Invercargill

A dreary forecast for the next few days. Rain, rain and more rain. The plan for the day was to drive to Invercargill and make a few stops along the way. Our anticipated highlight for the day was Cathedral Caves but we had to wait until low tide after 1:30pm to view the caves. To kill time, we did a couple short hikes near camp and set out on the road. Our next stop was McLean falls which was a quick 20 minute walk. It was fun to clamber around the falls. It would have be great place to cool off in the water on a hot day. We departed for the caves as low tide approached. It was a 30 minute walk down to the beach and toward the mouth of the caves. We walked along a beautiful empty beach that extended as far as the eye could see. The caves itself were large and had vaulted ceilings as that name suggests. As you approached the entrance you had to time the waves or you would get swamped. We saw one unlucky tourist get soaked up to the waist. The caves were about 50 feet deep and no light reach the back of the cave. As we wandered to the back we connected to another large cave that led back out to the ocean. We wandered around a bit and took some photos.

Back on the road, we made a quick stop to check out a petrified forest and an old lighthouse. As drove on, the winds increased with gusts over 50km/hr. It made the driving a bit more challenging with the windage of the van as the gusts pushed us left and right. We finally made it to Invercargill and checked into our 2nd campervan park to charge up the van batteries and top up water. We were quite a distance outside of town so we didn’t do any exploring.Read more