The Catlins - Waterfalls, Bays & Nugget Point

After the cold wet weather of the previous afternoon, we woke the next morning to clear skies. We'd concentrated on the area west of the Whistling Frog. Today we'd explore the Eastern parts up as far as Nugget point.

Our first stop was Lake Wilkie (below). It wasn't the most spectacular lake we've seen but the walk from the car was very short so it was worth a look.

The road leading East finds the coast at Tautuku Bay. It's a lovely wide bay with a nice sandy beach and a few waves for the surfers.

From the lookout point where the photo above was taken, to the left (east) you can also see a small island just off the coast.

The island has a blowhole that sprays a jet of water in the air every time a decent sized wave pushes past.

The main access road through The Catlins winds both along the coast and inland to avoid all manner of obstacles such as rivers, inlets and ranges. In one of the inland diversions there is a short walk to two waterfalls, Matai Falls (above) and Horseshoe Falls (below). These falls are nowhere near as spectacular as McLean Falls, but well worth a look all the same.

Along a side road that eventually turned to dirt was yet another waterfall, Purakaunui Falls. These falls were a bit more substantial than the pair we'd just seen.

Harry had been a trooper so far. He was very patient on the long drive from Ashburton and was now doing multiple walks with us.

We had lunch at Cannibal Bay (below). The road from Purakaunui Falls was all dirt and we were glad to take a break from the dust.

Apparently elephant seals beach themselves here from time to time but I suspect they're in Antarctica in summer. Harry couldn't help himself and felt the need to splash around in the little waves butt naked! Despite being summer, the water was still icy!

We set off again and fortunately the dirt road ended reasonably quickly. After a drive a fairly lengthy drive we arrived at Nugget Point. We left Harry asleep in the car with his Grandad in charge, and walked along the track to the lighthouse.

Far below the path on two ledges there were sea lion colonies with lots of pups making a ruckus. There was even a pup training pool on one of the ledges out of harms way.

Closer to the lighthouse we caught a look at the other side of the peninsular where there's an array of mini islands surrounded by kelp forests that the sea lions seem to love.

There's another penguin colony that nests in one of the nearby bays but this time we came up empty. It was time to make tracks back to the house for dinner.

With Harry tucked up in bed, Julie and I went back to the lookout we'd been to earlier in the day to take some sunset photos. The sun goes down late in the day that far south so it wasn't until about 9.30pm that we were able to take some photos with decent colour in the sky and without the sun dominating the lens.

We would have to say goodbye to the Catlins as we were off to Dunedin the next morning. What a surprisingly wonderful place that is nowhere near as famous as other popular New Zealand tourist icons.

The Catlins - McLean Falls, Curio Bay, Slope Point.

This was our home away from home for three nights, The Whistling Frog Cafe in the heart of the Catlins. Our cabin that we thought would be a shoe box turned out to be plenty big enough.

Right on the doorstep of the Whistling Frog is McLean Falls.The trail to the falls meanders through dense rainforest. The first thing we noticed about The Catlins was the lush green. Believe it or not, the water falls below is not McLean Falls, rather a smaller waterfall downstream.

This is McLean Falls. Magnificent!

This is my artistic shot. It took a bit of scrabbling/climbing up slippery rock faces to get to the one I wanted.

Having checked the tide times we packed lunch and essentially drove across the road to the Cathedral Caves. We ate our lunches on the beach with this setting (below).

Cathedral Caves is only accessible at low tide. The waves crashing into the caves on a high tide have created the cave over time.

Once you get to the back of the cave it can be very dark. You have to watch your feet with random rocks littering the cave floor to kick your toes on.

We picked up Pat back the the Frog and set off toward Invercargill. We were looking for wildlife for the most part. Curio Bay is supposedly frequented by dolphins but rudely they weren't there, nor at Porpoise Bay (should have know with a name like that). Curio Bay has a touch of the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland) about it (including the weather).

We got going again to the most Southern point on the South Island, Slope Point.

The South coast is a harsh place as you can see from the wind blown trees. It was windy and cold when we were there in the middle of summer so I can only imagine what it's like in winter.

We didn't hang around Slope Point too long and opted to go back to Curio Bay to watch the Yellow Eyed Penguins return to the beach during the late afternoon.

 

There are only a few thousand of these the rarest of all penguins. There are only eight pairs living in the bay so we were pretty lucky to see four individuals.

What a day! We were pretty excited to find out what tomorrow would bring.