The Catlins

My journey through the Southern Coast of the South Island, known as the Catlins, began in Invercargill, considered the world's most southern city. As a child, I always had a strange fascination with the city. Maybe one day I looked at the globe and saw an actual city dot so far on the bottom that I had to visit. After arriving however, I realized that there isn't too much more to the place than the idea of being so far south. The kiwis consider it the armpit of New Zealand. It wasn't the most interesting or beautiful of places, but it wasn't that bad, more like the pinky toe of New Zealand instead. At the local museum, they have a creature called the tuatara, the last surviving dinosaur. They are very tiny and don't actually move at all. I think this is why they survived; the gods just forgot they even existed.

I moved on quickly and headed to the scenic coastline of the Catlins. Well, it was raining again, but with no mountains, it didn't affect the scenery too much. I went to Slope Point, the southernmost point of New Zealand. I looked out South and admired my proximity to the South Pole, only 4800km away.

I took this leg slowly, stopping at numerous waterfalls and hidden bays. There was a petrified forest. I went dolphin spotting (and failed). I took a few short hikes. By the time I reached Nugget Point, only 2/3 of the way to Dunedin, it was already sunset. Nugget Point is a popular penguin spotting area, so I looked unsuccessfully for these shy birds. I did see some seals very far away. At first, I thought they were rocks, but they barked. They were too far away to make out if they were moving. A kiwi in Dunedin that night told me that what I saw was New Zealands famous barking rocks. It was good to see the Aussie didn't hold a monopoly on BS.