Welcome to the Catlins was the sign we saw entering this area. We are off the beaten path (literally) as we've driven gravel roads today while we traveled through farm land, along the sea, and into a rain forest.  

We first arrived in Fortrose which is situated at the mouth of the Mataura River. This is a good fishing area, and there were many "cribs" or fishing huts situated on the river side.  

We stopped for coffee when we reached the coast at an interesting little "dairy" (convenience store/coffee shop) that had a sculpture of a big bird out front. The owner was playing western music (as in Rawhide) when we drove in and suggested that we have our coffee in his back yard with a view of the coast. No dirty boots inside, please!

Then we went to Waipapa Point. The Maori spelling used to be Waipapapa but they shortened it by one "pa." The name means "basket of sea food." Unfortunately, the Waipapa Reef was the scene of a terrible shipwreck in 1881 when the SS Tararua sank with the loss of 131 lives.  

After that disaster, they constructed a lighthouse on the point, which was the last wooden lighthouse built in NZ and is quite pretty.  

The sandy shore next to the lighthouse is a favorite resting spot for NZ Sea Lions, which are one of the rarest seals in the world. They are more than twice the size of NZ Fur Seals and have a blunt nose, unlike the pointy nose of the Fur Seal. Also, they prefer sandy beaches while Fur Seals prefer rocky coastlines. Hunting led to their near extinction but they are making a comeback.  

We drove on to Curio Bay, which is the site of one of the world's finest fossil forests - over 160 million years old. We could walk among the petrified trees because it was low tide. The trees are evidence that NZ was once part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwanaland; the plant species are similar to those found in South America.

We also saw a very reclusive and rare yellow eyed penguin who was molting and very vulnerable. I hope we see more of them as we travel north on the eastern coast of the South Island during the next couple of weeks.

We stopped at Porpoise Bay with a beautiful bayside beach. The bay is home to Hector's dolphins, but we didn't spot any of them today. I'm glad we saw them when we were in Akaroa.  
 
We are camped at Mc Lean Falls and plan to hike to the falls in the morning. Cathedral Caves are near here, but we decided not to hike to them as it requires wading knee deep to see the ocean-side caves.

The day started very cold, but the sun came out and it has been warming up all day.