Behind door number 2 on our advent calendar was a snowman. After brekky we left this lovely camp site and the gorgeous animals. We drove into Invercargill first to get some food from New World before heading east to The Catlins which is a sparsely populated area known for it's rugged natural beauty. We drove towards a place called Otara and then down to Waipapa Point on the coast hoping for an encounter with a seal or a sea lion for which this stretch of coast is known for. We parked up and went on a walk towards the beach and the lighthouse which was at the far end of this promontory. This area was indeed ruggedly beautiful and very windswept today. The wind was blowing quite strongly and with the wind chill it was extremely cold. It was bitter and definitely the coldest place that we have been on our travels. The beach was lovely golden sand littered with heaps of big straggly seaweed. It was a dramatic place. As we scanned the sea we saw movement in the water. Something was swimming about and bobbing up and down. We watched as this black shape got nearer and nearer before it clambered out of the water and flipped itself onto the beach. It was very big sea lion. It was totally amazing to see this beautiful animal so closely. He was on the beach showing himself off and he must have known how gorgeous he was! We got some great photos of him on the sand and frolicking about in the sea. After this most incredible sea lion encounter we walked back to the camper van feeling very cold but happy. After this we continued our drive through The Catlins to find a camp site at McLean Falls. On the way there we found ourselves behind an old white camper van that was being driven very erratically. It must have been a 'European Vacationer' driving it as they spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the road, even approaching some corners over the central line. They frequently swerved across the road no doubt uttering the words 'Je vais conduire sur le droit si je veux'. We followed with our hearts in our mouths as at any moment we were sure that an aggressive and demented Kiwi was going to come flying round a corner going at silly kilometres an hour and crash straight into them! Amazingly they survived and turned off at the Mclean Falls road just before us. We thought we'd leave going to the falls until the morning when it would probably be quieter. We checked in at the camp site just off the main road and chilled out for the rest of the day. The wind had now dropped and the weather was beautiful and sunny. We ended up being the only camper van on the camp site which was wonderful. We had a very peaceful night.