Ta-ta Te Anau - next stop Owaka

---

It's a long old drive from Te Anau to Owaka, in the Catlins region, that takes in the whole of the Southern Scenic Route, via Invercargill and Riverton, along the south coast of the South Island. And it's meant to be very pretty indeed.

However, let me tell you that on a day with limited visibility, scattered showers and low cloud, there's little to nothing 'scenic' about this drive.

And I'm not being bah humbug about it - I can tell you that when I stopped to look at the ocean, I couldn't work out where the sea stopped and the white/grey sky started. And that was the bit that touched the ocean. The rest of the journey was entirely through fields - field after field of green and yellow grass. Sheep, the odd alpaca and plenty of deer for company but that was literally it.

The highlight was a stop in Riverton, a lovely little town on the banks of the Jacob's River Estuary, and where there is a factory shop for Paua shells. I love my paua shells - from jewellery my mum bought for my 13th birthday, which I still have to this day, to a ring I bought for myself in Liverpool that has had so many compliments over the years I've lost count. I set about stocking up on the shells in the shop, filling a plastic bag with 200g of the beauties within 5 minutes, all for the bargain price of about £5. You can't argue with that.

On the road again and I skipped through Invercargill and on towards Owaka, through more fields. It's clearly very Scottish in history around these parts, with roads and places all with very Scottish sounding names (you don't get more Scottish in my opinion that a road called McTaggart...). The Catlins is a big national park with again predominantly green and yellow grassy hills. I'll be glad when this drive is over...

The hostel is not the gold at the end of the rainbow sadly. It's a converted hospital, that looks like The Royal and smells like Musgrove. I met a lovely couple Nuala and John who are travelling for 3 months and who are equally taken aback by the weirdness of this YHA. Turns out the guy running it is actually a current backpacker himself, who has been handed the responsibility while the owners are on holiday. Imagine that - being on holiday then being given the keys to a 100 bed backpackers and told to get on with it... There are sheets and unmade beds everywhere - he's in a right pickle and could have done with my Mum and her B&B expertise to come in and make everything right again.

A mother and daughter combo are in my room tonight, and managed to upset the mother by using my laptop after lights out at 11pm. She's clearly not used to backpacking or else she'd be used to the fact that in most hostels, half the room would still be on their computers at 11pm. No stress...deep breath Adele - you can find out how Grandma is in the morning...when you turn all the lights on at 7am and shout wakey wakey at your roommates ;-)

---