Friday and Saturday, June 22 & 23

Friday, June 22

Te Anau to Invercargill

Just two hours on the road in scenery that we’d spent a lot of time in. So I read to Jim as he drove.  It didn’t take long to find the Invercargill Top Ten Holiday, but we decided not to check in, thinking we might drive on.  We found the i-Site in the art museum (I’ve learned to use that word very loosely). We thought we’d take a ferry to Stuart’s Island, but a little research showed there wouldn’t be much for us to do and I couldn’t convince Jim that we should rent motor scooters.  To top it all off, it seems that Invercargill is not the southern-most point of the south island, so we’re moving on. So over a pot of tea and two tasty desserts (boy do they make AMAZING cheesecake!), we planned the next couple days.  The ONLY bad thing about the campgrounds we’ve been staying in is the cost of doing laundry. We thought we’d be smart since we had a lot of extra dirty things—sheets and towels this time—so we asked at the i-Site for a Laundromat.  They directed us to the only one in town.  First it was hidden in the back of a dodgy strip mall, there was no sign marking it, and it looked like we had stepped into an establishment in Mexico!  Back to the campground we went, filling their washers and sitting outside with them, reading (Jim) and writing (me).  The campground is beautiful! The buildings are brick; the sites are large with trees and flowers all around.  We’re parked right next to the kitchen/showers/laundry, a cute little block building surrounded by flowers. We sat on the porch, drinking tea and waiting for the laundry.  Fifteen-foot high hedges surround homes and property.  Thy look like yew bushes allowed growing to about nine or ten feet tall and then trimmed perfectly straight, forming an impenetrable hedge around the property.  I had a great visit with the owner tonight and she said they have a tractor with a large army that comes in to trim them. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to her. (Had a nice visit with her about her daughter, the teacher in England.)

Invercargill isn't much to write home about--at least not the areas we found.  They have a historic walk around the town and a have a history of shipping and shipwrecks, but nothing really sparked our imagination.  We feel like time is beginning to run short and there's so much more to see!

One can stew, books, and turning in early. Tomorrow we head to the Catlins.

Saturday, June 23

The Catlins

The southern most stretch of coast is called the Catlins.  It’s probably only about 136 km long, but there are tons of cool things to do and see.  We left Invercargill around 10:15 a.m., heading east. This scenery is lest dramatic, but more like the very north:  rolling green hills, long stands of trees, tiny patches of trees and in other places trees forced at a 45 degree angle from their trunk by extreme wind.  The Foveaux Straights is to our right, rain clouds chasing behind us.

Our first stop was Waipapa Point, the sight of one of the worst shipwrecks in NZ history.  In 1881, 131 out of 151 passengers and crew were killed.   A lighthouse was eructed at the dangerous point.  But even cooler were the five sea lions and one fur seal we saw playing on the beach!  Like the other beach we’ve seen, there are volcanic rocks that make up parts of the beach.  Sometimes the wild life is hidden among them.  These guys were not hidden!  Three sea lions and a fur seal converged on the beach and began playing—of course it looked more like fighting, but no one was killed as a result.  A bit later an even BIGGER sea lion joined the band of pranksters and showed them who was the boss!  We watched them for 30 minutes, and then started exploring the rocky beach we were on. We were careful not to step in the pools of standing water, but even we walked away a little damp.  We walked around the lighthouse and then headed back the motor home for lunch. As we ate the rain hit.  

Our next stop was Slope Point, the southern-most point on the south island. Slope Point is on cliff about 40 feet above the surf.  A small electronic lighthouse marks the point and a sign gives the mileage to the equator and the South Pole.  However the sight is entirely on private land.  The trail is a fence line.  We sat in the motor home and walked ugly rain clouds roll in off the ocean, but there was some blue sky too.  Taking the chance that the blue sky would win, we headed out with our cameras.  The wind pushed against us, trying to keep us from our goal.  Once there we were cold and quickly started getting wet: the rain clouds won! Our tramp back to the motor home was faster than the downhill trek to get to Slope Point.  We warmed up with a cup of hot tea.  The wind was blowing so hard, there was a draft around the refrigerator.  Had we stayed much longer, we would have had to move the motor home to put the back to the wind.

Our next stop was Curio Bay for penguins and more sea lions.  On the way there, we were sidetracked by a sine for a petrified forest revealed on the beach.  Not sure what we were going to see, we headed down to the rock terraced beach and saw, standing on a rock above the ocean, a yellow-eyed penguin.  He must have been two feet tall with yellow feathers around his eyes. It was not hard to see his white belly against the black volcanic rock.  We waited a little longer and started seeing more up around the bush line taking shelter for the night.  Soon we watched two more come up on to the beach.  Soon the old man out on the rock started to head in for the night.  We figured that his tribe was in for the night.  On the return walk to leave the beach, we realized we were walking on the petrified wood as part of the beach.  

We saw a campground as we turned to go to the Petrified Forest, so we headed in there.  It’s a Department of Conservation Camp, some sites have electric, it costs $2 to start the showers and there are toilets.  You drop some money in an honesty box to camp here.  It’s an amazing spot, just east of the beach where we saw the penguins…we could walk back to that beach in minutes! However, we got ourselves stuck here.  Jim tried valiantly to get us out to no avail. We did stop to pray first and I’m really glad we did.  He walked to another campsite and two little woman walked back with him to help push us out. With a their help and the blessing of God we got out of muddy mess! We’re safely tucked away in a spot where the tall plants protect us from the strong winds.  The temperature at 6:30 p.m. was 6 degrees C. I think with all the adventure we’ll sleep well tonight!

We may not have made it very far, but what we saw was amazing!