Blogs from Catlins, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

We left Queenstown since it was raining and drove down to the Catlins a day early. Wonderful coastline and waterfalls galore. We got our own personal audience with seal lions basking by a lighthouse. They were all males and the largest male (with the lion mane) was teaching the other males how you court the ladies. It was rather hilarious. Then we went to see a fossil forest with Yellow Eyed Penguins walking around in it. One pattered right by us!! It was fantastic. We also had a nice camp spot perched on a cliff over the ocean. The next day we went and visited some more waterfalls and went to another lighthouse where we could see elephant seals (we think). More things happened but I only have two minutes left so on to the next ... read more

Written Wednesday 16th March Left Invercargill in the pouring rain on Tuesday morning – and started my tour of The Catlns area – (coast and inland area at the very bottom of NZ) – it was cold and blustery as I visited at lighthouse and the site of one of the worst shipwrecks in NZ history- but there was hope as I could see the odd bit of blue sky and there on the far side of the beach I sighted a sealion through the binocs- more to come . Next stop a fossilised forest on an edge down the cliffs - easy to get to with stairs down there and lo and behold a little yellow eyed penguin sitting on its nest too hidden in the bush. This is a great example of a fossilised ... read more

Our second and final day in the Catlins. We headed out in sunshine to complete our Catlins visit and arrive in Dunedin. First of all we visited Lake Wilkie, a sort of homage to how quickly rainforest can grow, was just a short walk but interesting. Next was the Matai and Horseshoe falls. I took a tripod with me to have a play with my neutral density filter so I got some long exposure shots of these two, then we went to Purakanui falls but by this stage the clouds had gathered and it was raining hard so Helen decided to stay in the car for this one so I went alone! Next was the Tunnel Hill, an old abandoned railway tunnel hand carved out of the mountain in the 1800’s to allow timber trains to ... read more

I was right. Hardly any sleep last night as the wind was blowing so hard the raindrops sounded like pellets being fired into the tent. Despite a couple of tell tale drops showing on the inner tent when we went to sleep last night, we awoke this morning to find a)the tent upright, b) the inside of the tent dry and, c)that the weather had dried up a bit and we were looking at patchy blue sky! Hoorah, very good news for a couple of days which are almost exclusively outdoor activities. Had breakfast, packed up the by now almost dry tent, and then hit the road. One final stop at the Collonial Bakery, had one of their award winning pies, very tasty indeed, and then it was time to hit the highway and explore the ... read more

Our encounter with the adorable yellow-eyed penguins... Notre rencontre avec les adorables penguins aux yeux jaunes...... read more

The tourist dollar seemed to wane somewhere between Te Anau and Riverton and it had definitely disappeared by the time we reached the boundaries of Invercargill. In fact, Invercargill on a Sunday was officially closed. There was little evidence of the much fabled bad hair and checked shirt comments (which have since been withdrawn from all good travel guides presumably on threat of being sued)…………… indeed there was little evidence of anything and certainly no evidence of any chance of an alcohol refreshment after our journey. We checked into the YHA on the main street and went for an exploration of town. The first impressions were that it was a “real” place - a sort of big Greymouth -but for a town of 50,000 population, there didn’t seem to be many facilities unless you were after ... read more

Two ways I journey nowadays - not that I have given up real travel altogether: 1. Internet - it's utterly unbelievably wonderful 2. Travellers come to us Yes we live in a corner of the universe that is slowly being discovered.. our kind of visitors are the outdoor sort - love wildlife, landscape, wild seas, an adventure with nature.. from all continents and all with great stories to tell and opinions from far away.. we adore a lively conversation over a glass of wine or a morning coffee. I spent my twenties overlanding and working, first in Africa then in South America.. grew up in Scotland on a farm, ended up on a NZ farm with a lot of tropics in between! In recent years I have visited Mexico, S France, Switzerland, W and E Canada, ... read more

D'après les conseils d'un gars, qu'on a rencontré sur un parking, le plus bel endroit sur terre se trouve au bout d'un chemin qu'il s'est donné bien de la peine à nous dessiner. Un peu naïfs et désireux de découvrir ce petit paradis, on biffurque et on suit les indications manuscrites. Après une demie heure sur une route en gravier, on perd un peu patience et on se demande où ce chemin nous emmène... La nuit commence à tomber et on se retrouve dans la situation où l'on ne veut pas faire demi-tour après avoir fait tout ce trajet sans savoir ce qu'il y a au bout du chemin. C'est à partir du moment où l'on décide d'aller au bout du chemin que la situation s'empire progressivement. La route en gravier commence à descendre de plus ... read more