The Catlins

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Wifi has been hard to get the past few days, so I'm a bit behind on posting.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday making our way slowly from Te Anau (Doubtful Sound) to Dunedin. The distance isn't long, but there are many places to explore in between. The area we explored is called, "The Catlins", and is an area of New Zealand where rolling farmland meets the Southern Ocean. I wasn't originally planning to include this area in our trip itinerary, but when I booked our flights I accidentally booked our return for March 9th, not March 8th, so we had an extra day to explore. Gee. What a disappointment. ;-). Having seen this area now, I'm so very glad I made that "mistake".

Wednesday night we stayed on a farm on Slope Point Road in The Catlins. There wasn't a real address, just Slope Point Road, so you can imagine how remote the area is and how few farms are located on that road. I was excited to see how close the farm was to Slope Point, only about 3km. Maybe I should have known, but when you are planning a trip to a place 8,000 miles from home it's hard to know. I accidentally came across a picture of Slope Point on Trip Advisor when I was researching the South Island and was determined to get there. Slope Point is the southern most point of the South Island of New Zealand. There is this nifty sign indicating the distance from both the equator and the South Pole at Slope Point and I just had to see that sign. I may never be this far south again! (Though Antarctica and a visit with its penguins is on my bucket list. Fingers crossed on that one.) What I didn't expect was what one must do to get to Slope Point. We found ourselves driving deep(er) into sheep country on a gravel road looking for a trailhead. Much to our surprise, there was a little pullout on the road and a sign with an arrow pointing us to Slope Point through a pasture. Another sign on a farm gate asked us to please secure the gate behind us and proceed 20 minutes through the pasture to Slope Point. We walked into the pasture and were met with the watchful eyes of countless grazing sheep. It's not that I've never been in a pasture before, it's just so cool that the people here are so laid back that they trust us tourists with their animals and property. We've hiked through open range and pastures here many times now, going over and through many gates. It just doesn't get old. It's too cool. We walked through the pasture toward the sea and came upon the long awaited sign. The area was so beautiful - rocky coastline as far as we could see in either direction, sheep dotting the hillsides, and the occasional farm in view. There was no fence on the ocean side, just the crumbling cliff dropping off into the water. It was a really neat experience and one I'm so glad we didn't miss.

Thursday we were up and off on our journey early. We had no specific plan other than to arrive in Dunedin by nightfall, but I jokingly told Aaron we were penguin hunting. Some of you may know that my track record for finding unique local animals in their natural habitat is not so good. I'll spare you my whining over not seeing a moose in Alaska, even though supposedly moose outnumber people in Fairbanks (for the record, I refuse to believe that).

Our first stop was on a beautiful rise above the ocean. We were lucky to be there at low tide, and could see the remains of a petrified forest at the edge of the water. Very cool. We walked around the area for a while, exploring the tiny tree stumps and rocks. Because it is yellow eyed penguin molting season, the penguins are shore-bound, so areas were roped off here to prevent them and their nests from being disturbed. The yellow eyed penguin is the rarest penguin in the world, and is now listed as threatened on the endangered species list. We weren't really planning on seeing them here anyway, and the last thing we wanted to do was disturb them, but it was cool to know they were around and we made our way back to the car. We stopped at Porpoise Bay for the views, and to hop around on the rocks we could explore at low tide. And then there he was...a penguin!!! We were walking back to our car across the bluff, and the penguin was sunning himself between the rocky shore and the flax plants where they make their nests. There was no one else around at that time, and we stood back and just watched him. It was so, so, so amazing to be seeing a penguin in its natural habitat! We continued down the Southern Scenic Route the rest of the day, stopping for lunch, hiking to a blowhole (a 155 foot deep sinkhole 200 meters in from the sea and connected to the water by a subterranean rocky tunnel), hiking to a lighthouse that was built in 1869 that is still in use today, and enjoying the sun, sea, and coastal breeze. It was beautiful!

We arrived in Dunedin around 6pm and are experiencing serious culture shock! Dunedin is a town of over 100,000 people. There are traffic lights, roundabouts, cars, stores, and people everywhere! We haven't been in a big city since we left Auckland almost three weeks ago. What a strange feeling! We aren't sure we like it, though it is a nice city. Hard to believe our trip is already winding down. It's gone by so fast! Still a few days to enjoy, though, and we are off penguin hunting again today!

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