I thought I'd take you on a little tour through the southernmost bays of New Zealand and throw some history into the bargain for good measure. So, jump onboard all, strap in and we'll get going.
Our first stop takes us to Nugget Point and if you all exit on the left, you'll see the beautiful beaches, cliffs and Fur Seals basking in the sun on the rocks down there. Yep, this used to be a huge Whaling and Sealing station, encouraged by the huge migration of Scottish and Scandinavian seamen - no laughing at the back. It is today, of course, an illegal profession and this area for good measure is now a marine reserve, where you can't even take a little fishy for your fush 'n' chups. Ah, if you guys look to your right, you'll see the area where settlement first grew around here. The early houses were typically made with mud floors and as you can imagine they got quite a fair bit dirty. So, to keep the house in good nick, they'd grab this plant here with the wide leaves, what's called 'broom' - and yep that's a foreign import brought with the Scots as they came over - and they'd used it to brush the dirty out the house... hence the name for those wooden handled bristly ended things. Right that's about it for Nugget Point, so if you jump back on the bus, we'll get some feed and head to Cannibal Bay.
Hope you're all good in the back there. Give us two minutes and we'll park up here and have a look at Cannibal Bay. The story goes that James Hector, a marine biologist, came down here about twenty years back to study what they now call Hectors Dolphins just off the coast and came across human remains stuck in the sand dunes just to the right down there. They did some tests and found the remains to be human, dating a few hundred years ago and with a bit of puzzle solving, realised they date to the same time of a recorded war between two Maori tribes. After a brutal battle, the victorious tribe ate the remains of their vanquished - to absorb their power and strength - and the bay has since been named Cannibal Bay. So yep, rather a gruesome story to this one.
Now a little way on, we'll get to Surat Bay and there's bit of an infamous story to that one too. Surat Bay, was named after the ship which ran aground there on New Years Eve 1874. As the evening progressed, the Captain headed below deck to his quarters to 'entertain' several female guests he had over. Needless to say, he rather neglected his duties - to the boat that is - and they consequently ran aground...not that the Captain was in any fit state to deal with Captaining duties. The 2nd mate took control, called the emergency services and with the chaos above, the Skipper came around enough to surface just as they arrived. In the commotion, he reached for his musket and shot out at the 'invading' emergency rescue, before a sobering expereince of court mashall, imprisonment and public shame... That's one New Years Eve, he'll never forget!
Onwards we go! We'll take a short walk down onto the beach here and see if we can find any of the Fur Seal colony which summers here. A word of caution; the Seals can grow up to 350kg and run at a speed of 25km/h, so let's all keep our distance alright? Ah yep, yep... there's one...let's get a little closer. Yep, this species is native to New Zealand and were almost hunting to extinction a few years back, with their population diminished to 80% of its size. They're now on the endangered list and are steadily increasing in numbers, with a huge abundance of squid and crayfish for them with the coastline also now a marine reserve. They spend most their day fishing, swimming up to 200km offshore for food and 60m deep at times and there we go, here's a nice looking one for you to have a look at...Isn't she just the looker.
All good? Have a bite and we'll head out here shortly and push on for some more sights.
- Standby -
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