The Southern Scenic Route

And so began our journey through the Catlins, with a stop at picturesque nugget point lighthouse first, so called because of several rock 'nuggets’ scattered beyond the mainland. A cliffside road wound its way up to the car park, with several short stretches of one way road. We completed the short walk to the lighthouse, amazed at how many seals were chillin’ on the beach or frolicking in the water. The longer you looked, the more grey blobs you noticed, until realising that we were way outnumbered. On the way back we tried our luck at seeing one of the 18 or so breeding pairs of yellow eyed penguins at Roaring Bay from the penguin hide, however it was the wrong time of day. We passed through the small town of Owaka, meaning 'place of the canoe’, and had to turn back just to take a photo of 'teapot land’, a resident’s garden with a huge collection of teapots filling every nook and cranny! A walk down to Purakaunui falls through forest that smelt of jasmine to see the cascading water, and then the forgettable matai falls….

A spontaneous stop as we neared Curio Bay was at the ‘lost gypsy caravan’ parked by the roadside. Inside was the most amazing set of automata, contraptions and inventions, all hand made from various scraps. Everywhere there were signs to 'push here' and 'turn this', a total haven for creative minds. We paid the $5 to look around the theatre at the back, which included an organ with various sound effects connected to each note and pedal. Hugo was blown away - if he had a man cave this would be it. The place was meant to close at 5 and we found ourselves still there at half past, oops!

We stopped to take photos at Florence hill lookout, a breathtaking viewpoint of a beautiful beach. The beaches at the bottom of the south island felt very remote and untouched, a well kept secret. Eventually we arrived at our campsite, checked in with the British woman on reception, bought two magnums, and then whisked ourselves through the maze of 10ft high flax to find a pitch. We, along with many other tourists, set up on the rocks down by the beach, eagerly anticipating a sighting of yellow eyed penguins. 3 hours came and went, and people gradually started leaving disappointed, although watching the crashing waves at dusk didn't make it all in vain. The beach is also known for its petrified forest, a 180 million year old fossilized forest, which now presents as tree stumps in the rock pools. We cooked in the clean and modern facilities block before I nearly locked myself in the shower cubicle.

A morning walk around the headland of Porpoise Bay rewarded us with sightings of hector's dolphins, one of the smallest marine dolphins in the world, identifiable by their distinctive rounded dorsal fin, and only found in NZ waters. Unfortunately the road to Slope Point, the southernmost point on mainland NZ, was closed, and so we continued on the Southern Scenic Route towards Invercargill.

Nothing we had read about Invercargill jumped out at us, with the exception of 'Demolition World’. We weren't quite sure what to expect from a junkyard, but it was surprisingly intriguing and a little creepy. Items had been salvaged and made in to a village, complete with houses, creepy hospital and dentist, church playing Michael Buble's Xmas album, pharmacy, bar, toy store etc. Deformed mannequins were positioned throughout, and chickens with their chicks, geese and peacocks seemed to run the place. An amazing birdsong came from the treetops, and I spotted a tui, a native New Zealand bird that is regarded to be very intelligent, so much so that Maori have trained them to imitate human speech. Their song is individual, with a mix of cackles, creaks and other bizarre noises, owing to them having two voiceboxes. Anyway, demolition world was a place like no other.

Time to head north again. We passed field upon field of neatly aligned hay bales and sang along to 80s tunes on 'the breeze’ with the sun shining and life feeling good. We drove down a tree lined avenue into our campsite for the next two nights in Manapouri. The campsite was immaculate, with a herb garden, huge washing lines, brochures, and killer views from the sink. We cooked a meal and discussed our options for Milford sound. We spoke to a couple of French girls about their trip to the sound a few days earlier and got some tips about the best time to go before making our booking for the following day, regardless of the forecast for cloudy weather - we didn't have the time to wait 7 days for the sun to come out!Read more