Blogs from Catlins, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Our second and final day in the Catlins. We headed out in sunshine to complete our Catlins visit and arrive in Dunedin. First of all we visited Lake Wilkie, a sort of homage to how quickly rainforest can grow, was just a short walk but interesting. Next was the Matai and Horseshoe falls. I took a tripod with me to have a play with my neutral density filter so I got some long exposure shots of these two, then we went to Purakanui falls but by this stage the clouds had gathered and it was raining hard so Helen decided to stay in the car for this one so I went alone! Next was the Tunnel Hill, an old abandoned railway tunnel hand carved out of the mountain in the 1800’s to allow timber trains to ... read more

Our encounter with the adorable yellow-eyed penguins... Notre rencontre avec les adorables penguins aux yeux jaunes...... read more

The tourist dollar seemed to wane somewhere between Te Anau and Riverton and it had definitely disappeared by the time we reached the boundaries of Invercargill. In fact, Invercargill on a Sunday was officially closed. There was little evidence of the much fabled bad hair and checked shirt comments (which have since been withdrawn from all good travel guides presumably on threat of being sued)…………… indeed there was little evidence of anything and certainly no evidence of any chance of an alcohol refreshment after our journey. We checked into the YHA on the main street and went for an exploration of town. The first impressions were that it was a “real” place - a sort of big Greymouth -but for a town of 50,000 population, there didn’t seem to be many facilities unless you were after ... read more

D'après les conseils d'un gars, qu'on a rencontré sur un parking, le plus bel endroit sur terre se trouve au bout d'un chemin qu'il s'est donné bien de la peine à nous dessiner. Un peu naïfs et désireux de découvrir ce petit paradis, on biffurque et on suit les indications manuscrites. Après une demie heure sur une route en gravier, on perd un peu patience et on se demande où ce chemin nous emmène... La nuit commence à tomber et on se retrouve dans la situation où l'on ne veut pas faire demi-tour après avoir fait tout ce trajet sans savoir ce qu'il y a au bout du chemin. C'est à partir du moment où l'on décide d'aller au bout du chemin que la situation s'empire progressivement. La route en gravier commence à descendre de plus ... read more

I dag skulle vi ud og se på Catlins området. Desværre begyndte det at regne lige som vi kørte afsted ved kl. 8.45. Vi ville starte med at se nogle huler, der kun kan nås ved lavvande. Desværre var var vejen lukket og blev først åbnet igen til aften, når det igen er lavvande. Vi troede ellers, vi kunne nå det i formiddags, men det kunne vi altså ikke. Vi kørte videre til McLean Falls. Vi skulle 6 km. ud af en grusvej for at komme til stien til vandfaldet. Vi tog alle regntøj på og gik ud til vandfaldet. Turen skulle tage 40 min. frem og tilbage, men vi klarede det noget hurtigere. Børnene mente dog ikke, der var noget særligt ved vandfaldet, vi har vist efterhånden set for mange af dem. Vi kørte tilbage ... read more