Blogs from Purakaunui, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Nugget Point We drove to The Catlins as we had arranged to stay over at Nat's family farm. We visited Nugget Point and walked along the peninsular to take a closer look at the lighthouse. We spotted lots of selas playing in the rock pools below us and swimming around the kelp forests around the headland. We drove back down the hill and pulled up at a beach for lunch, where we spotted a massive Hooker sea lion sitting near the dunes. We dashed down for a closer look and he eyed us sleepily as we sneaked up to take a closer photo (leaving his path back to the sea clear just in case!). We left him to his siesta and drove to Jack's Blowhole, but unfortunately the path over the fields was closed for lambing ... read more

The long fruitless drive around yesterday caught up with us this morning and we had a nice lie in and didn't end up leaving the campsite until midday. Today's journey took us in search of a free campsite in Purakaunui that the campsite owner had told us about. On the way there we got stuck in a typical New Zealand traffic jam - behind a big flock of sheep! We watched the flock trotting slowly up the road being herded by a trio of working dogs and a couple of guys in a pick-up truck enjoying a beer as they 'worked'. It was totally like a scene out of a Foster's beer commercial, even if it wasn't quite Australia for the setting ;-) Thankfully, it didn't take us too long to find the campsite we were ... read more