Closest we'll be to the south pole...

...unless we go to Antarctica or the tip of South America! But for today we visited the most southerly point of the south island and closest to the South Pole we have been so far. Slope point is just one of the many places we visited today on our road trip around the Catlins. We woke up to the most amazing sunrise this morning and I spent about 20 minutes outside taking photos and just admiring the beautiful colours. It inspires me so much to paint and I can't wait to start up this passion again when I get home. I've always liked art but really have let it slide since school so I think it's something I will revisit especially with a phone filled with amazing inspiration to work from. After packing up after breakfast we headed to our first stop for the day. We had a slight delay caused by a herd of sheep moving paddocks down the road. Initially we stopped and waited for the sheep to come but they never stopped coming and in the end one of the farmers came down on his quad and told us to just drive through as he'd be ages. Very slowly we helped push the sheep along the road to their new home. It's amazing how without anyone guiding them they just follow the ones in front and know where they have to go. It was a cool start to our day. We reached Matai Falls which flows down from Horseshoe Falls. All these waterfall tracks are quite short and sweet but it was still a very enjoyable walk. We still can't get over the beauty of the forests here and it makes us want to explore the woodland back home more. We had a 30 minute return walk to Lake Wilkie next which showed the development of the forest from lakeside to mature forest. We had hoped to visit Catherdral Caves but it is only accessible at low tide so unfortunately we'd missed the time for today so we plan to loop back tomorrow to go there. Instead we decided to carry on and spent time marvelling at the petrified forest at Curio Bay. It's quite an amazing sight to see trees that have turned into stone. It's crazy that it can even happen. I took a slip on the rocks and twisted my hip funny but luckily it seems to be okay now. Nick almost slipped in response as he jumped down trying to catch me. After our walk to Slope Point we finished our day at Waipapa Point which has a pretty lighthouse on the hill edge. This is also the site of NZ's worst civilian shipping disaster where 11km from land the S.S. Tararua sank killing 131 of the people on board. As we walked around in the sand dunes we were shocked to see 3 sea lions just casually sleeping at the base of the lighthouse. Annoyingly despite the signs asking people to give them 10 metres of space when we passed them again later we saw someone about a metre away from one making noise to try and get it to wake up and sit up for a photo. We gave them a very disapproving stare but as we walked back I wished I had said something to them. No wonder sea lions are not very common in New Zealand, why would you stay if people didn't leave you in peace. We headed to the town of Fortrose which seems to have probably only 20 people living there. Our freedom camp spot for tonight is on the edge of a waterway that has lots of different species of birds around. Some of the spots we've been able to camp on are such a beautiful place to visit in themselves.Read more