Curio Bay is the home of New Zealand’s petrified forest, however when we visited we didn’t understand what was supposed to be so scary, we actually found it quite pleasant.  With fantastic scenery and wildlife, including Hector’s Dolphins and sea lions, Curio Bay is definitely a ‘must see’.

Purakaunui Beach offered us more spectacular scenery, with a blanket of golden sand beneath towering cliffs.  It couldn’t have been a more ideal place to camp until 6am in the morning when we were awoken by the fire brigade warning us that as a result of an earthquake in Chile,  a tsunami was due to hit the coast of NZ around 8am and we needed to evacuate the area and head inland.  With many other campers parked up, it was soon confirmed that Owaka was a safe spot to wait so we parked up in the Four Square carpark, set up the telly and we were kept up to date by the hourly news.

All in all a frightfully exciting couple of days.