Blogs from Catlins, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Our drive along the Southern Scenic Route beginning from Fiordland and ending in the beautiful Catlins region, was undertaken in two stages. It began before our Stewart Island excursion due to a slight hiccup in the ferry reservations, so with a day to burn, we covered the coastline west of Invercargill on a whistlestop tour of the recommended sights. On our return from Stuey, we spent two more days of solid touring along the eastern section before reaching the major city of Dunedin. We would definitely say that the eastern section has a far greater abundance of jaw droppers but can't dismiss the western coastline - the rugged beaches backed by the mountains of Fiordland, are an awesome sight. The western scenic drive began for us in Invercargill following State Highway 99 to Te Anau. The ... read more

It was with waves of nausea from my self-inflicted hangover that I left Queenstown and all my good bus buddies and went into the unknown of the deep deep south of NZ. First stop Dunedin where I saw the steepest street in the world. Yes, I thought it was interesting too. Dunedin is a very student-dominated town with the University of Otago, and all locals call studenty hangouts "Scarfey" bars (Nic, it looks like you weren't the first to coin that phrase, sorry). It is also supposed to be like Edinburgh and is heavily influenced by the first Scottish settlers here. It was dull and grey and cold, so I suppose it was very like Edinburgh! I couldn't face the Speights Brewery tour, not in my state, so I opted for a Cadbury's Factory Tour instead. ... read more

Our last Stray driver and our guide to the Catlins was Noddy. A nice enough bloke, but very opinionated and always having a dig at the Aussies for one reason or another. We made several stops on the trip up to Dunedin at: a fur seal colony, a petrified forest preserved by molten lava millions of years ago at Curio Bay, three Hector Dolphins playing in the surf at Porpoise Bay and then a walk down to see yellow eyed penguins at Nugget Point.. but they were hiding! At Dunedin - 'the most scottish town out side of scotland!' - we stayed in the On Top Backpackers, a brand new hostel built with a 16 table Pool bar on the groundfloor. Lin went for a walk around town and the shops while I went on a ... read more

Dunedin to Owaka in the Catlins is 115km and from Owaka to Invercargill is 130km. Be prepared to stay the night somehwere. Good DOC camps n this area. Mostly sealed roads now as of 2005. Golden sand beaches and long stretches of isolation. You have to get off the main road to really see the Catlins. Going south on Route 1 you will go through Waihola (25km). on the left is Lake Waihola. Next is Milton(17km). On south on Route One to Balclutha where the Clutha River passes through on its last leg to the sea. If going to take the turnoff to the Catlins be sure to get fuel and stock up here. (Good butcher on the right leaving town by the way). Can't miss the turnoff on the left leaving the town of Balclutha. ... read more

Stopped in Owaka for a couple of nights in a nice ensuite room ( so much for our camping ). This is the main town in the Catlins, an area of countryside that is apparently very beautiful unless you've lived most of your life in Devon in which case it is exactly the same. Anyhow, we went for a couple of short walks to look at some local holes, one in the ground called Jack's Blowhole ( Sara was very disappointed to discover that this did not actually do any blowing and therefore reckoned that it sucked quite a lot ) and a few in some cliffs called the Cathedral Caves that we couldn't get all the way into on account of the penguin sentries living inside. ( that Nick managed to tread on ) ... read more