Where are our Mums?

Today my good friend Raewyne from Tauranga arrived for a short visit. Ala,s it will not be long enough.
Raewyne is a photographer of note and she and I have been on various training courses and attended Photographic Society of New Zealand conferences together. We can talk and photograph and talk and photograph and talk and photograph all day long and never get sick of each other's company.
So what to do in a short space or time? Problem solved in that we headed down the coast to Kaikoura, stopping to lunch at "The Store" in Kekerengu en route. The store is a very elegant eating place in idyllic coastal surroundings.
Onward to our first port of call. The Ohau Stream at Ohau Point about 20 minutes this side of Kaikoura.
Ohau Stream is a small pretty river leading up a bush clad valley to a quite spectacular waterfall.
This site has become famous in recent years. The large pool at the foot of the waterfall is a baby seal creche for about six months of each year.
The baby seal pups leave the ocean at the mouth of the stream and skedaddle extremely rapidly upstream, over rocks big and small, through small rapids until they reach their mates in the pool.
Today there were dozens of them playing and scrapping like naughty puppies in the small pools on the way to the waterfall.
The waterfall pool was filled with small bodies, swimming, leaping out of the water,play-fighting over the best rocks to sit out on, tossing sticks in the air and tumbling over and over in the water. It is an absolutely magical sight.
They are visited by humans in their thousands over the season. People are extremely respectful of these small creatures. It is indeed an absolute privilege to be present to watch the fun and games.
Photography is a real challenge in the waterfall area. It is quite dark in there at most times of the day.
However Raewyne and I walked back down the track to the stream entrance to the sea and waited patiently with cameras poised.
Our patience was rewarded when a little group of the pups came slithering down stream and clambered up on to the rocks on the other side. There they gathered in a little group with some staring out to sea. It seemed to us that they were looking for their mothers who had previously left them to their own devices in the stream and waterfall pool while they went off out to sea to fish in order to sustain themselves and their baby pups.
It seems a remarkable thing that these big seal mothers are entirely relaxed about leaving their young in this now famous Baby Seal Creche.