Catlins

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I arrived to a wet and windy Invercargill and was not very inspired to explore the place. However, I did go out for a stroll and while looking in a bookshop I almost invested in a guide to the best pie shops in New Zealand. But only having a couple of weeks left in the country I decided it was not worth it. I did memorise the address of one in Invercargill that sounded nice, so I set off to find it and was rewarded with a good homemade pie for lunch.

I managed to sort out a lift through the Catlins for the following day with an American student, Robert, who was in my room for the night. In the evening I bumped into Kate and Craig who I had met in Queenstown and who had come through the Catlins in the opposite direction.

Robert and I set off early the next morning and took the scenic route along the very south east coast of NZ. The Catlins are very beautiful and is composed of rolling hills and farmland bounded by scenic coastline and dotted with pictureque spots and waterfalls. We stopped at Puranka falls which are particularly famous.

We continued along to Owaka where I was dropped off. It was a bit of a ghostown but the hostel was great and in the end I had the whole place to myself. In the afternoon I walked to and along Surat Bay beach which is known for it's sea lions. Unfortunately I saw only one dead one which was a little grim.

The following day was a first for me: I was to hitch hike from Owaka to Dunedin. It was a little slow going at the start but a local lady and her son gave me a lift to the nearest town of any size. From there a more senior gentleman in his clapped out old ute gave me a ride a little further and from there it was only a very short wait for a young local Dunedinite to give me a lift to Dunedin. The transport worked out fine and I think NZ is meant to be the safest place to hitch hike.

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Photos

Famous waterfall
So famous I can't remeber the name of them.

Comments

[Steve!]

purakaunui falls! my habit of taking pictures of signs paid off! finally..