Pounawea - The Catlins
We arrived at Pounawea, our next destination which lay nestled on the shores of a very expansive estuary. It is surrounded by native bush on one side and the estuary on the other. I had never really heard much about The Catlins and the few times I did, it made me more and more interested. To get here and experience this then was just fantastic. What a paradise.
Being at the tail end of Winter we had cool nights and brisk mornings but once the sun rose the first hints of Spring was evident. I could see that patiki (flounder) would be a local delicacy and also tuangi (cockles) being accessible by foot. I wasn't at all surprised when I eventually got out there the following day I filled my bag with like 120 decent sized tuangi within say 20 minutes. These made for a yummy curry dinner, plus the additional pupu, (catseyes) with some rimurimu seaweed as a salad portion. I even managed to wrestle up some kuku (mussels) on the shoreline so we were well stocked for mataitai, (seafood) delicacies that’s for sure. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hook into any fish from the small jetty and refrained from a night rama patiki (fishing by torchlight) as the tides and night weather were not favorable. But the star canopy was clear and the air crisp.
Every morning we were awakened by the strongest dawn chorus of native bird calls we’ve heard so for. There was the korimako, tui, riroriro, pipipi, and piwakawaka plus the ruru during the night. That was a pleasant surprise as we’ve missed the native bird calls from our ngahere.
We managed to get out and about during the 3 days of our stay visiting the local Owaka township. This had a cafe that we stopped off at for lunch and the service and food was exceptional. I’m a sucker for the blue cod, that’s like everywhere we go as I’m taken by its texture and flavour and how it’s presented with salad is just delicious. The local museum is a little beauty as well, what a treat. For a town of this size all credit to the locals for providing a well thought out and visually pleasing depiction of its early Maori and Pioneering history.
On another day we made our way to Purakaunui and Matai Falls. Both equally picturesque and an interesting point, the track down to the Matai Falls showed a forest laden with Kotukutuku, Fuchsia Excorticata, which neither Jo nor myself had seen so prevalent in the North Island in this manner before. The other thing was the rakau were losing their leaves and tinged orange with peeling bark which gave the ngahere an eerie type of look with these rakau standing in contrast to the usual coloring of a dense deep green ngahere. This place is exceptional and we will return for a longer stay as there is just so much more to see and more people to meet. We didn't want to exhaust ourselves trying to do it all at once so we left not saddened but with anticipation of our return. The Catlins, majestic and spectacular.
