Dunedin and a Day of Relaxation

Today we have used as more of a free day. In the morning we had breakfast and got caught up on the blog. We took a break and headed out to Tunnel Beach. It was a nice beach with a cool little tunnel to get access (hence the name ‘Tunnel Beach’. Just spelling it out for the slow folk). We spent a little time there playing around. Check out our day…











We then headed back to the hostel and did our laundry…exciting day I know.

Once we had completed our chores we headed out to check out the albatross center, what Marian’s been looking forward to for MONTHS. It was pretty cool to see the size of the birds and see them gliding through the sky.





After watching the birds we went out for our favorite food, THAI of course. It was our first meal out in a long time, since Motueka.

Back in the Big City…. Well at Least in Dunedin

It has been over 10 days since we’ve slept in a bed and 3 days since our last shower. It’s time to get back into the city. We left the Catlins and headed to Dunedin. We went straight to the hostel we booked our beds to take showers.

Once we were clean Marian was feeling uncomfortable about her hand. It has been swollen for the last 2 days. Not knowing what it was (but thinking it was a bug bite) we headed to a doctor’s office just to get it checked out. To our surprise and Marians delight we saw all of the charges were on the wall.



After a short wait she saw the doctor to confirm the swelling is nothing to worry about and we went on our way.

To ease our nerves we went to get a taste of home and swung by the first Starbucks we’ve seen in weeks.

We headed to the Otago Museum. Here we saw more features on the Maori people and natural history. Our favorite item was the fossils of a sea monster called Plesiosaur.

After the museum we headed through the gardens to get to Baldwin Street. Along the way we found a rare plant the only blooms once in 25 years. Over the last few years it has grown a giant stem and is currently blooming! Our timing is impeccable! If you want to look up the plant is called an agave we believe.



We continued through the gardens finding yet another aviary. So we checked that out and made our way to Baldwin Street. Baldwin is the steepest street in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records and the sign). True or not, either way it was very very steep.

Curio Bay to Purakaunui Beach

It is another busy site seeing day as we enter the Catlins park. The first stop is the Cathedral Caves. We had to leave early because we needed to make it there at low tide. The caves were pretty cool because they were big enough to walk through. You could walk in one entrance and out the other.











We then went to the Lost Gypsy Gallery which is a bus filled with all sorts of little trinkets. They were fun to play with to see what they did. There were musical gurgling sea shells and old electronics rewired to make little games and jokes.



We then went to the Tahakopa Beach to enjoy the sun. Once we were there we laid out until John could take the wind and sand no more. He thinks if they stayed any longer they would have been buried by sand.



We continued along the way to Jack’s Blow Hole. Visually (especially in the picture) its not too impressive. The impressive part is that you are over 200 meters inland on a cliff side and the hole is filled with seawater through underground channel that brings in ocean water.



We then headed out to Papatowai Falls. This was another gorgeous waterfall here. It was a little different than the falls in the Fiordlands and was neat to see. Check it out:



We finished the day off by heading to Papatowai Beach to camp for the night. We went for a nice beach walk



We then had to cross a little stream to make it to the cliff side. While crossing the stream Maya slipped in and got her sweats all wet. She nearly cried:



We continued the nice walk when we ran into a very grumpy sea lion. He looked like a rock until we got to close and he jumped up. He nearly started chasing us away.



Along the way to the cliffs we ran into a fellow camper who raised our spirits by informing us of a yellow eyed penguin colony at the cliffs. We continued the rest of the way to check them out.





When trying to get closer we were surprised again by another sea lion right behind a rock 15 feet in front of us. Although he was not as grumpy as the previous one we stayed back until he went to the sea.



Once he was gone we got closer for better pictures.



By this time the news had spread and other campers were on their way out. We saw them getting chased by the grumpy sea lion and we had a good chuckle.



The next thing we know, we look behind us and see the viewing crowed that had formed. So we decided to leave and let them get their pictures.



We headed back to the campsite and made one last discovery for the day. Marian found something fluffy in the sand. After we uncovered a little bit of it we figured out it was a dead penguin.



After all this excitement we turned in for the day.

More Car Repairs and the Southern Coast

First thing in the morning we headed straight to ‘All Tyres’ to meet Cody, the contact Chris told us to get in touch with to fix our car. Cody assessed the damage and told us that we are going to be spending the day and possibly another night in Invercargill. He needed the time to weld our wheel back together and to fix the damage to the body underneath the car (which was found in an assessment by a mechanic per our request). He calmed John down by giving him jelly beans

The shop was nice enough to give us a loaner car to explore the city. We headed out to the free Museum in town. It was more interesting than we thought. We saw Henry the Tuatara (a type of endangered lizard) who is over 110 years old! And he produced offspring in 2008! There were also a few interesting natural history exhibits and Maori history exhibits.

After the museum it was off to the Queens Garden for lunch. We ate our sandwiches and took a walk around. There were many pretty flowers and to Maya’s excitement there was an Aviary!





We were finishing off the day by checking a few things online at a café. Around 4:30 we were going to see another site when our friend Cody called to give us the good news. The car was fixed (even with an alignment) and we didn’t need to stay another night! We went back got the car, John even got more jelly beans and headed out of town. THANKS CODY!!



Finally, we were back on the Southern Scenic Route. First stop, the Shipwreck Ino. It is not too impressive anymore because most of it has washed away. Here it is with Marian:



Also, Marian found this shell she was impressed with and wanted to share with everyone.



Next on the list is the southernmost point in New Zealand, Slope Point. It was as expected, a long drive down a dirt road, a short walk out to take a picture so we can say we’ve been there and than leave. Here we are at Slope Point:



Finally, we headed out to our last destination Curio Point. Here we will see a petrified forest from the Jurassic Age.



It was interesting but we found the real main attraction to be the yellow eyed penguins. There is a small colony of yellow eyed penguins that inhabit the slope just above the Petrified Forest. The DOC actually has volunteers stationed by the colony to assure that people don’t get to close. Kathy was on duty when we arrived. She was nice and even let us use her binoculars to get a better view.





We then went in set up the campsite for the evening. Here is a view from the campsite onto Porpoise Bay, which was beautiful.

At night John took a couple of pictures of the full moon and he found his first living possum.

Day of Disappointment…Riverton to Invercargill

This morning was nice. We woke up to sunshine and had a good breakfast. The plan is to check out the Riverton Rocks, check out a Maori art gallery, continue on the Southern Scenic Route and see Invercargill are (including the Bluff). We wanted to make it to the beach out by Porpoise Bay to see penguins.

From the campsite it was a short drive to the Riverton Rocks…we think. The end of the road had 5 or 6 large boulders in the sea. Not much to speak of and we didn’t take any pictures. Unless they weren’t specifically mentioned on our guide map we wouldn’t have noticed they are a ‘tourist attraction’.

We got over it and moved on to the Maori Art Gallery…which was missing. We found the address from the ‘Lets Go’ book to find an empty shop. So we continued on with our plans.

We got to Invercargill and stopped by the library (most of which have free WiFi) to pay some bills back home to find the Invercargill Library has no WiFi. So we went to the Café next door and continued to the Bluff. The description from the ‘Southern Scenic Route’ map made it seem very interesting with “great views of Stewart Island.” We made it to the end of the road to find not much there. We thought if we hiked up the hill we might change our mind about the view so we tried that. It didn’t help much. Here’s the great view:



Well we had enough of that, so we left. On the way out we read the guide books information on the Bluff to find out both Lonely Planet and Let’s Go highly recommend not going there ☺

We were now on our way to bigger and better things. Marian was on the phone with her parents and John was driving. About 10 km outside of town, we came around the corner to an intersection to see something strange in the road. There was not enough time to stop and the oncoming traffic stopped us from swerving out of the way. A few loud thuds later we pulled over with another flat tire.



Here was the final damage:



Luckily the owner of the objects on the road was still around. Chris Kelly, owner of the objects, showed us the 3” tall grated metal objects we ran over (they looked like the metal steps on the side of a truck). Here they are strapped back on his truck.



Chris gave us his number and the name of a shop to take the car to get it fixed. We then headed back into town on our spare tire to stay an extra night in Invercargill.

Finishing the Routebourn Fun

We woke up early to hike back to the Divide where we parked our car. We took one last look at the lake before leaving.



The walk out was much easier than the walk in because it was mostly downhill. We had finished our trek on the Routeburn. Thanks Mama and Papa Ladenburg for the sun protective shirts.



We then drove back to Milford to pick up our luggage and along the way we stopped off at the Chasm. It was a short little hike up to this river that has made this unusual rock formation. It looked pretty cool but the pictures don’t show it too well.





Here is a little photo Maya took along the way and wanted to share:




We continued back to Te Anau to plan our drive down the Southern Scenic route. While in Te Anau, we went on a short walk to the wild life sanctuary were we saw a few cool birds. Here is a Tahake, it wasn't being too cooperative for the photo but we'll share anyways.



Dinner was a little disappointing because we tried to go to a recommended meat pie bakery but it was closed. We quickly found out the restaurants were more pricey than usual so we got Marian her special coffee (her treat after the Routeburn) and headed on the Southern Scenic Route to Riverton, our next destination for lodging.