Easter Break: Traversing the southern coastline

This past week was Easter Break so I went on a week-long trip with the other Willamette students and our Willamette professor who is down here taking care of us. I had an amazing time visiting some of the most beautiful and unique places I've ever been. At the same time it was great to get to know everyone better. We have some great memories and stories now...most of the places that we went are too great to describe with words, but I'll do my best.

The whole gang: Victoria, Megan, Leslie, Shaffer, Jessica, Pete and Stas

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to meet the rest of the group for our trip along the southern coastline of the south island from Dunedin to Invercargill. We took the scenic route through Catlin's Forest Park and stopped at the main sights along the way.

Nugget Point

Our first stop was at Nugget Point to see the lighthouse. It's an incredibly beautiful place- the white tower of the lighthouse is nestled on the edge of the small peninsula. Huge rocks extend past the point out into the sea, their slopes teeming with a colony of playful seals. We stood in the shelter of the lighthouse for a while watching the seals romping around on the rocks beneath us, their smooth forms barely indistinguishable hundreds of meters below us.
We piled back into the van to go to Purakaunai Falls. The short hike was through a verdant temperate rain forest, it was so similar to Oregon's that I had to remind myself that I was not tramping around on the Oregon coast. Light rain sprinkled down through the tall trees as we followed a melodically humming stream through the forest. The three-tiered falls were slightly hidden by their surrounding vegetation, but the straight edges of the rocks are eye-catching.
We got to Cathedral Caves at low tide, but we still had to time our entrance into the gaping cavern to avoid getting a salty bath from the incoming waves. The caves were definitely my favorite place of the day- two connected sea caves cut into the side of beach cliffs. We entered the first archway to find a wide chamber with a broad, arching ceiling. The light filtered in from above the ocean behind us as we walked back into the darkness. The caves were surprisingly dry and had amazing acoustics, it was easy to see where they got their name from.

We also made it to the Petrified Forest while it was still above the ocean's grip. These fossilized trees are remnats of a Jurassic Era forest that was immortalized when ancient flooding washed silica into the forest from a nearby volcano top. The silica impregnated the plants, turning them into fossils in just a matter of months! What is visible now is a rocky shoreline that has fossils of tree trunks and fallen logs, while it's not covered by the water that is.

That is one OLD tree!

The entire day we had a decent view of the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean stretching down towards Antartica. We were entertained by pods of small dolphins and the yelping seals who frequent the coastline. We spent a very comfortable night at an Invercargill hostel after barbequeing up a huge dinner at a friend's house.