Can you believe it?!?!
No sand flies!!!
Wahoo!!! 🥳🎉🥳🎉🥳
Cloudy day, which was exactly why we headed south, as it was gonna be raining in Fiordland. And it started raining on us as well.
We tried to go to the Cathedral Caves (sea caves), but apparently they are only open for the morning low tide and not the evening low tide, so that didn’t work out.
Next stop was to see if we could see some sea lions at one of the places where they supposedly hang out (Cannibal Bay). Chase and I wandered the near side of the beach for a good little while, exploring past the rocks east, but we didn’t see anything.
I was about to throw in the towel when I noticed on my Google maps that there was supposed to be sea lion colony on the adjacent Beach. So I started walking west of the beach toward the other day, and on the way, I saw a female sea lion by herself up on the sand sleeping. 🙂
She… didn’t seem to care at all that i was there. I made a noise to let her know i was coming, so I wouldn’t startled her, but she seems really not to care one way or the other. Making one little growl when she first saw me, and then nothing else at all. He just turned her head away from me and went back to sleep. 🙃
I continued on to the other beach, Chase catching up later because he was on the phone. He didn’t see the sea lion on the way to me.
At the other bay, we found a total of zero sea lions and two American girls, with whom we chatted for maybe 15 minutes before they headed back to their car (which was actually parked next to ours).
The rain, which had abated for a little while, started sprinkling a bit, and my knees weren’t doing well.
There wasn’t much else we wanted to do on the area that it was a good time for. We needed to wait for the morning for the sea caves and the evening to try and catch a glimpse of the uber rare penguins at Curio Bay.
So we took a little walk to a nearby waterfall, which was brutal on my knees. The walk itself was easy, but my knees were hurting pretty good on super easy stuff. 🤕
We decided to stay nearby. Freedom Camping wasn’t allowed anywhere in the Catlins, so Chase found a campground, and we stayed there–our first paid campground of the entire trip so far! 🙃
Funny enough, the American girls we ran into at the sea lion beach saw us come in, and one of them came over to us to let us know they were there as well, so we ate dinner with them in the camp kitchen building. We chatted and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company for probably an hour or so before calling it a night and crashing.
South
It’s funny, one thing I’ve noticed on the trip is that travelers are almost always either two girls, a guy-girl couple, or by themselves. I can only remember seeing one other pair of guy friends.
🙃
Ok… health update if you’re wondering:
- Ribs/chest — 100%
- Right shoulder — 80% (normal)
- Left shoulder — 60% (pretty messed up still, not getting better at all–even after a month or so)
- Right hip — 80%? It’s about the same as before the trip, just more achy since my big, brutal hike. Hips are hurting all the time right now. Left one
- Left hip — 60%. Can’t sleep on my left side without it hurting pretty good (my left shoulder either).
- Knees — 50%. I can walk. 🙂 Knees are hurting all the time right now. Doesn’t take much at all to make it hurt pretty good going downhill or down steps.
- Ankles — 85%. They ache, but that’s about it.
But I’m alive. 🥳🎉🥳
Love and hugs. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 