen at Cannibal Bay, Surat Bay and Waipapa Point.
|
Male NZ sea lions get aggressive during summer, their breeding season. They may chase you ... and can bite!
|
Never go between sea lions and the sea as the sea is their escape route.
|
A couple of sea lions relax at Cannibal Bay - named by geologist Dr James Hector after human bones were discovered in the dunes.
|
'Love them from a distance, or lose them forever.' - New Zealand Wildlife Care Code
|
|
|
|
