Blogs from Catlins, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

The Catlins coastline, apart from being sheep country, which pretty much define all of New-Zealand, and maybe Lord of the Rings filming location, kind of reminded me of the shire, is mainly known for it's marine life. Seals, sea lions, penguins and dolphins are among its most sought after residents, present on some beaches and bays, along its long and winding coastline. I've mentioned it before, when I met seals up in the north, that despite the fact that I am no animal hugger, I do see the appeal of spotting those animals in the wild. This time I got to see sea lion in some bay called Canibal bay, and it was pretty impressive. Big hunks of sea mammals, laying on the beach, rolling on the sand or even yawning. Most interesting was the mother ... read more

Rach... We headed further south from Dunedin to an area called the Catlins, passing through green, rolling countryside which, to me, had the character of mid Wales. However, the good weather did not come with us. As we put on our walking boots and rain proofs in preparation for visiting the monumentally disappointing Lake Wilkie, I felt a chilly dampness in the air of the kind I associate with our holidays in Llanfendigaid! The overcast sky, and an intense, penetrating drizzle made me wish that we could somehow ‘magic’ the all Wales gang over here for a night, and have a good ol’ knees up that evening. It took longer to get our walking boots on than it did to complete the allegedly thirty minute walk around Lake Wilkie. To the lake’s credit, it was surrounded ... read more

Hello again everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's celebration! Kirsty and I have been having a great time, and we have been doing a little traveling with our time off for the holidays. As you can see, we used our Christmas break to head over to Queenstown for a few days, and this past weekend, we took some time to travel to the Catlins, an area near here on the very southeast coast of the south island. We were recommended by the girl who lived in our flat before us to have a look, and as we had the time and the means, we decided to take her up on the idea. To be honest, it was a bit of a last minute decision, but our luck seemed to hold, as we called ... read more

I arrived to a wet and windy Invercargill and was not very inspired to explore the place. However, I did go out for a stroll and while looking in a bookshop I almost invested in a guide to the best pie shops in New Zealand. But only having a couple of weeks left in the country I decided it was not worth it. I did memorise the address of one in Invercargill that sounded nice, so I set off to find it and was rewarded with a good homemade pie for lunch. I managed to sort out a lift through the Catlins for the following day with an American student, Robert, who was in my room for the night. In the evening I bumped into Kate and Craig who I had met in Queenstown and who ... read more

Today was pretty much a driving day and stop where ever we saw something interestering.... Our first stop was at Clifden Caves. We decided to investigate. Having pulled up; we checked out the entrance - it looked easily explorable; not only that but a Clifden Caves information panel actively invited people to explore it! It was 300m long and would take approximately 40 mins to do the through trip; the survey was straight forward and the entire route was marked my reflective badges! We dug out our head torches back at the Campervan, returned and started exploring. After a few squeezes through boulders, some stooping, lots of walking size passages, a few chambers, lots of formations, some grafitti, we finally met the crux. A 10m wide/long circular chamber which had been carved out by swirling rocks. ... read more