The Catlins
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2004
1
19
41
Trip End
May 09, 2005
Papatowai,
New Zealand
Monday, November 22, 2004
The first part of the East section of the Southern Scenic Route is quite boring until you reach the area around Fortrose. Waipapa Point was my first stop. There I walked through the grass toward the beach. A sea lion was laying in the grass and scared the crap out of me. Luckily it didn't really care about me. I headed down to the beach where I could see many females and one large bull. As I took a few pictures a guy drove up on an ATV. He was getting closer than I would on foot. He let me hop on the back for a ride down to see some fur seals he spotted further up the beach
Curio Bay - 1
. They were as lazy as the sea lion in the grass so we headed back to the sea lions near/in the water. They were very active and aggressive since it's mating season. After I got off the ATV I continued taking pictures frow what I thought was a safe distance. Apparently the female in the water didn't think so. This was the first of a few animals which would chase me on beaches throughout the Catlins.Next I headed to Slope Point with minor car troubles in between. Slope Point is fairly boring except that it's the farthest South you can be on the South Island. The twenty minute walk through a farm field was barely worth it in my opinion (not to mention the gravel road).
Curio Bay was next on the list with it's fossil forests, penguins, and dolphins (also in Porpoise Bay). The fossil forest was cool and I found a Yellow Eyed penguin wandering around the forest as I was. I did not see any Hector's dolphins which are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world. (I did meet people who saw them the next day).
After a drive which involved many gravel, dirt, and paved roads at all kinds of angles and curves, I settled down in Papatowai at the Hilltop Backpackers which is just a farm and quite unlike regular hostels
Curio Bay - 2
. There are two seperate houses. Sat. night I spent the night in the bottom house and almost everyone there were American. As I drove up the driveway, sheep moved out of the way as chickens chased the car. Once again, animals just seem to love me.Sunday's plans were to head to Balclutha and see how far I felt like going and then turn around. I started the day with the Matai and Horseshoe Falls. Short walks through the rainforest to small and not too spectacular waterfalls. Of course I fell into the next set of falls when I visited Purakaunui Falls. Once again, nothing amazing.
The drive to Jack's Bay brough me along the Catlins River and up to a farm. Jack's Blowhole is basically a bit hole that is deep and set off by a big chunk of land from the sea. Of course I walked the path to it, which apparently every sheep and cow had also walked and crapped on.
As these things became tiring and a bit uninteresting I headed toward Surat Bay. The sign said something like 52 kms and I wasn't interested, especially when Cannibal Bay was only about 8 kms away. The road to Cannibal Bay was probably the worst one I had to drive on
Matai Falls - Me
. Basically a one lane gravel road set on a farm. The road curved constantly and made it hard to judge if there was oncoming traffic. On arrival I knew Cannibal Bay would be cool. I was actually at False Inlet, but it was still cool. I ran into about six lazy sea lions laying in the sand. At first they look like they might be dead and washed up on shore because they just lay there. The most movement they made was to flap a flipper to brush and on to themselves and swat flies. These were hardly similar to the sea lions I had seen the day before at Waipapa Point. As I made my way to the end of the beach I also noticed a small mouse running across the sand. For some reason it actually ran toward me and ran into my boot. I left it alone and headed up a sandy trail which I would find led to Cannibal Bay. Up the trail a bird starting chasing me on foot. At first I thought it was flightless so I didn't pay much attention. Once I made it to Cannibal Bay I found another two lazy sea lions on the beach. I walked as far around as I could, climbing on rocks as the waves crashed toward me. In the other direction I apparently did something to annoy another one of these "flightless" birds. It called another one over and they flew right at me and very low. I ducked and they pulled up. Animals love me. They repeated this action twice and I may have gotten some of it on tape. It's probably just be shaky camera work and a little swearing though.
McLean Falls - 1
After at least an hour I felt I'd move on. I headed East again and made my way to Tunnel Hill. It turned out to be an old railroad tunnel built in the 1800's and shut down in the 1970's. The "Torch recommended" sign was quickly ignored and I headed into the tunnel alone. About half way is when you start making things up in your head and seeing things that aren't there. The only things visible at that point are the opposite ends of the tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel is mud and a sign that tells you to turn around because this is the end of the tunnel. Not very rewarding.
"On to Nugget Point. First I'll roll down the window. oh crap. The window fell. I can't roll it up." That's basically what I was thinking when yes, the driver's window fell off the track. I decided to forget it and drive to Nugget Point. The whole way I could hear the window rattling in the door. It was kind of funny until it got cold. Then it was just cold. Nugget Point seemed to be the spot where everything was telling me to turn around and go home. My camera batteries ran out and the window and I think the lock on the door also. Nugget Point has a lighthouse and just below it one can usually spot seals or sea lions swimming and resting. I did see many of them but only got a few pictures before my camera battery was dead.
From there I turned around and headed back to Hilltop. Sunday night I got to stay in the upper house in a twin room. I met two Swiss and three Scottish people who were cool to hang out with. Two of the Scottish guys were fun to talk about music with and one was a DJ. He said his name was Miles and he was heading to Australia in a few days to tour
Nugget Point
. The Swiss girl thought this was amazing and that he was famous, which gave us a laugh. Evidently he is somewhat successful because as we sat there a commercial came on and they said "Hey, that's your tune". The night was good except for the 24 hour U2 channel on tv.This morning I woke up and headed out around 10:30. I went to some of the Falls I skipped on my way East. The rainforest walks to Lake Wilkie were nice, but the lake itself was boring. McLean Falls was probably the best of the waterfalls and the walk was as good as the others. I then headed back to Porpoise Bay to see if I could spot some dolphins. As I made my way down to the beach, I completely missed a sea lion laying in the sand until I was about six feet from it. This scared the crap out of me and I jumped back. Some Kiwis on top of the grass above the beach had a good laugh as did I. I made my way on to the rocks as far as I could get without getting wet, but there were no dolphins in site. I decided to have another return trip to Waipapa Point and once againt only saw one sea lion. From there it was an uninteresting trip back to Te Anau with my first McDonald's in months. Total, I drove over 700kms.
I will have to return.
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