So the morning I woke up at Taieri Mouth Beach, I got to see probably one of the most surreal, beautiful, natural phenomena I’ll ever see… On one side of me is a breathtaking sunrise over the beach; on the other side was double rainbows in 360 degrees. So two rainbows, with complete arches, also being reflected in their entirety on the mirror-like sand of the beach at low tide. I was also there alone. Complete solitude- no one visible for miles along the beach. Not sure what else to say- the pictures are just kind of here as proof that it actually happened, but beyond that… no words. I also have a video of it- maybe i’ll upload it some time.
I stayed there until the sun rose high enough to break past the cloud ceiling, and the rainbow faded and the light just sort of turned into normal partly cloudy daylight again. That kind of thing can’t last too long I think… something about the impermanence and rarity of it contribute to how special it is i suppose. It was a nice moment…
After sunrise, I had some breakfast and drove to Tunnel Beach, which was pretty nice. My fuckin’ battery died again while I was at the beach, so I had to get roadside assistance to jumpstart the van. After that mess, I drove to Dunedin, where I explored the town, took a nap at the botanic gardens, and watched some of a local cricket match.
I decided to get an earlier start on the drive back to Christchurch, so I began to head north. Along the way, I stumbled onto the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. The bummer was that I arrived right around 4:30… closing time. The cool thing was the girl working the desk was really nice. Yvonne- we talked a little and she ended up letting me in after hours. Which meant that I had the entire ecopark to myself. I could listen to all the rare native bird life pretty much in complete silence and solitude… kind of felt like going back in time. I also got pretty lucky and was able to watch a few kaka and kukupa. Pretty awesome. I ran into Yvonne on the way out, and we spent some time chatting about conservation, environmental ethics, and unique issues in the conservation of big cats with limited genetic diversity- it turns out she’s working on going to grad school to do big cat- specifically cheetah- conservation. Pretty neat. She also recommended another park in Christchurch, which was helpful.
After that I headed off towards a campsite closer to Christchurch. For dinner I bought a local seafood/fish and chip dinner that was apparently for 2 people… but I ate it all anyway. *high five*
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