The drive South to 'the Catlins' region was beautiful. For most of the journey we followed a gushing river, surrounded by grassy hills and meandered our way through small towns, before emerging into the plains with enormous mountain ranges stretching as far as the eye could see. At one point the road was lined with fruit stalls and eventually we couldn't resist stopping at one to buy some fresh plums, apricots, pears, nectarines and greengages for a bargain! By the time we reached the 'Otago Peninsula' on the South East of the island, it was almost 9.30pm and we needed to find somewhere to park up for the night. We found a few car-parking spaces designated as 'freedom camping' for campervans - areas where you are allowed to park up for the night free of charge, mostly near a public toilet for your convenience. The spaces for this however were full by the time we got there, so we parked up in a slot next to them for 'self-contained' vehicles only (big camper vans with a toilet on board), shut ourselves in the back and hoped no-one would come round and check before we did a runner in the morning...you can get a $200 fine for camping overnight illegally!

Successfully escaping in the morning before being fined, we headed out to 'Sandfly Bay'; a large sand-dune filled beach cove, with a good chance of spotting sea lions basking on the sand! After about an hour of scouring the beach we headed up to a viewing platform, only to realise that the brown rocks at the edge of the beach were covered in big camouflaged basking sea-lions, drying off and warming up in the sun after time in the ocean. Heading down for a closer look, we observed the half dog, half fish creatures snoring and lolling around, only vaguely interested in us having a good look. We then spent hours walking through sand-dunes, looking at various rock and cliff formations, and admiring vast coastal views in what was a much longer walk from the car park than we had anticipated, with just half a bottle of water between us!

Moving on from the sand-dune filled beach we made our way to an area called 'Brighton', filled with long stretches of deserted white sand beaches and beautiful bright blue sea crashing onto shore. It makes for a dangerous drive along this section of the coastline...with so much to look at constantly it's a challenge to keep your eyes on the road, and you're forever having to pull over to take photos of the amazing scenery! That evening we settled into a campsite, just 100m from the beach, where we battled to make our dinner amongst the Chinese tourists who took over the whole kitchen to make some kind of Chinese buffet, which they unfortunately didn't offer to us!

Next morning we headed further south to a town called Balclutha, where we went and looked at 'Nugget Point'. The view at the edge of the cliffs beneath a looming lighthouse was amazing, with rock stacks and caves scattered into the ocean, while seals and sea lions made squawking and barking noises as they basked and frolicked in the turquoise shallow waters surrounding the rocks. Driving back to the main road we chanced upon a single 'yellow-eyed penguin' wandering around on the beach beside the road. Pulling over quickly, we grabbed the camera and got as close as we dared to get a good view without scaring the penguin off. Notoriously shy creatures, the penguin was having a good look around the beach for any danger and appeared to be drying his feathers off in the sun; our first ever sighting of a wild penguin, we felt we had really chanced on some luck!

That evening we decided to try and view some more of these shy animals, and made our way to a special conservation 'hide' at 'Roaring Bay'. After only 5 minutes of waiting we saw some splashing at the edge of the water, and out emerged a penguin; first on his belly surfing in and then waddling quickly up the beach. It looked so funny coming up onto the beach; unnatural trying to walk in-shore hastily, constantly looking around for any dangers. Preening itself and drying in the last of the day's sun, it was soon followed by three other separate penguins, again surfing in on their stomachs and trying to get up the beach to a rocky area as quickly as possible on their unstable flippers. At this time of year the adults will spend much of their day at sea fishing for food, returning early evening to visit their chicks that they have left hidden in the rocks and bushes on the beach, to feed them their day's catch. It's important not to scare them off or they will return to the water in fear and their chicks will go hungry for the night! Wholly satisfied with our David Attenborough style wildlife spotting, we spent the night at 'Hillview Campsite', run by a jolly expat from Northern England and sampled the box of wine we had bought earlier that day; 'Mystic Ridge'...the most disgusting cheap red wine we have ever tasted in our whole lives...oh well, only a whole box to go :-(

Our tour of the Catlins coastline continued on the 17th March with a visit to 'Jack's Blowhole'; a deep hole in the cliffs, 200 metres inland which in the right conditions will have the water blowing high out of the hole, like a whale...the conditions weren't right and it wasn't really blowing unfortunately! The afternoon was filled with wandering into the forest to see a couple of waterfalls - the 'Purakounui' and the 'Matai'. Whilst not the biggest waterfalls, the locations hidden in the forest made them unique, mystical gems.

That evening we set up camp at a basic DOC campsite in the forest in preparation for a long walk the next day. Being Pancake Day (Sophie's third favourite day of the year after Christmas and Easter), we treated ourselves to a stack of pancakes cooked on the stove outside our van in the evening. We finished the day off with our ritual of a super quick wash in the cold river...while some strange man camping jokingly threatened to come and take photos of the funny event...!

We decided to walk the 24km, two day 'Catlins river - wisp loop track' in one long day on the 18th March, and set off with plenty of food and drink supplies at 8.50am to do so. The walk through the moss covered forest followed the Catlins River, and crossed over a number of wire suspension bridges. Along the way the river was filled with white rapids and small waterfalls, while the forest path was lined with red and white dotted mushrooms, akin to a fairy tale, and surrounded by beautiful birdsong; an orchestra of wood and percussion instruments in chorus. Silver beech and mossy fern trees towered above us for the duration of the walk and some even blocked our path, taking a bit of clambering around to pass. Towards the end of the walk we went up the 'Rocky Knoll' and looked out on the hills and coastline of the Catlins area, which was well worth the short steep hike. After our rather exhausting 8 hour long day we headed back for a warm shower at the Hillview campsite again, where the owner Kevin treated us to some free tomatoes, cucumber and NZ lamb chops for returning, much to Trevor's delight! We even picked a few mushrooms from his garden to have with dinner...after checking with him that they weren't poisonous!

Next morning we begun to head over to the South Western side of the Catlins, via a small quirky converted old bus known as the 'Gypsy Gallery'. The bus was full of odd nik-naks and mechanisms that had been lovingly made into unique toys and motored objects, not unlike a scene from Wallace and Gromit, and which appealed not only to children, but probably more to the fascination of most adults!

That afternoon we made our way to 'Curio Bay' where we took a look at one of the best examples of a 'petrified forest' in the world. Rather than a very scared woodland, this was in fact a vast area of logs and tree stumps from ancient conifers that were buried by volcanic mud flows and gradually replaced by silica to produce the fossils now exposed by the sea at low tide. The logs were now more like solid rock and impressive to wonder at the change that had occurred over many years.

Later that day we headed down to 'Porpoise Bay' on the off chance of seeing some dolphins in the area...about 10 minutes later our luck was in! A couple of body boarders had gone into the water and the inquisitive creatures had come in close to the shore to have a nose at what was going on. 2 small 'Hector's Dolphins', at just 1.4 metres long, came surfing in amongst the waves, their silhouettes visible in the wave just before they broke. They came up for air frequently, whilst playfully and a lot more skilfully than the body boarders, caught the waves and entertained us for a short while. We still regret not running into the water to swim amongst them at that point!!

Our Catlins coast adventure complete, we felt so lucky to have seen the vast array of wildlife we'd managed to, in such a perfect setting, and some of the most picturesque, rugged and empty beaches and coastlines we'd ever come across!