(photograph © Kiwidutch)
You have joined me on a slightly retrospective tour of New Zealand … well at least part of New Zealand.
Family Kiwidutch were there December 2011-Janurary 2012 and after some weeks in Christchurch we are now heading to the North Island to visit more friends and family.
We know that just north of Kaikoura there are masses of seal colonies.
They are easy to spot, a quick look out of the window as you drive on State Highway 1 on the edge of the coast and you’ll probably see some lounging on the rocks close by, but even more interesting is that my uncle and aunt have told us that there’s a bay with a stream that runs unto it where for some unknown reason baby seals head inland up the stream.
The weird part of it is that no adult seals join them, it’s like a self-run baby-crèche.
Apparently sometimes the spot upstream is packed with baby seals, sometimes there are just two or three and sometimes there are none. Why they band together in a group seperated from their parents like this is unknown, and like most things goverened by nature there is no guarantee that they will be there when you pass by.
Time of day and the season of the year have a lot to do with it, but even that appears to vary so basically the trick is to find the place, take a walk with your camera and keep your fingers crossed that it may be your lucky day.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
We’ve worked out that the bay we need to find is either just before or just after Ohau Point which is a short drive north of Rakautara, which is about half way between Kaikoura and the Clarence River.
We are heading north, have passed Rakautara and see a sign with a seal on it… but on the other side of the road there is a train tunnel and no stream. Still, we stop and investigate and find that just off the road there is a small viewing area, some information signs and below us, seals galore.
There are adults and babies, and the more you looked the more you could see as what often first appeared to be bolders or black stones suddenly stretched and moved…more seals and we could count in the end.
Some prefered the shade and some were obviously serious sun lovers, and while we were a decent distance away for safety reasons and my camera did an O.K. job, this is a moment when a long telephoto extra-zoom lens would really have come in handy.
The break from sitting in the car did us good and everyone had fun spotting one seal after another. We piled back into the van and lo and behold, just around the next big bend in the road, there was the exact spot where the river and the seal baby-creche was… Duh! …sign posted and all.
But we need to get to Picton on time and we’ve just had a rest break so we aren’t stopping here now. The good news is that now that we know what the spot we are looking for looks like, we can stop there on the way back to Christchurch on the return leg of our journey. Let’s go seal spotting…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Where are we? North of Christchurch, East coast of the South Island…
(photograph edited © Kiwidutch)from TopoMap NZ CD Rom
(photograph © Kiwidutch) Map photographed from NZ lands and Survey Atlas
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
The Kaikoura Coast… (looking south)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
These rocks are on the extreme left of the previous photo…now look at the dark spot bottom right of the photo…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Let’s zoom in…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
… and zoom in even further… four baby seals in a rock pool of water …playing with seaweed?… three bigger babies and one really little one.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
View looking north…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
The viewing area…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
There are at least nine seals in the next photo…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
How on earth does he get up there?
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
