Penguins, dolphins and sea lions – not!

Penguins, dolphins and sea lions – not!

Leaving Invercargill on the Southern Scenic Route, we drove to Niagara Falls, apparently so named by a surveyor with a sense of humour!  We parked up, donned hiking boots and jackets, then realised that the falls were just the other side of the road.

From there, we picked up the Catlins Coastal Heritage Trail, heading back to the west.  We stopped off at Waikawa Bay, a former whaling station and port, with yet another museum.

Next we arrived at Curio Bay, luckily at low tide, as this is the site of the petrified forest, dating back to the Jurassic period.  This was formed when an erupting volcano showered the area with volcanic debris and impregnated the trees with silica, effectively turning them to rock, and it stretches from here to Slope Point, 20km away.  You can quite clearly see the shape of the logs and woodgrain in the stone.

We then walked across to Porpoise Bay, home to Hector’s dolphins, one of the world’s rarest.  They are so rare that we didn’t see any, nor the yellow-eyed penguins or sea lions that live here.  We did find some lime and strawberry milk shakes, though.

After that, it was time for another gravel road.  We drove to Slope Point, the southernmost point on South Island.  From the parking area it is about a well-trodden 20-minute walk down to the point itself.  For a few minutes we were the southernmost people in South Island!

The gravel road then led us to Waipapa Point, scene of the worst maritime disaster in NZ, where the SS Tararua sank in 1881 with the loss of 131 lives.  After the disaster, they built a lighthouse there, the last wooden one built in NZ, with the actual light room being manufactured in Scotland.  We did finally get to see some sea lions – on the beach about 100 yards away!

In case you’re wondering how I know all these facts – there are excellent information boards all along the Heritage Trail, full of stuff about the flora and fauna at each site.

We returned to the Scenic Route and made our way to Bluff, the southernmost town on South Island.  We’d planned to stop overnight here, but the place was quite dreary and the campsite very expensive, so we decided to return to Invercargill instead, via an excellent restaurant, the Thai Thai in Tay Street.

We’ve been bombed again today!  The wind has been howling all night, with 60kph predicted this afternoon, and we keep getting torrential showers.  The forecast for all the places we’re planning to visit over the next week is more of the same for the next five days, so we’ve decided to stay put and get all our cleaning and washing done.  Tomorrow we’re off to fiordland.