Moeraki was another one of those tourist towns that just had the one thing to do, or so I thought. I arrived and immediately went to the Moeraki Boulders. There was a lot of people there, which kind of ruined it for me.

I got lost trying to find my hostel, or rather I went to the wrong one. When I found it I was pleasantly surprised by the energy of the place. It was no fine establishment, actually it was more like a campsite, with places to park your trailer or RV. There was a great sense of community and it just had cool beach town vibes. There was one dorm, and I was on a roll of being the only guest in the place, at like every hostel I stayed at.

The manager of the place recommended visiting a lighthouse where there were penguins and seals. The dirt road there was maybe like 3 miles and bumpy. Finally I found a fucking adventure. Like everywhere in New Zealand, the path was surrounded by farms with sheep, cows, and horses. I arrived and it was cold as shit and windy! I walked through the lighthouse garden path and arrived on a grassy green cliff. Some other visitors pointed out one penguin that was really close. Wow!!! How south on the Earth I must have been, I thought.

I kept walking because the path kept going. The wind was pretty intense and the path was right along the cliff but there was a little fence so that calmed me down. The path led to another grassy cliff with a copper colored beach below and some super fat seals. I mean…. real fatties. I was really excited. As I looked further down, I could see there were actually seals on the cliff. I didn’t want to get too close but I walked a little closer to them. I recognized this moment, of all the places I went on my whole journey, this was the moment where I found peace and absolute solitude. Real nature, no guidance, no path and NO OTHER PEOPLE. On one side of the cliff, big fat seals sprawled on the shore, on the other side, crystal clear waters crashed on the rocks…. and more seals.