Travel Story «The Deep South - Catlins National Forest»

New Zealand | 0 Comments 04 March 2006 - Last Update 05 May 2006

Hello from Aotearoa!

Aotearoa: (for those who don't know yet), this is the Maori name for NZ: " the Country of the Long White Cloud"...

The journey goes onward, we are ahead and good ahead of our planned journey. We passed Dunedin, we liked there despite one day of heavy showers. We now have over 1000K and spent some time in the Catlins (3-4March). The scenery is changing and our first stop was Nugget Point. Dramatic rocks dotted around the coast where New Zealand fur seals are home. Drizzle today ( 3 March), but luckely the visibilty is still very good. After taking a range of pictures, we are going further south, the deep south as often called. Today we also went to Surat bay, looking for seals again but the drizzle and a badly maintained path forced us to go back but we could still admire one big seal at the beach. We are now in the middle of the Catlins, a region apart, yet saved from mass tourism and German campervans. This is virtually the end of the world. Many roads are unsealed, few petrol stations, no ATM's, no cell phone coverage, no post office, 2 restaurants to cater mainly for tourists and backpackers. Even though the area has not been exploided by itinerary hungry touroperators, the area has an interesting array of sightseeing. Especially if you like lush forest and waterfalls, one would love the area, so did we. We saw two major waterfalls, of which McLeans falls were the most spectacular we've seen. Actually the path to the falls at some stage is much more interesting than the falls. The pictures later will show you that.
Deep South, full stop.