Catlins

So much for trying to spend a few days in the wilderness!  One night and two daytimes was all I could manage.  To be fair, though, that was primarily because I missed being in the mountains.  I think I'm definitely more of a mountains girl than a coastal one, which is strange given where I live in the UK ;-)

The Catlins are very pretty - a mainly forested area along the southern tip of the south island. There were plenty of places of interest listed in all the guide books, so I was hoping to get some good coastal walks in along the top of rugged cliffs and crashing waves.  Well the cliffs and waves were there, but the coastal paths aren't.  All the walks I could find were of the "20 minutes to this viewpoint and back" variety.  I picked the nicest sounding one - Nugget Point,

a random one off a signpost - Jack's Blowhole,

and the southern-most point of the mainland - Slope Point.

Then I declared the Catlins as done and hotfooted it to Invercargill for lunch in the most southern Starbucks in the world.  Now how many people can say they've eaten there??

This afternoon I drove back up to the mountains and have booked myself in to a campsite at Te Anau.  With one evening and one daytime to fill before I start my Routeburn Track experience, I went in to the Real Journeys booking office.  This is the company I am doing the Milford Sound cruise with, so I thought I'd see what else they had to offer.

Result:  Tonight I am going to the Te Anau glow-worms caves, tomorrow I am on a cruise to Doubtful Sound which is much more remote and 3x the size of Milford Sound.  And I got a nice discount through booking several activities with them.  I nearly asked if they wanted to sponsor our band for a trip out..."Real Journeys cruises with Real to Reel Ceilidh Band".  Hmmmm. What do you think?