Waterfall Hike and beach visit

We originally planned a longer hike to a waterfall up Arthur’s pass, but decided we didn’t have time to get there this afternoon, so we hiked to Carew’s Falls instead.  There was no one else on the trail and we had the falls to ourselves.  Very beautiful!  And to top it all off, there was a geocache at the top that we found. 

Everything was moss covered!

I wasn't expecting a waterfall of this size.  It was lovely - and we had it all to ourselves!

Adam climbed across the stream and up the other side for a different view.

View toward the lake

The trailhead was located near Lake Brunner – a large lake not far from Kumara.  We drove along the shore as the clouds were starting to lift at the end of the afternoon.  Very pretty drive.

After the hike we decided to visit the local penguin beach.  The signage indicated that they mated early in the year and would hike as much as a mile or more inland to lay their eggs.  In fact we found ‘penguin fences’ along the highway to prevent them from trying to cross the highway to nest.  We didn’t see any sign of them when we arrived in the late afternoon, but later learned that they spend the day at sea looking for food.  The Randles were more diligent in their search earlier in the day and found penguin prints in the sand above the tide line, and found a few at a distance.  We just enjoyed the awesomeness that is the ocean and tide.