Brian Parkinson's Guide to Unique Wildlife of New Zealand

eaving Dunedin take State Highway 1 south to Balclutha and from there follow State Highway 92 to the Catlins State Forest. As far as Balclutha the road is through farming country but south of the town the terrain gets more rugged and one should drive carefully.

A wedge of undulating country running inland between the Clutha and Mataura rivers as far as the town of Gore, the Catlins is one of our least-known wilderness regions and certainly deserves more attention than it currently gets.

Seals were once found along these southern shores in large numbers and although fur seals are the only ones now breeding here, it is probable that in the past other species did as well. The remains of large numbers of Hooker's sea lions together with numbers of sea elephants and sea leopards have been found in middens throughout the country These, along with the remains of the occasional Weddell seal, crabeater seal and Ross seal, turn up on this southern coast from time to time.

That these animals had Maon names is significant as lt indicates their regular occurrence on our coastline. Fur seals are known variously as kekeno, or pakeke; Hooker's sea lion as wakaha, or whakau; and the sea leopard was called pakaka.

If the seal populations had survived the depredations of the Maori, their very existence was threatened by the mass slaughter unleashed by the sealers who arrived in 1810. By 1840, when settlers arrived in the Catlins area, the seal colonies had been wiped out.

Also in 1840 the Sydney-based whaling captain Edward Cattlin arrived to assess the navigable possibilities of the river which now bears his name. For the equivalent of about $185 in cash and guns, Cattlin bought from the local Maori the land stretching for 32 kilometres on each side of the Catlins River and running 90 kilometres inland. After years of negotiation that lasted 17 years after the captain's death most of this purchase was disallowed.

By the 1870s sawmillers were hard at work and for about a century felling of the beech forests by up to 30 sawmills at one time continued unabated. When milling ceased very little high timber was left and most of this was confined to reserves or inaccessible high areas.

Today Nugget Point is probably the best place from which to start exploring the Catlins. This long, narrow headland can be reached through Romahapa and by way of Kaka Point. From the end of the road take the path to the lighthouse from which far below the Nuggets can be seen, looking like the eroded fangs of some defunct taniwha. (Definitely not a place for anyone with vertigo!) On the rocks below can be seen a wealth of wildlife: fur seals haul out here and a number of seabirds, including red-billed gulls, gannets, spotted shags and white-fronted terns, breed here.

At many places along the coast south of the Nuggets yellow-eyed penguins also breed and, if you should come across this bird, leave it alone. It is now our rarest penguin and any unnecessary disturbance could make it abandon its chick.

The first accessible beach in the Catlins is Cannibal Beach, named for bones found here by the early settlers, the gruesome relics of a battle between a raiding party of Ngati Toa from the north under Te Rauparaha and the local Ngai Tahu under Hone Tuhawaiki. Nearby is the Catlins River and along its banks not far from the mouth is the Pounawea Reserve with some significant old trees.

Further along the coast is Jacks Bay with the island of Tuhawaiki just offshore. Large numbers of little blue penguins and sooty shearwaters breed on Tuhawaiki, using burrows dug in the clay cliffs.

Heading inland through Ratanui and Tawanui brings you into the Catlin State Forest Park proper. This area is thought to have been one of the last where moa survived and archaeological evidence of this has been found along the banks of the Tahakopa River which flows through the park a little further south.