Yesterday we spent the morning doing a walk which we discovered about 2 minutes from our house.  After walking through the bush it came out on the beach and we spent a few hours walking around the rocks and rock pools, finding Paua shells and even 2 shark eggs as well as lots of other beachy stuff.

There were 2 Stewart Island Shags on the beach too.  Then we went to the Cathedral Caves - wow, you really must see these one day.  Massive, massive caves which join up at the back, shaped like a cathedral, this was one of the coolest sights we have seen so far.  Definitely the coolest thing in the Catlins.  We also did a couple of other walks, one to a very still, reflective lake, and one to another waterfall.  We almost thought we were over waterfalls after seeing so many in the last few days, but this one, the MacLean falls was worth the walk up to it.

Then we came back to sit on the balcony (in the freezing cold, with snow jackets, jerseys, skivvys etc on) to watch our beautiful view.  After a while the heater inside was too alluring so we watched the view from inside.  It’s amazing how dark it is here in terms of daylight hours, as we are sure the sun wasn’t setting this early or rising this late when we were in Auckland. Is it just winter or is it just light less this far down?

This morning we woke to see the sun rise over the ocean and cliffs, it doesn’t rise until 7.45 am!!  Now we are heading off to see the last 2 Catlins attractions (including the South Islands southern most point), and then taking the ferry to Stewart Island. You can see out photos of the Caves and McLean Falls and other stuff here.

After we left Dunedin we began driving around the Catlins. We stopped at the famous Purakanui Falls, one of The Catlins main attractions.  It is really big and beautiful.

We also did a walk to a tunnel which was hand-dug out of the hillside, which Dre walked right to the other end to in the dark, and went to Nugget Point, where we saw some more seals, sea lions, and a massive chasm.  The scenery here is really rugged and amazing, it does live up to expectations.  We then decided to find somewhere to stay and came to the next town Papatowai.  Papatowai has 2 motels and one shop which sells everything from petrol to groceries and alcohol, takeaways, you name it.  We called into the shop (which also runs the main motel) and they said that their rooms were full for the night but they had a cottage down the road we could stay in.  We accepted and were blown away by how lucky we are!!!  We are staying in a gorgeous, renovated cottage with the best view in Papatowai, a view of the entire beach, forest and rock cliffs behind it, it is so spectacular and even better than the attractions we have seen.

So we are staying in this lovely place for $85 per night, an entire cottage which sleeps 10!  It is so lovely here that we have decided to stay another night.  Our photos can be viewed here.

Yesterday we spent the day walking around and climbing up different walks in Dunedin.  We first went to Baldwin Street, the World’s Steepest Street, wow it was heaps steeper than we imagined it would be.  It was almost vertical.  We also went for another drive on the Otago Peninsula and walked out to the Chasm and Lovers Leap which were both really impressive.  The walk there was through a massive sheep farm so it was very NZ!  We then went to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens which were actually quite beautiful and we played with a South Island Kaka (which were very cool and inquisitive birds) and watched the sunset.  To see our photos click here.

We’ve spent the last few days in Dunedin and are really enjoying it here.  Yesterday we went to the Cadbury factory (yum)and the art gallery (a bit disappointing) but overall we think Dunedin is quite a nice city (full of students though).  We also found a little cafe which serves cocktails in a teapot, so we couldn’t go past that without trying them. Today we are going to go on a couple of walks, one on the Otago Peninsula and one around Dunedin.  We’ve seen some dodgy student flats and parties, but they don’t seem to be out of control.  Tomorrow we will leave for the Catlins.

We went on the scenic Taieri Gorge Railway, it was a cute little 1920′s train from Dunedin to Pukerangi.  We went through the massive gorge (as the name suggests!) and it was a lovely sunny day with the sun reflecting on the water most of the way, so we picked a good day to do this trip. Our scenic photos from the train can be viewed here.

On our first day in Dunedin we drove around the Otago Peninsula to see some wildlife.  We went to the Albatross Colony which was really interesting, this is the only place in the world that the Royal Albatross comes to the mainland to breed.  They are so massive, with a wingspan of 3.5 metres and the chicks that were there while we visited were 12 kgs!  There was also a colony of rare South Island Shags that we saw.  On the way home we stopped for a walk on a beach and there was a massive Sea Lion sitting there.  It was amazing to get so close to this amazing creature in the wild, we were quite nervous at first as the Sea Lions can attack humans, but this one seemed pretty docile. He was so big, when he was sitting up properly he was up to Dre’s shoulder, and he was about 1.5-2 metres round, we never imagined we would see a Sea Lion this big, let alone in the wild.  In this photo Dre is a lot closer to the camera than the Sea Lion so you don’t really see how big it was, but to see some more photos click here.  We even got to see the sun set behind the Sea Lion so it was a really good day.

On the way to Dunedin we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders.  They were quite intriguing, massive boulders all over the beach and some of them had a mineral that was contained in the rock oozing out (it looked like tree gum).  They were all perfectly round and had formed inside a volcano.  To see our photos of the boulders click here.  After a few days of torrential rain, it was nice for this break in the weather, the sky was blue while we walked along the beach and climbed over the boulders, and then clouded over again almost as soon as we got in the car, so we were pleased that we timed this stop well.

On our last day in Oamaru we spent the day wandering around in the gardens and also eating lots of cheese in the Whitestone Cheese Factory and cafe.  The gardens were huge and it was nice to see all of the autumn leaves. The Oamaru Gardens are supposedly the most impressive gardens in NZ… not too sure about that claim to fame, but they were definitely huge and pretty cool.

We stopped in Ashburton for a night and stayed with Karen’s friends Dale and Dick, it was awesome to catch up and also see the workings of a massive farm.

Last night we stayed in Oamaru and yesterday we went to Bushy Beach in the hope of seeing some endangered yellow eyed penguins.  When we first got there we saw some penguins swimming in the water and then walking up the shore to their nests from a distance, and we thought we were lucky to see that.  But then we looked over and the penguins had come right up the bank and we were able to stand about 2 metres away from one pair for about an hour and watch them.  It was so amazing to be that close to these birds in the wild. To see our photos of the Penguins click here.

We have spent the last two days here in Arthur’s Pass and we have really loved it.  Mountains, streams and mist are really cool.  The first day we walked up to the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall, and it was the most spectacular walk we have ever done.  The diversity of the bush and birds is absolutely amazing.  Never have we seen bush where you can look in so far and see so many different things in one view.  The waterfall itself was really impressive as well, it was big and the water was gushing fast.  The following day we went on two more walks, and were amazed by the difference in scenery between the different walks.  We considered staying here an extra night as we have loved it so much here, but today it’s pouring down so we’ve decided to move on.  To see all of our photos of Arthurs Pass click here.