The Catlins

---

We had the 4th and 5th of April off. So Alina, Andre, and I went to The Catlins in Southland. It was amazingly beautiful.

The drive down there consisted of green mountains with huge drop offs and sheep as well as rolling green hills that reminded me a little of Petaluma, but with sheep instead of dairy cows.

We went to Nugget Point which kind of reminded me of Pt Reyes because of the lighthouse and the coastline. We could see seals in the water and on the rocks, but there was no way down to get any closer.

We saw the Purakaunui waterfall in a rain forest. It was a beautiful short walk to the falls through ferns, tree ferns, and many native trees. I think I wrote in an earlier entry that it looked like all the trees in Cromwell were planted. It turns out they were all planted for timber, windrows, and orchards. I get the feeling that there aren't any native trees in Cromwell, so it was nice to finally see some New Zealand trees. The air was alive with the songs of birds, but we couldn't see any of them.

Then we went to Curio Bay and saw a couple penguins. They were really cute, but it was the end of the day and it was getting dark so I didn't get any good pics of them. The original plan was to stay the night in Invercargill and spend two days exploring The Catlins, but Alina really wanted to go to a going away party for a couple of guys who are leaving in about a week. So we drove all the way back to Cromwell that night. When we were about halfway back we found out that the party was canceled because they went too big on Friday night. Unfortunately by that time Andre had already texted his supervisor saying that he could work on Sunday. So I drove all the way back as Alina and Andre slept.

I'm looking forward to when our days off are staggered. I think working and living with the same person and then spending our weekends together is a little too much.

---