14/8/9 Invercargill

We left Dunedin at 7.45am and travelled through Balclutha (shores of the Clutha River) which is the capital of the central otago region. The Clutha river is the largest river in NZ by volume and flows at 300 cubic meters per second so is pretty big !!! Balclutha has great street names both Elizabeth and Smith Streets which Phil said must be where the pikeys live !! We joined the Southern Scenic route through the Catlins an area of rugged coastline, isolated beaches, native forest and agriculture. Our breakfast stop was for fresh toasties in a beachside cafe in Kaka Point. The owner Paddy and his dog made us very welcome and the views over the beach were lovely as was the log fire. we drove on for a while and stopped at Nugget Point where there is a lighthouse and took a short stroll to see the views and the nuggets. They are rocky outcrops which reflect sunlight and look like golden nuggets from the sea. We spotted several seals basking on the rocks in the morning sun and you could hear them barking over the noise of the crashing waves. Skip took us for a walk on Cannibal Bay to look for sealions so called because human reamins were found on the beach and presumed to be the result of cannibalism by the Maori but forensic testing revieled they had just been buried there and not eaten after all but the name stuc. He immediately saw a huge male lying on the beach just ahead of us. We were able to get quite close before he moved off into the sea but it was great to even see one at all. We found another two in the sand dunes sleeping but left them alone and returned to the bus to continue. We stopped and had lunch in a bar in the township of Owaka (of the boat) and we had the smallest salad either of us had seen before but its good for our ever expanding waistlines !!! After lunch we stopped at Tautuku Beach with fabulous views across the bay and views to a massive blowhole in a rock out to sea...it blew a few times for us but the sea was unusually calm. Our next stop was to walk through the bush to McLean Falls which were completely hidden until you were right at them. There were a huge series of cascades and waterfalls and we were able to walk onto the rocks right next to the water for photos. Our final stop before invercargill was at Curio Bay famous for a peftrified forest and rare Yellow Eyed penguins. We walked onto the beach to see the fossilised remains of trees washed there by a huge volcanic mud flow 180 million years ago !!! There were rocky trees strewn about the beach and tree stumps everywhere...apparently there is a similar one in Dorset but only three known ones in the world!! We stayed on the beach for an hour at dusk hoping to catch a sight of the little penguins coming onto the beach for the night but alas no signs of them !! The sea had put on a good show for us crashing waves against the beach and cliffs though so we hadn't had a wasted time. Once in Invercargill, NZ southernmost city, we went to the Speights pub next door with Skip the driver for dinner and a few drinks. We then went on a bit of a pub crawl round some of the local bars where we saw some briliant mullett haircuts and some "boguns" as Skip called them (chavs/pikeys) . After chatting liz and Skip found out they were both born on 5th Jan 1972...how amazing to find Lizzies twin !!! Liz starting dropping off in one the last bars so got dropped off by Phil and Skip who went for a last drink before bed themselves..