22nd - 26th Te Anau to Balclutha (The Catlins)

First day back; slept, did laundry, blog, ate, then slept.

The day we were to set off to Invercargill, was a glorious sunny day, so drove back up to Milford Sound to see that sights we missed on the way back from the trek. It was a shame to leave such a spanky, trendy, sophisticated kitchen and toilets behind. Was like some trendy loft apartment living (but without the loft apartment).

Milford Sound was pretty fantastic, looked at bit Thai with the mountains shooting vertically up out of the lake. Well worth the 4 hour round trip. Got out of the van to take some pictures, but couldn't hang around too long because the sandflies (which seem to love flying into your eyes!) found us within seconds. Blindly we made our way back, to set off back to Invercargill. See Pics.

It took us another 2 hours to make our way down to Invercargill down the Southern Scenic route that took us between the snow-capped mountains before hitting the chilly, windy coast. We were now in the 'Roaring Forties' (the latitudes between 40°S and 50°S, so called because of the boisterous and prevailing westerly winds).

It was raining and getting dark when we arrived at the tiniest campsite we'd been to. It was freezing, and the last thing we wanted to do is start cooking, so we drove down the ghost-town that is Invercargill high street, and found a Chinese Restaurant to get a take-away.

We were undecided whether to go to Stewart Island to see the Kiwis (apparently there are 20,000 of them!), but thought it was too expensive for the ferry and hire of transport when we would get there.

So, we drove to Bluff on the way to The Catlins, famous for Oysters, but didn't see any place to buy them. Drove up to the lookout and picked up 3 American girls on their way up - van struggled up the hill!

We then drove on to Waipapa Point to see more Sea Lions. After that, we drove to Slope Point and tramped for 20 mins in the wind and rain to a cliff edge, in a field, we had reached the most southerly point of mainland New Zealand. (See Pic.)

Next stop on the whirlwind tour of The Catlins, was Curio Bay, where apparently there was a petrified forest in the rocks of the bay - didn't really see them, thought it was a bit overrated. Would of helped if there were signs explaining what to look for.

We eventually arrived at Chaslands Holiday Park near McLean Falls - Eco-friendly place, bit weird. Drove to the next village to get Diesel and some food (20mins away and the only place miles around to get fuel), as it was Anzac day the next day, and was a bit worried that the whole country would shut down for the entire weekend (was on a Friday).
Another day of our whistle-stop tour of The Catlins, started with MacLean Falls, a pretty walk through a temperate rainforest, which was unexpected, to a lovely little falls. The next attraction to see, was Lake Wilkie - pretty dull as was just a small lake. Next thing was Matai/horse-shoe falls, similar to McLean - obviously as it was a waterfall, after all. Following that, we drove miles on a gravel road to Nugget Point and walked a long a cliff edge looking down at the seals, playing in their sea pools amongst the rocks. (See pics.)

It had been a long day of doing the tourist thing, so we thought we would get a drink at the Whistling Frog Café Bar, at our campsite. We were only there 10 mins before we were shoved in a corner (as we weren't eating) to drink our beers - felt like complete cheapskates and unwanted, so made a quick exit to our little van and bread-crumbed fish, pasta and peas.

It was our last day in The Catlins, and we had only one more attraction to see, before we had completely done The Catlins. We drove to the Cathedral Caves carpark and waited for the cave-lady let us down the path to the beach as the tide was still too high to get into them. Waited around 45mins and made a cuppa tea while watching people form an orderly queue in the carpark - weird! Cave-lady then took our $5 (each) and made us wait until the people in front went off ahead - again, weird!

Thought we'd overdone the walking boots, but were happy when we saw people having to take of shoes and socks to nip into the caves before the waves got them. We were actually really impressed with the caves - see pics, but more entertained watching people dodging the waves.

It was time to move on because we had a 5 hour scenic walk to do at Tawanui. It was a pretty river (very British looking), up and down hugging the bank and through the mature woodland. There were loads of fungi and moss- Carl touched a blue one and thought he might die when eating his sandwich. Surprisingly he didn't.

Along the way, we were accompanied by a Fan-tailed bird, chatting and buzzing around us. He followed us for about a kilometer, keeping really close to us and chatting - was like being in a Walt Disney cartoon.

After about 3 hours, not reaching an end to the track, we decided to turn back as we were worried about the fading light, and getting to a campsite. We just got back to the van before dusk and headed quickly to Balclutha, 40km north.

Just made it in time to be let onto the campsite, as it was around 7pm. Balclutha looked like a bit of a pooh place, but the campsite was great, as it was very homely with kitchen and lounge together. We spent the evening making Spag. Bol. and watching Grand Designs, and Forest Gump - felt like home.

Think we completely did The Catlins, so were ready to move on to Queenstown - adrenalin capital.