The Catlins

We left the city to discover the Southland region of New Zealand called the catlins. There's no more motorway here and it is just narrow winding roads passing golden-sand bays and gnarly forest.

Our first stop was at the top of a hill. We had to walk down quite a steep path to join the beach and its famous tunnel. This walk gave us good views of the cliffs below and because it was windy and high tide the waves did an amazing show, crashing onto the rocks. We could see the coastline being carved in real time! After a long time looking at the waves, we finally got down to the small tunnel leading to the beach. It was a bit scary especially with the roaring sound of the waves but also quite fun! We couldn't go very far on the beach because of the tide so up the path we went back.

Next stop is Nugget point. We didn't know what to expect with this name, but it was spectacular. After a short walkway where we could hear sea lions but not see them as the cliffs are so steep we arrive at the lighthouse. Here the wind that followed us along the path stops and we are left with a jaw-dropping view: toothy islets surrounded by sapphire water. Again we stared at this view for quite a while before getting on the road again.

The weather changed along the road and it started raining. That fitted with our next stop which is a short walk into a rainforest to see waterfalls. We're starting to get familiar with the rainforest here now but the ferns always strike us with their beauty. The waterfalls are nice and very wild. We spent the night in a remote motel/campsite, one bar and restaurant and luckily they were open! Next day we walk to another waterfall, the highest waterfall in the catlins. We are struck by the lines in the stones, almost like someone carved them as stairs!

After seeing live rainforest we stopped to see a dead one, an ancient petrified forest, it is a rare phenomenon of fossilised forest. Preserved by silica in the ashy floodwaters that submerged these Jurassic-era trees. We can still see the wood grain of stumps looking like rocks, at the touch they just feel like stone. It is a very strange site, probably more marvelous when you are passionate about fossils but still quite impressive to see something so rare.

Enough of the past and after a good little lunch break we sat by a beach in currio bay famous for its dolpins. We see a few people going in the water and calling them by hitting two stones together underwater. We're not as brave, it is not very warm and the water looks freezing, our swim suits were also in the car (we have lots of excuses) . Some people were prepared though with full wetsuit and they did get rewarded with dolphins swimming up next to them! We just enjoyed the show of dolphins surfing the waves from the beach.

Next stop and we are back in town. We checked in to a little motel in Invercargill, not the city best known for its tourism but a practical stop on our road. We still checked their botanical garden out which had a few interesting flowers and we stayed by the most iconic building in town, their water tower! We finish our evening with a delicious Thai restaurant.

We liked a lot of the spots of the Catlins, with landscape that you don't see everyday but it was a lot of driving in between little spots. We're looking forward to give our car a rest for the next few days!Read more