I returned to Invercargil for a night after Stewart island where I didn't do very much, Invercargil is a city, but a small one and even though it was a Saturday night it was not the most happening place. Although in the city's defence I didn't go looking for a party and was pretty happy just to chill in the hostel! Two of the people I met on Stewart Island were driving back to Dunedin via the Catlins and very generously offered me a lift which a accepted. I had very much wanted to visit the Catlins area but it's a bit of a nightmare/impossible on public transport.

It was a pretty nice day, we stopped off first at Curio Bay; where there is a petrified forest, penguins (although they were all out at sea when we were there) and the potential to see hector's dolphins (the smallest in the world). When we first got there the dolphins were nowhere to be seen so we decided to check out the petrified forest and come back and low and behold when we returned the dolphins were in the water swimming and playing - a great start to the day.

We carried on along the coast stopping at a workshop of a man who makes fantastic moving toys out of tin - his workshop/shop was so much fun it was like a little treasure trove! From here we carried on to Purakaunui falls - a really beautiful waterfall - although due to the recent lack of rains it wasn't quite as spectacular as some of the pictures I'd seen - but I wasn't complaining as I was dry and had been on my entire 3 day walk on Stewart island.

After that we visited a beach to see some sea lions - and we did see one big guy lying on the beach sunning himself. And then we carried on to nugget point - the catlins coastline is beautiful It's incredibly rugged (at times it reminded me of the Donegal coast) and interspersed with beautiful beaches. It has fantastic wildlife; dolphins, penguins, seals and sea lions and when you get the right weather it is just beautiful! I felt extremely fortunate to have met some really cool people who gave me the opportunity to check out this corner of NZ which is a bit off the beaten track.