After a night of storms that rocked the van and managed to keep us awake most of the night for fear of rolling into the sea, we had a lovely fresh morning to explore the Catlins. Actually, we have renamed the Catlins to 'Sheeplins'. There really are more sheep here than people and God help us if they ever develop wolfish instincts because they must out number people 50:1! It's lambing season though and we spent the first 50km drive watching the fluffy bundles with surprisingly long tails, spring and leap their way through the fields. Cute but we couldn't help but think that surely there is more to what guide books refer to as the 'underrated Catlins'. There was. Much more. We soon reached the coast and the scenery changed from rolling green hills, forest and lambs to dramatic coast lines and steep cliffs sheltering golden sands (for the millionth time, note to selves: must come back in summer).
There are lots of short walks along the southern scenic route and our first was through rainforest to reach the McLean falls, a wonderfully steeped rockface with a cascade of water tumbling with such force that the collection of foam at the foot resembled a dead lamb (concerned about our growing obsession with lambs). After our second walk; a rather uninteresting boardwalk venture through an estuary, we stopped at the Matai and Horseshoe Falls. Both pretty in different ways, the Matai are high and dramatic whilst the Horseshoe Fall is gentle and shallow enough for Charlie Dimmock to replicate as a garden water feature.
Our next stop was Purakaunui Falls at which point we had started to get serious de ja vu. We love waterfalls but how many can you see in a day and still be delighted? Four as it turns out because Purakaunui were the most magnificent by far. They cascade over three wide steps and certainly live up to the 'most beautiful falls in Catlins' billing that all the brochures give them.
Our last stop of the day was Cannibals Bay, famed for it's wildlife, although we didn't really expect to see anything, let alone stumble upon a 2m New Zealand (Hooker) sea lion. Fortunately it was in a deep slumber and didn't even flinch as we backed off fast!
We spent the night at Kaka Point Motor Camp (who names these towns?) before getting up at 5.30am to travel to Nugget Point. We didn't quite get the golden glow effect over the rocks that inspired the name 'Nugget Point' but the gorgeous pink sun rebounding off the unusual cloud formations made the early start, and the photographs, worthwhile. Before leaving we walked to the neighbouring Roaring Bay and viewed the comical and very rare yellow-eyed penguins, waddling from the hillside into the sea to catch their breakfast. As soon as they had disappeared from view we chuckled all the way back to the van at their antics and then did the same thing - tucked into some breakfast before heading north to Dunedin*.
* We can't prove that the penguins were heading to Dunedin of course but it finished the update nicely...
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