Drove southwards through heavy rain to Curio Bay where the remains of a Jurassic forest lie on a wave cut platform on the shore. Lengths of tree trunks, still with their circular sections preserved by silicification, can be traced for 10 metres or so, whilst stumps are still in-situ. The only other exposure I've heard of like this is in Arizona.
Then on to Slope Point where we braved the rain to walk to the southernmost tip of South Island. We were rewarded by a signpost showing we were almost equidistant from the equator and the South Pole.
A couple of people we met at Slope Point said they had just seen dolphins and a sea lion at Porpoise Bay, just round from Curio Bay, so we retraced our route and found a covered picnic site ( what were the chances of finding somewhere dry to eat in the rain!) overlooking the bay where a pod of Hector's dolphins were swimming and playing. The sea lion must have sloped off, but as we watched, the dolphins leapt out of the water perhaps two metres clear into the air. It was a 'thanks for all the fish' moment, but they wouldn't repeat it while I had the camera running.
On via a small museum at Waikawa, warm, dry and full of interesting items just like a museum should be, to Tokanui where we picked up the key to the motel unit from the Tavern. The motel unit turned out to be a large comfortable house up the next street. The rain stopped and we dried out our clothes using their electric heaters.
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