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.

Back to New Zealand.

More than two years after we were last in New Zealand it was time to return. Kerri and Harry spent two weeks doing family catch-ups before I arrived in Christchurch in the first hour of Christmas eve. It was a day of catching up and getting organized to go on the road for ten days.

Christmas day was all about the big family get together as is the tradition for us Westerners. It was a bit fragmented with the morning in Christchurch doing presents and ham and egg breakfast followed by an hour drive South to Ashburton for lunch that spilled over to dinner time.

Boxing Day.
After a bit of stuffing around we set off on our 2,000 km loop around the South Island. We had two cars with Kerri's parents and sister all in on the trip.

Our initial target was Oamaru for lunch. Canterbury is mainly farmland along the coast but there was much to get excited about With a 2-1/2 year old in the car. Everything from sheep & cattle to sprinklers, combine harvesters and milk tankers were common sights along the way.

When we finally reached Oamaru, we took a stroll down the historical precinct on Harbour st. There are some interesting little stores and museums that hold some interest. With lunch time approaching most of us had more pressing interests.

 The main street of Oamaru had more in the way of lunch options which was the main reason for the stop. There's still some interesting architecture in the newer buildings with the local whitestone influencing the designs. This is the Waitaki District Council building.

There was still a long way to go before we reached our destination for the day in The Catlins so we decided to go to the park that Kerri's parents used to take them to as children and let Harry loose for a while. He had loads of fun and wasn't the only one (despite Creepy Dumpty).

The more exciting tale was that of the gum tree branch cracking and falling halfway down the tree. This brought out the fire truck that had Harry absolutely beside himself. He talked about the fire truck in Oamaru for the rest of the trip and beyond.

 

The Moeraki Boulders were the first nature excursion of the trip. Moeraki is a half hour drive north of Dunedin. These boulders are essentially crystals that have had the surrounding sediment eroded away.

This one (below) looks a lot like the Death Star (Star Wars movies). Almost as if it came crashing down & landed on the planet.

Mr Inquisitive had to find out what was in the rock pool that was broken like an egg.

We were on our adventure properly and we'd broken the back of the longest day of driving despite having a solid couple of hours to go.

These below are called Red Hot Pokers and were at the end of the path from the boulders on the beach.

We pretty well drove straight through Dunedin electing to get supplies further south at Balclutha. This is the bridge over the Balclutha River that divides the town.

We eventually made it to The Whistling Frog "Resort" (below) in the Catlins where we would call home for the next three nights. It was dinner time when we arrived so exploring The Catlins would have to wait until morning.

Kalbarri - Murchison Gorge

With the weather closing in, we set of early the next morning for the Murchison Gorge. It still falls under the Kalbarri National Park but is set back from the coast along the Murchison River. The access road runs off the main road that heads east to the Brand Highway. It's bitumen for a fair way before turning into a dirt road. About half way along the black stuff something caught my eye in the cloudy conditions.

This little critter is a Thorny Devil. These are my favorite lizards of all time. It was strangely camouflaged against the asphalt. My new spiky little friend gave away it's identity by the way it was standing tall on it's legs, head up and tail pointing straight up in the air.

This was the first time I'd seen one in the flesh. It's such an unusual looking creature all covered in spikes but was very subdued, easy to pick up and didn't mind being handled.

After we'd all had a good look I decided to take it away from the road and release it somewhere a little safer to bask in the sun.

You can see how camouflaged they are against their natural habitat. What a buzz to start the day?!

15kms on the dirt road later we reached Z-bend. A short walk leads to the lookout to the top of the gorge.

A side trail runs down a small valley to the bottom of the gorge.

It was nice to potter around and paddle the feet in the water.

Harry did surprisingly well with the fairly technical short hike that included scrambling over rocks and climbing ladders.

Latter we ventured over to Nature's Window. A rain front howled across the area just as we arrived but were able to get down to the formation, take our photos and get back to the car between squalls  without getting drenched (well mostly). Everyone who visits the gorge lines up for this shot at Nature's Window. On the other side of the window is a significant drop. Toddlers don't necessarily understand the danger.

As the day went on the weather deteriorated. The cars were filthy by the time we got back to the house. Fortunately the rain during the afternoon managed to wash most of it away. By mid afternoon the weather was horrible and was so windy that the panel of the back fence blew down, almost into the pool. We'd managed to see what we wanted to see while we were in Kalbarri so we weren't complaining. The three boys started to get a bit of cabin fever but otherwise things were fine. The following day we set off for Perth reasonably early. We reached Lancelin for lunch and Perth and hour or so after that.

It was a fairly successful trip and a good test to see how Harry would go on a long car trip. Hopefully next year we can start exploring the Southern coast near Albany or Esperance.