Cape Foulwind to Westport

 

We made it to Cape Foulwind with plans to walk as far as the Seal Colony..... looks like a 15-minute walk.

Shore at the parking area.

There were lots of signs so we could learn about the area.

Wall Island from the start of the walk. 

South Island Pied Oystercatcher

An Australasian Gannet

A Fluttering Shearwater

And my sister saw one!

New Zealand Fir Seal/ Kekeno

Looks like the walkway is uphill...

It just keeps going...

And going

Wall Island... Can't believe this is large enough to call it an island. 

Sooty Shearwater/Titi

Every viewpoint had another 8-sided sign.

Cool signpost with the names of different cities and their distance from this location.

The trail becomes less developed and really goes uphill.

We use these steps to go over a fence, then walk across a field to another fence and set of steps. 

Time to take a break and watch the waves. 

We come to a little hill with a side path up to a display 

Just past the astrolabe we could see the lighthouse in the distance.... where were the seals, did we somehow miss them?  No way, seals are noisy, we couldn't have missed them, but we were tired and headed back toward the car.

You remember all that information about seals in previous photos?  Well while I was taking photos of the signs and my sister was taking photos of the ocean, the seals were relaxing on the rocks below that viewpoint.  Yes, we had totally missed them.  They were being quiet.  This momma was nursing a cub. 

They were far enough away that my phone didn't take good photos.  Thankfully, my sister had bought a phone that has a good zoom 

This one took a look at us then went back to napping. 

Once we made it to our B&B in Westport, we asked for restaurant recommendations.  The proprietors sent us to the Denniston Dog.  Interesting name for a restaurant.

Since this was our last night on the west coast, we decided to dine on the local delicacy, whitebait.  This is a whitebait fritter.  More like an omelet.  It was ok but neither one of us felt like we would have to eat one again.