I enjoyed a hotel Big Breakfast this morning at the Langlands. It was very generous ( too much food for me) but I was back to my mushrooms and tomatoes at last ( and they had both!) . We liked this hotel and would recommend it to anyone travelling to Invercargill, but by 9am we were on the road and heading east across the bottom of the island. The landscape is all agriculture, mostly sheep and some cattle, and it was very, very green after all the rain. Whe we left Invercargil it was still quite cloudy but the cloud was high and the skies reasonably bright, but the clouds gradually cleared as the day progressed.
Not long after leaving the city we were down on the coastline again, with shallow river estuaries which looked to be a good fishing spot. Our first stop was Slop Point – the southernmost point of the Southern Island. To get there from the carpark ( which had a rather gorgeous information shed) we had to walk for about 15 minutes through a very muddy sheep paddock. We are definitely going to have to declare our shoes when we get back, it was nigh impossible to avoid the sheep poop!
At the end of the trail was a small NZ Maritime light and a signpost ( in the now familiar bright yellow) to show us that we were definitely closer to the South Pole than the Equator.
We were so lucky that the wind from yesterday had dropped, it made the walk down much more pleasant not to feel like we were going to be blown over the edge!
Back in the car we continued east through the pretty green countryside until we arrived at Curio Bay, which is of international significance for its Petrified Forest dating back to the Jurassic period. The tree fossils here, similar to Kauri and Matai, are approximately 170 million years old. The forest was alive when New Zealand was part of Gondwanaland. They say it’s best seen at low tide, an unfortunately for us it was nearing high tide when we arrived. However we could still make out some of the long straight stone “logs” of the ancient trees.
Curio bay is also the nesting area for some of the rarest penguins in the world. We walked along the “Penguin Walk”, but they are in their nesting phase now and the closest we got to seeing one of them were the information signs.
A few kilometers down the road we stopped at Florence Point Lookout, which had a lovely view down to the beach below. By now the sun was really out and proud and the water colour was gorgeous.
By this stage we were making our way through the Catlins , a rugged coastal area of podocarp rainforest that runs down to the sea and has several lovely waterfalls. We stopped in to take the short walk to Matai Falls and Horseshoe Falls. The forest was so pretty with the sun peeping down through the mossy trees and palms.
Our nest waterfall was Pūrākaunui Falls, which is one of New Zealand’s iconic, most-photographed sights. These lovely three-tiered waterfalls feature on lots of New Zealand postcards and calendars!
It was another 50 minutes along the road for us to reach the place I’d really been looking forward to seeing in this part of the country, the Nugget Point Lighthouse. This is another one that makes it onto lots of postcards, and we were so lucky to see it today under sunny skies. Nugget Point has dramatic views of “The Nuggets’, rocky islets that surround the steep headland. These wave-eroded rocks, which are likened to the shape of gold nuggets, were very easy to see from the viewing platform at the Lighthouse.
The walk from the carpark is a little hair-raising though – the steep cliffs drop away below the path and I really wasn’t comfortable with Neil walking a little to close the the edge for my liking!
ON the way down to the point we had passed a sign saying that sew lions could be seen for the next 2.3 km and sure enough there was one lonely guy on the beach. To be honest, I think he was in a bad way, he hadn’t moved much from the time we went down to the lighthouse until the time we went back, other than raising his head and crying out a couple of times. When I zoomed in on my photos I could see how raggedy his fur looked – I’m wondering if he had come up the beach to die 🙁 Across the road from the beach there was yet another field full of sheep and lambs – we have seen hundreds of nursing mothers with one , two or in this case three little lambs running behind them. Today we also passed a couple of very dead little lambs being eaten by hawks – but I didn’t take any photos of that!
From Nugget Point we had another hour drive north to Dunedin. We pulled in to the Distinction hotel at 4pm and, after dropping our bags, set out for a walk up the town to see the gorgeous old railway station. It is one of the city’s most prominent architectural landmarks, taking pride of place in the central city. Dating back to 1906, this stunning old dame has white Oamaru limestone facings on black basalt rock, giving it a dramatic air and it’s ‘Gingerbread House’ appearance. The blossom trees were blooming out thr front of it too, a really pretty picture.
WE stopped in at the Noisy Brewery so that neil coul sample a local brew. It’s Friday night tonight and the place was buzzing, we though we were lucky to get a booth – right next door to the brewing tanks!
We were pretty hungry as we had skipped lunch, so we walked back through the center of the town through the Octagon, which is an eight-sided plaza l in the heart of town. It serves as the city’s central meeting point and is surrounded by significant buildings such as the Dunedin Town Hall and St. Paul’s Cathedral. There were several cafes, bars and restaurants in the area and they were all packed! We walked down through the town and stopped in at Speights Ale House for dinner. They were booked out in the restaurant but we manaed to get a seat in the bar area – whi knew Dunedin would be so busy tonight!
Speight’s was founded in 1876 in Dunedin by James Speight, Charles Greenslade, and William Dawson. By 1887, Speight’s had become the largest brewery in New Zealand and was exporting its beer to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Although they have expended and, from my point of view, seem to be the most prevalent brewery throughout the country, they still seem to maintain a strong connectio to their roots with their marketing slogan, “Pride of the South,”
The Ale House was a lovely space, it had a real grand old pub feel. I really enjoyed my Porter sausages and Mash , but Neil wasn’t as lucky with his ribs and thought the beer was just OK, So I don’t think we’ll be bothering with any more of their ale houses.
We walked back to the hotel in the chilly evening wind. Tomorrow we are driving the Central Otago Touring Route, which will take us back up into the alps to Wanaka.