The sea, sand, seals and shells (~ Dec 29th)

On the campsite I had to pay more than 20$ a night (almost the price as a bed in a hostel!) so I left and headed out to hitchhike to a place called Warrington. Ronja and Sönke told me it was a nice small free camping site close to the beach.

I made a cardboard sign and stood on one of the main roads north in Dunedin. It didn't take 5 minutes till someone stopped. At first I didn't notice, they passed me and stopped about 100 meters behind me and honked to get my attention. I got in. Didn't really fell too comfortable though... 2 men sitting in front, tats all over (some looking weirdly like the iron cross from Nazi germany?), no hair and speaking with a really really strong accent (I think something south british?). I couldn't tell or understand alot. I wondered if I should have waited a wee bit longer.
But it all worked out. They started talking to me when we were almost there and were apparently into techno and raves (hoping there'd be a party at the campsite on New Years). They dropped me off and said good bye.
I looked for a place to put up my tent and built it between several cars, but I noticed it was very windy again, almost like Wellington... Windy Warrington aswell?! I put my heavy bag inside and hoped the tent would survive (on the package it said the tent doesn't fare well against strong wind or rain... an indoor tent?!). But it said it was ideal for festivals. No idea who makes these tents... But I buy them^^
Anyway I headed out to walk a little around and looked at the nice nature around. Very nice land tongue, great beach with life guards alot of the time and apparently there are sea lions around! And supposedly penguins come into land at some point too, a wildlife paradise!
When I got back to go for a swim (I wanted to get me trunks etc) I realised all the cars were gone and my tent was almost hugging the ground. Now it looked bizarre, that my small orange tent was in the middle of the campsite... So I relocated to a place behind some trees and bushes (where it wasn't windy at all) and where some other people were staying. Then I headed out into the ocean.

Of course the wind didn't stop at the campsite but was blowing the sand all over the beach and onto to ocean aswell. I didn't mind and jumped into the water and went for a small swim, it was once again one of those beaches, wehere you can walk out a long way and not get too deep. I started swimming around, sort of exercising and when I turned to the beach I got a face full of sand! That's how strong the wind way, even 20 meters out I had sand in my mouth... Anyway I went back out and saw something getting attention further up on the beach. It was the sea lion! She just casually was strolling along, looking at the weird humans standing around. The life guard got a little worried, when she started moving towards a car and hoped, that the humans would behave. They did and the sea lion lost interest and eventually went back into the water. 

The Warrington beach

I chatted with the life guard, she was just 18 and finished school, thinking about what to do next. She had always lived in Warrington and knew the sea lion, her name was Joy and was coming to the Warrington beach for the past 3 years, to give birth to a cub. Problem was, that there are several humans around and the mating season of male sea lions is the same as the breeding time of the females. So they do not like it, if the female already has a kid and kill it (which happened to Joy and her first baby). The second time she found a better hiding spot, though it was in the middle of a bike trek, so it was cut off, because the ground was almost the colour of the sea lions. And then some idiot human killed that second cub. Unbelievable. Who would do such a thing?! I can't imagine what must have gone wrong in someones life to kill a little sea lion cub. (not 100% sure if it was in this order, but still one cub was shot by a human...)

But she was back and everyone was hoping, that she could find another good hiding spot and be protected from humans at the same time. Third times a charm!

I went back to my tent and chilled a little. Suddenly I saw something on the hill opposite on the campsite. It was Joy!! She started "barking" and then slid down the hill to the campsite and walked around. She came close to another persons tent and seemed to like it there. The guy stopped everything and gave her some space, but was actually in the middle of putting up his tent. His girlfriend was in the car and just stayed in there, almost trapped. About 10 minutes later Joy left again and walked towards the beach again.

Joy! Looking for a partner/ hiding spot on the campsite?

In the afternoon I went on a walk again and headed out to the end of the lagune and stumbled across some people taking their miniature horses for a walk, that was kind of cute. They also had a small dog along. I had heard that these small horses are very stubborn and not easy to control. And indeed, as soon as the people let 2 of them walk a little freely they sprinted away, so the third joined and got loose from the lady. A wild pursuit started. The horses "running" with their little stubby feet away along the dunes and the humans yelling at them and walking fast after them (they hadn't yet wanted to run after them). It was kinda cute how these short legged creatures ran around, free and all. The tiny dog didn't understand what was happening and just hurried after it's humans, though they had much longer legs and even the horses' legs were longer than the dogs, it could barely keep up. In the end the dog just stopped and eventually the owners caught the horses again and came past the dog again. Now our paths crossed and I simply walked behind them while they were walking through the dunes. On these were some plants, which hindered the sight of the tiny dog again, which suddenly lost sight of it's family and only saw me as a potential helper. I guided it back to it's humans so they could be united once again. Cute little pup ;-)

During the late afternoon I was in my tent again after another short swim and I heard some commotion happening outside. I realised people gathering again around the tent, where Joy was before. She had returned! This time she was relaxing in the shade and was being annoyed by kids and some other adults. Everyone wanted a picture of course and some got too close for that, making her get agitated and maybe a little aggressive, luckily no one was too close so she attacked or did something dangerous. I had planned to head out to the end of the lagune again and try and spy some penguins. 

Second time Joy arrived and just lay down in the shadow of a guys car

You can tell it's a female, because her skin is much lighter, a male would be much darker (info from the life guard)

Panorama of the beach in the late afternoon

Nice shells leaving traces in the sand after the tide

That's what I did. I waited. And waited. As it slowly got dark I got ready to head back home, because it had started raining and with that weather I really wasn't up to keep waiting in the dark aswell... So I gave up and went back into my tent.

Luckily I had my little plastic thing to cover up my tent, so nothing got wet inside, I actually didn't want to risk it, so I'm not sure if my tent is actually water proof or not. Because of the wind and rain the piece of plastic got torn so I threw it away the next day, though it only cost 3$, so I got a new one for the next camping experience!

In the morning some germans approached me and asked me where I got the plastic and if it worked, because they had bought similar tents and wanted to make them waterproof as well. So I told them and when they told me they'd be heading to Dunedin soon, I was able to hitch a hike with them back into the city. Sweet as!

Look at these wicked selfie skills!