The Catlins

I arrive back in Nelson on the bus from Kaikoura and meet up with Rory, who is the guy who has my van. She comes with the name of Josephine, a mattress in the back, a cooker and a cool box. He shows me everything I need to know and we agree that I will keep her for the next 3 months.

Josephine

As I have already spent 2 months in the north of the south island, my plan is to take a few days to drive right down to the south, while Josephine and I get used to each other. I park up overnight at basic camp grounds and stop in towns to buy the things I want to make the van more comfortable, including a pillow and spray to kill the sandflies.

I have arranged to meet up with a friend in Invercargill. Gordie (short for Gordon) is from Vancouver and we first met in the hostel in Nelson. We plan to travel together for few days to explore The Catlins, on the south east coast between Invercargill and Dunedin; an area which the Lonely Planet guide book describes as, ‘enchanting.’ It is a land of rolling green farmland, native forests, marine wildlife and rugged coastlines, reminiscent of north Cornwall.  I pick Gordie up from the airport, as he has just returned from Stewart Island and we drive out of Invercargill heading east. We arrive at Curio Bay, which is indeed an interesting and atmospheric place, set within a coastline very reminiscent of north Cornwall.

Curio Bay

In the bay, revealed at low tide, is a flat rock platform, which is the remains of a fossilised forest. As we walk across the rock and start to look closely we begin to see more and more remains of the 180 million year old forest. Tree stumps, fallen tree trunks and imprints of ferns are there to see.

Fossilised Tree Trunk and Tree Stumps 

The sea pounds against the lip of the rock ledge and the tendrils of enormous kelp plants are constantly dragged and swirled back and forth in the gullies.

Kelp

The bay is also home to a small protected colony of 8 breeding pairs of rare yellow-eyed penguins. They have their nests in the bushes at the back of the rock beach and the young penguins wait there patiently all day, while the parents swim out to sea to fish.

Young Yellow-Eyed Penguins

In the evening the Department of conservation warden clears the tourists to the side of the beach, to allow the returning adult penguins uninterrupted access to their nests. The young penguins start to get excited and jump off their rocks and waddle clumsily towards the edge of the sea to meet the returning adults.

Watching the Penguins

There is a camp ground right on the isthmus between Curio Bay and Porpoise Bay, with tents and camper vans nestled amongst the flax. We park Josephine up overlooking the bay and as we settle down for the night we will discreetly close the curtains in the van and leave the rest to your imagination.

Curio Bay Camp Ground

Gordie

The next day, after watching a pod of Hector’s dolphins playing in the swell off the headland, we drive on and make several short sight-seeing stops along the way. This route is firmly on the tourist map and over the day we keep bumping into the same groups of people who are doing the same stops as us. First up is a short walk through cool rainforest to a beautiful waterfall.

McLean Falls

Next stop is a boardwalk across an area of saltmarsh in the Tautuku estuary.

Saltmarsh

Then we visit the Cathedral Caves, which are only accessible 2 hours either side of low tide by walking along a beautiful white sand beach of Tautuku. Even at low tide we are surprised by the occasional surprisingly powerful wave that gets us wet up to our knees and makes other sightsee-ers cling to the cliffs.

Cathedral Caves

A little further along the coast road we stop at a lookout over the beautiful bay.

Me at Tautuku Bay Lookout

Tonight’s camping ground is up 11km of gravel road, alongside the Catlins River and the following day we take a 5 hour walk that heads upstream; crossing swing bridges and stopping for a rest at a natural weir.

Catlins River Walk

In this bush there are rare yellowhead birds and we see a small flock in the trees, but they are too small and well-camouflaged to photograph.

Tonight we camp right by the side of the estuary at a little seaside place called Pounawea.

Estuary at Pounawea

The next day we go a little further along the coast and walk along the beaches at Cannibal Bay and Surat Bay hoping to see sea lions. We are not disappointed. Some sleep on the beach, singly or in pairs and shovel sand over their backs with their flippers to keep themselves cool.  Others frolick in the surf, or gather in small groups at the edge of the water and bark at each other.

Sea Lions

Walking along these beaches I am momentarily confused about where in the world I am. Is this New Zealand, or North Cornwall?

New Zealand or Cornwall?

We drive on and camp at the small, rather charmless seaside settlement of Kaka Point. The small shop looks as if it on the point of closing down and has a strange collection of things we don’t want to buy, on half-empty shelves. The most interesting thing we find in the place is a poster in the shop window for the ‘Open Critter Hunt’ which advertises itself as a day of family fun with wood chopping and possum-skinning. Yeah right – roll up with your small children and we’ll give you an axe and a sharp knife and see what fun you have!

Open Critter Hunt

The next morning it is raining and we drive out to Nugget Point where there is a short walk to a lighthouse. There are high cliffs here and the headland demarks a change in the character of the sea. To the south east the sea is rough, with rolling breakers and to the north west it is calm and still.

Nugget Point

We start our return journey back towards Invercargill via the inland main road and stop in the town of Gore, where there happens to be a vintage car rally. We spend an hour or so strolling around looking at the cars and reminiscing about cars of our youth – Gordie with the Cadillacs and me with the Fords. There is also a Singer Gazelle, which I think is the car that my friend Lindsey had while we were at college and which she shipped out to the USA when she moved there after college. The car was called Mabel and she had to sit with cushions behind and underneath her to be able to sea over the steering wheel and reach the pedals.

Vintage Car Rally

Singer Gazelle

Tonight is the last of this trip and we camp in a country park outside the town. In the morning when it has stopped raining we walk up to a lookout before parting company in Gore. I will be going to do some walking on Stewart Island and Gordie is going to walk the Milford Track. It has been a lovely 5 days and has felt like a holiday outside of our respective travels. We have no specific plans to meet up again; but it is a possibility. Let's see.

Me and Gordie at Dolamore Park