Southern scenic route

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We left Manapouri and Fjordland with high hopes to begin the Southern scenic tour which we had been recommended previously. First stop was the tallest Totara tree reserve to see the tallest Halls Totara tree (see photo). They were indeed impressive although lacked the girth of the Kauri's in Northland. We stopped en route sat the Clifden suspension bridge, reputedly one of the oldest in NZ having been built in 1899 and one of the longest bridges in NZ.

The southern loop road to Invercargill took us through Riverton, an eerily quiet place of around 2000 people surronded by open farmland plains. It was quite a dissapointing route having been cleared for farming many moons ago and there did not appear to be any life in the towns. We found that this theme continued in Invercargill which despite some nice early vistorian architecture and obvious Scottish influence we did not gel with the city at all. The South West of Southland was our first really dissapointing area of NZ.

We then headed on towards the Catlins area, the South of Southland so to speak. This was more interesting a quite a windswept area of rugged shoreline. Of course we had to head to Slope Point, the southernmost tip of South Island. It was a 20min walk across rugged farmland with gale force winds and we were presented with the wild waters of the Forveaux strait. The only land mass South of here is Stewart Island and then onwards to the South Pole, (or is it......)

On the way back we stopped in for a cuppa with a homestead run by a woman from Bridgend (obviously) so Lisa could do her Welshie bit and have a nice Tea.

Onwards to Curio Bay where we observed Jurassic petrified forest (it didn't look scared to me!) which had been preserved and turned to stone 65 million yrs ago! (give or take the odd one). I also saw my first spot of yellow eyed penguins one of the rarest in the world and only found in the Sounds and on the South coast in key locations.
We also caught some view of porpoise bay and LMAO at a guy that edged ever close to the sea until he nearly got washed away!Whilst touring the Catlins we saw some great falls, Mclean and Purakanui both presented different types of view as the photos testify.

Did the tunnel hill walk which took you through a disused rail tunnel, no longer required as the whole of Southland is deforested, a lesson in sustainability to us all!!! Last stop on the route was Nugget Point which had another lighthouse (obviously) and really dramatic coastal view, the SE corner of Southland was indeed much more impressive than the SW.

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Comments

[seafarmer]

good pics
hi from a resident of South Catlins - Like your pics! Glad you had a good trip through our area - but hey we are far from deforested.. the Catlins Forest Park takes up about half of our local land area - and besides, our farmland is highly sustainable, we love our green productive landscape! Cheers and happy travelling, Seafarmer

[apache2020]

Hi many thanks for your comment - I take it back it wasnt the Catlins area that I was referring to RE the deforestation it was more around the Invercargill area. Awesome country you are very lucky to live there and the memory will last a lifetime Dave and lisa