As we stopped off at the tourist information in Invercargill J began to feel really ill with a migraine. He took some tablets and had a sleep in the back of the van. After lunchtime when J began to feel better we went to Pack 'n' Save to fill up on supplies. We got some nice food for lunch and went to sit in Queens Park. The park was huge with lots of different gardens, including a rose garden and a Japanese garden. There was also an aviary which we had a look around. The weather was gorgeous and really hot so we got an ice-cream before heading off to find a camp site. At the supermarket we had bought ingredients for a curry as we had both been craving one since South America so cooked that for dinner. It was great and will settle our cravings for a while!

The next day we again woke up to pouring rain. New Zealand's unpredictable weather was starting to annoy us! We headed off on the road to the Catlins, famous for its beaches, wildlife and surfing. So we had perfect weather for it!! Our first stop was Curio Bay, where there is a fossilised forest and penguins. We didn't see any penguins but it was so cold and windy we got back in the van fairly quickly. We then went to Cathedral Caves where there are huge caves in the side of the cliffs which you can walk through at low tide. The lady in the tourist information had told us that the low tide was at 1pm…when we arrived at 12.40pm we thought we had timed it perfectly. However the lady working at the caves said we were too late and that the tide was coming in, she said if we didn't mind wading a bit she would let us down there but we could have to make sure we were out in 40minutes time. So we quickly ran down through the rain forest to the beach. The beach was long with fluffy wet sand which was fun to run along! We waded through the water which was only up to our ankles to reach the caves. Inside we found the passage to be able to walk out the other way but the water looked deeper so we decided to go back out the way we had come in. By this time the water was up to our knees so we tried to time our exit with the flow of the waves. We got back on the beach before heading back up to the car park. We were glad we didn't hang around though as we wouldn't have wanted to be down there with the water much deeper! We continued our drive stopping off at different coves, before we found the Paounaki waterfalls. We took the short walk down to the pretty falls, before heading back off to the car park. The falls were pretty but don't really excite us as we have seen so many and nothing will compare to Iguazu Falls. The weather seemed to brighten up in the afternoon as we headed to Dunedin to stay the night.