Our South Island Adventure - The Catlins

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It's an early wake up call as we make our way slowly to Invercargill and visit the Catlins along the way. I actually did not know how to title this post as we were technically following the Southern Coastal Route as well. We had a leaflet with a great map describing all the places we could stop and obviously we had to pick and choose as we only had a day to do it in. At least we knew we were not rushing to Invercargill as we were told there was not much to do their and it really was just a pit stop to rest our weary heads.

We stopped at kaka point with beautiful views of the beach before making our way to visit the lighthouse at Nugget Point. There were fantastic views to be seen and if you looked hard enough you could see the seals swimming down below. We stopped at Purakaunui Falls to do our best to take a fantastic photo as it was written that it was a popular falls with photographers. I don't think we did too bad a job really! Our next planned stop was Cathedral Caves but we had no idea when the tide was going to be out and that was the only time when you could view them otherwise it was just heading to the beach. We were only too pleased with ourselves when we saw that we were right on time. The beach itself was beautiful mind you with the waves crashing and the wind blowing and the caves were huge and dramatic and you can make your way through one to the other. Two are easily accessible but if you are willing to get your feet wet you can walk further along the beach to few some more. The sea was very cold but we managed to survive. Our last and final stop was Curio Bay, one of the worlds best examples of a Jurassic fossilised forest, again best viewed at low tide which we were just lucky to catch. It is not very impressive to view from above but when you get up and close it really becomes quite cool to investigate. You can see that these stones used to be trees, there were long logs and tree stumps. The stumps actually used to be higher and it was sad to note that they had been cut away at by tourists taking bits home! The waves crashing was impressive as well and we noticed some people get a bit too close and a bit wet.

We made our way to Invercargill to re stock and re energise. It is not that Invercargill appeared to be an ugly place at all but rather not much to do while you are there. It was a few beers at the campsite before heading to bed and preparing ourselves for another day...

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