So, this morning we shockingly left the campsite 'late' (ooooooohhh). They all have checkout times of 10am for some reason even though they're not even busy. Anyway, we filled our water up and left about 10:45. Check us and our rebellious ways! Screw em all I say…

Anyway, after flicking a 'V' to the campsite receptionist as we wheel spun out of the park (don't worry I'm joking) we headed out of Te Anau and south towards the township of Bluff.

Now, Bluff is to New Zealand what Lands End is to the UK. Basically it's the southerly point that everyone visits, matching up to its northern neighbour, in this case being Cape Reinga and at home, John O'Groats.

As you probably guessed Bluff and in particular 'Stirling Point', is not actually the southern most point of New Zealand, that honour goes to some other point (I've forgotten the name but its not important) so I'm not entirely sure why everyone comes here.

Anyway, that seems to be the done thing so we duly obliged and completed our pilgrimage to the sleepy (and slightly run down) town of Bluff mid-afternoon along with the bitter wind and a dash of the fine rain that soaks you through.

Stirling point is at the far end of the town as you drive through and consists of a viewing deck overlooking the Tasman sea and the New Zealand coastline stretching out into the distance as you look both left and right. Finally, there stands a signpost highlighting the distances from here to the major cities and landmarks of the world.

London is 18,958km away.

Anyway, after a few pictures we departed Bluff and entered the Catlins, which is the area of coastline between Invercargil and Dunedin.

It's a really scenic drive as you pass along the edge of the cliffs looking out over the sea before snaking off inland to the lush green hilly meadows.

We had decided that we were going to stay at the DOC campsite at Purakaunui Bay, which was just off the main highway about an hours drive along the Catlin coast.

I had assumed that the campsite would maybe be 5 minutes off the main highway tops. Not quite.

It took us maybe around a half hour of driving in the other direction to civilization into the wilderness, along un-sealed roads littered with pot holes winding along some very ropey looking roads with steed drops to the side.

We did eventually arrive though, just before dusk so we even caught a glimpse of the bay before nightfall. It was quite nice, nothing spectacular, just an isolated bay really that we camped alongside of for the evening. Can't complain for $6 for the night can we.

After a hearty dinner we were off to Bedfordshire, mainly in order to keep warm as it was seriously cold, it was THAT cold even that the flame on our hob froze, seriously no joke.

The next morning, after removing the icicles from our frost bitten bodies we about turned and bid farewell to Purakaunui Bay and headed along the final stretch of the Catlins.

Our first stop of the day way Surat Bay, which is really just a secluded bay well off the beaten track that would be really nice on a hot day (unfortunately for us it was raining - again). Its also home to a colony of Sea Lions but we didn't see any of them either.

Next stop on our list was Nugget Point, which gets its name from the curious rock formation sitting just off the coast, which apparently look similar to gold - wait for it - 'nuggets' (get it? Nuggets, as in Nugget Point). Anyway…

The point is famous really for two things, firstly, the lighthouse that sits on the point itself which is about a ten minute walk from the car park up a gravel track that offers some stunning views along the coastline and out to the Tasman Sea as well as the resident colony of Yellow eyed penguins that reside on one of the bays a short walk from the point.

The prime time for viewing the penguins is mid to late afternoon (after 3pm really) which is when they come ashore, returning to their nests. Unfortunately as ever, we were here at the wrong time (12:30) so, after having a look around anyway we admitted defeat this time in our quest for penguins of the non chocolate variety but were still confident that we would see some at our next destination (the Otago Peninsular).

An hour or so later we arrived at the city of Dunedin (pronounced "Dun-ee-din") which originated as an old Scottish settlement (Dunedin in Gealic means Edinburgh) and is about half an hour down the road from the peninsular.

Our only reason for stopping here today was to book ourselves onto the two tours that the city offers of which we had read and heard so much about. Firstly, the Speights brewery tour (which we will be doing at 6pm tomorrow) and secondly the Cadburys tour (we're pencilled in for 10am on Monday for this one).

Speights is the local brewery for the east coast of the south island and lets just say im a little bit excited about this one. You even get to 'pull' your own drinks when you sample the ales - get in!

Anyway, back on track, where were we?

Tours booked we headed off back out of the city to 'Sandfly Bay' which is one of two main places that is home to a colony of Yellow eyed penguins here on the Otago Peninsular. This one has the advantage of being free to access by yourself.

As well as the penguins the bay also hosts the New Zealand Sea Lion, whilst the peninsular and this area of New Zealand in general is one of the only places in the world where you will find both Blue and Yellow eyed penguins, New Zealand Sea Lions and Seals all co-existing along the same stretches of bay.

We arrived at the bay at about 5pm, prime penguin viewing time we thought, and headed off down to the lookout before spotting a sign that highlighted that the viewing point was actually a 40 minute walk along the beach down below us.

Well, at this point we broke into a jog (shocking I know) as we scrambled down the giant sand dune that acts as the access point to the beach, hopped across a stream before arriving on the beach itself.

It was getting dark by this point and as we walked along toward the hut at the far side of the beach, we were stopped in our tracks by the sight of what we believed to be sea weed moving!

Turns out it wasn't sea weed at all but was in fact a fully grown adult male Sea Lion. He was also right in our path.

All the signs warn you to stay at least 10 metres from a Sea Lion at all times and never - repeat, never, get between a Sea Lion and the sea as this is their escape route if they feel threatened.

Well this fella (and he was BIG) had sat himself towards the back of the beach near the dunes so there was no going behind him, leaving the only possible path as along the waterfront, or more to the point - between the big fella and the water.

This definitely looked a bit ropey.

As luck would have it he obviously didn't like the look of us and hot footed it down the beach and off into the water.

Unfortunately however it was at this point that we noticed the rest of his homies a little further up the beach.

I've got to admit that it was pretty special to be able to get this close to them to view them in their own environment whilst also being on your own (without a guide, if that makes sense). It was also a little bit risky, especially as it was getting darker and increasingly difficult to determine what was sea weed and what was in fact a Sea Lion.

For that reason we, bravely, about turned and headed off the beach after deciding to come back tomorrow, only a little earlier,

I mentioned that the penguin viewing hut was at the OTHER end of the beach, which we didn't make it to. Well, imagine our surprise when, as we were walking off the beach, a little Yellow eyed penguin emerges from the water and begins happily plodding across the beach to the sand dunes at the back where they obviously have nests.

The penguins usually don't come ashore if they see or hear anything strange (such as people) so we were pretty lucky to have one stroll past us. We did keep pretty still though so as not to startle the little guy (they are really small as well).

After our brief encounter with the little penguin we climbed back up the giant dune to the camper (definitely not as much fun going up) and set off for our camp ground for the night which is located about 6km from Sandfly Bay.

Well that's it for now, catch youse all later.

Love and hugs and all that jazz.

Mark and Aimee x