The morning was cloudy and hazy but that didn't stop the little Hectors from putting on a show for the patrons at Curio Bay Camping Ground. Just a 50 meter stroll from our tent we could witness several Hector pods swimming and breaching close to shore. Apparently this is a common sight. Hector's dophins are rather small vs. most porpoises. Cute little buggers and curious as well. Their numbers are small in population. I believe their breeding number is around 2 to 3 thousand just like the rare Yellow-Eyed penguins. Unfortunately their numbers are slowly decreasing for all the same reasons as the Yellow-Eyed penguins. Porpoise Bay is a common swimming beach which interferes with raising their young. Hector's apparently choose this paricular bay because it's protected from large swells and it's a great feeding area. We witnessed two people jumping in the water to take a swim with the dolphins. The Hector's will come right up to you and check you out...not intimidated at all. Signs recommend you leave them alone but of course no one does. It really gets your blood boiling to see people disregard the signs.
After our casual morning we trodded off on some back gravel roads heading toward Invercargill. Invercargill gets a bad rap by most but Paul and I have found it to be quite entertaining. We've witnessed the largest mullet count ever upon our arrival in New Zealand. Although nothing could surpass the "dread mullet" we witnessed grocery shopping at the New World in Balcultha enroute to the Catlins. That was by far the coolest thing ever. Feathered sides with long, shoulder length dreads in the back. Paul wasn't quick on the camera draw. No one would've believed us anyhow. I mean really...an actual mullet and dread combination????!
Invercargill definitely has us eating well. We managed to chow down two large pizzas, one tirimisu, and one beer flight on our first night here. Not bad if I say so myself. We were quite impressed at how hungry we still were walking back to our campground.
We're staying at Timber Tops campground in the best green caravan on the site. This little caravan has saved us from torrential rain showers for the past two days. To bide some time we headed out to the Southland ILT Velodrome to watch the NZ National Track Championships. We've been watching elite men and women waging war against each other on track bikes. Most are trying to break world records in hopes of making the Bejing Olympics. 75 year old Owen Duffy tried to beat the world record for 2 laps in the 75+ category. He was to beat 44.25 seconds...unfortunately he did it in 45.12. I want to be Owen Duffy at age 75. Impressive! It's still raining so we're going to go back tonight to watch the final races.
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