Blogs from Catlins, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Where we did we leave you last time???......Ah yes, the Farmers Market..... Well, from here we hopped back into Homer and wound our way down to the Catlins, a region that combines lush farmland, rugged bays, wild native forests and a whole host of wildlife, not to mention a severe lack of tourists (not that this has been a problem here!) - not even many locals for that matter! Our first stop was Nugget point, with another cute lighthouse, and one of the only places in the world where fur selas, elephant seals and sealions live together...all-be-it very noisily!! The drive along the coast, and through forests and farmland was, yet again, stunning and towards the end of the day we found a lovely little campsite on a cliff top, but surround by bushes where we ... read more

A bord de notre fidele compagnon Big Billey, nous sommes de nouveau prets a partir pour l’aventure. Cap vers le Sud! Nous nous dirigeons vers la “Southern Scenic Route” et ce qu’elle a a nous offrir. Il s’agit en fait d’une route qui longe la cote sud de l’ile et qui propose une grande variete d’activites et de choses a decouvrir. Premier arret, Invercargill, une ville. Beaucoup moins touristique que Queenstown mais beaucoup plus urbaine de par son developpement industriel et commercial. On croise pour la premiere fois depuis que nous sommes en Nouvelle-Zelande, des feux de circulation et des stops (les rond-points et les priorites de virage sont plus populaires ici)!!! Fantastique, on se sent comme en plein milieu de Longueuil. On traverse la ville sans s’y attarder et en gardant toujours notre objectif en ... read more

It was time to head South... next on the itinerary was the rugged coastline and forests of "The Catlins", a place not frequented by foreign tourists. This segment of our New Zealand jaunt was to coincide with my last days as a 23 year old too. We packed up our tent in Oamaru and began our drive south along the east coast, stopping off in Dunedin for a quick lunch. Dunedin is like a mini Edinburgh with its very own, Prince's Street, Moray Place, George Street and Canongate! Even the architecture looked like it had been plucked from the Royal Mile! We continued our drive south through the beautiful forests of the The Catlins, getting stuck in the odd sheep traffic jam along the way. Our home for the night was a gorgeous hostel in the ... read more

url='/Videos/3995.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3995.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Vid Clip of Me&Sea Lion If You LOVE The LIFE you live You Will LIVE the LIFE of LOVE From Lake Manapouri I set off early and made it to the Catlins Coast Via Invercargill for about 1pm, the Coast line is filled with beautiful waterfalls, sea lions, penguins & fur seals all in their natural habitat, I made it to Owaka just as it was getting dark & made it to a lovely hostel called Catlins Backpackers with an electric blanket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God the things you take for granted back home... Met a few people there and the next day headed off in search of this sea lion that I kept missing along the ... read more

After a surprisingly good sleep in the Larnach Castle stables, we cleaned up in the shared showering facilities (not exactly the Four Seasons) and took on a “cooked breakfast” (in the English sense). Even after several weeks in this country, I am still unable to fully embrace the cooked breakfast concept which most often involves rather more grease than would appear to be healthy. Surprisingly for a Castle, there was no espresso machine. I made do with a plunger coffee which provided the necessary caffeine without resort to instant which would of course have been intolerable. Before departing the Castle, we took the Tour. The place is certainly grand but not on the scale of other “castles” (it has only three main bedrooms). The finishing details (carvings, stained glass, tiling, wood and stone work) are what ... read more