Surf and a Garden Gnome

Stormy weather continued on Tuesday. We continued driving the Southern Scenic Route and through the Catlins, making frequent stops and taking lots of pictures. We didn't see much wildlife, but the sea was spectacularly turbulent. We're once again unable to post pictures from here, so we'll try to get one of the surf up as soon as we can.

At Nugget Point, further down the road and several hours later, the sea was calmer and we saw seals and sea lions from far above. The rocks and water were gorgeous, and we walked out to a still functioning lighthouse with spectacular views.

Balclutha, which is about 80 miles from Dunedin, the second largest city on the south island and our next major destination, is where we wound up for the night. Although we were there for a short time, it was a memorable stay. Really the only place to camp in town, the holiday park was fenced in by a short metal fence with lattice-work attached to the front for decoration. Every section of the lattice was painted, alternating between bring purple and yellow. As we pulled up to the office, we saw a tree stump that was about eight feet tall. In every place that a limb had been sawed off, the stump was painted a different bright color. There were about 10 spots and no remaining branches on the tree, so you can imagine how bright it was. The facilities were also brightly colored and also clean and modern.

The camp manager is someone our guide book would describe as "characterful." In his 70s with white hair and beard, he looked a bit like a garden gnome and was a riot. He was also really kind and quite sweet. The news was on one of the three TVs he had on in the small office. The news reporter was describing Peter Jackson's latest filming endeavor in New Zealand, which is the remaking of King Kong. This got the manager talking about the Lord of the Rings; he told us his take on the movies and used a DVD as a visual aid. The DVD he pulled out to show Hart, the only one of the three of us who knows the story was the third in the trilogy, which confused the manager until he realized that he bought it on sale at the video store. He was also worried about Sally, our campervan, because she was really dirty, and gave us specific instructions on how we could wash her. I'm afraid I haven't the time to bring the manager to life, but we both thought he was the kind of person we expected to be working in the junk store down the street.