Nick’s world tour

The Catlins is the stretch of land between Balclutha and Invercargil. It’s all forests and wildlife filled bays.

The scenic drive takes in more seals, sea lions and some quaint little villages.

There’s a mapmakers joke of Niagara falls.

Could be the real thing, but viewed from “far away”. At Curio Bay there are a few more yellow eyed penguins, and a petrified forest in an area full of flax plants. After driving past the most southern point of NZ and the site of the worst shipping accident we hit Invercargil. Buzzing it isn’t, but according to the slogan it’s a place where “dreams come true”. Luckily today’s dream is for a nice cheap steak dinner, some more pride of the south and a bed for the night before the ferry to the remote Stewart Island.

Bluff is a typical dull port town, and under leaden skies the small Foveaux Express catamaran heads across for one hour to Halfmoon Bay, or Oban, Scottish theme continuing. It’s nice to see the definition of a calm crossing here is the same as we would use when working in the North Sea: a nice stiff force 6 “breeze”. This boat carries passengers, mail and supplies, including an entire pallet full of soft liquorice. The mind boggles…

The most southerly point of the world tour, it’s original name is Rakiura (Glowing Skies; you can see the southern lights from here), is a large island with 27km of road and has a population of 480.

It’s a quirky little place, with some excellent walking trails, nice quiet coves and some interesting features. Such as the signpost which rotates in the ever present breeze, and a phone box on a remote hill consisting of an ancient phone and directory nailed to a tree under a tin shelter.

There’s a chain to signify that this is the anchor for the south island (Maui’s canoe) whilst he goes fishing on the north island.

The locals are also incredibly friendly and do a cracking blue eyed cod and chips. I only really have time for a couple of days here, and unfortunately have to leave, on an early ferry, enroute upto Te Anau in Fiordland.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.