The Catlins

As with each of our journeys from one place to another in New Zealand there were multiple stopping off points along the way - it's just a constant reminder of the endless profusion of natural wonders of this country.

This time it was the Nuggets and the Curio Bay petrified forest (very reminiscent of the forest we saw in the Namibian desert in fact), both fascinating but short stops.

We stopped for the next few nights at the tiny town of Owaka, staying at Thomas' Lodge. This was actually an old hospital converted to a backpackers. It was owned and run by a really nice English guy named Craig, although, as Sarah rightly observed, he was a bit of a David Brent character from 'The Office', i.e. nice but a bit sad, and not very funny although he tried hard! He wasn't around when we arrived, so we just parked the van and I started cooking dinner. I was half-way through when Craig arrived back, quite drunk after popping into the local pub up the road for 'one' drink, but he was really cool and relaxed and chatted to us while I continued cooking. It was kinda low season, and the sprawling hostel was quite empty, so I think he was quite happy to have the company really. He seemed quite lonely, and seemed to drink quite a bit during our short stay (something of a repeating pattern I've noticed in the smaller New Zealand towns).

So we got quite chatty with Craig and the next morning he offered to give us our two night stay for free if we just helped him out a bit by making up a few beds. We offered to help him out for nothing, but really I don't think he needed the money anyway (as we got to know him a bit over a few frames of pool, and he showed us some of his home movies, it transpired he had multiple properties in multiple countries). So effectively that marked my debut as a chamber maid, and I was getting quite good at it by the end (I think we only had to make up five beds!).

Over our four days at Thomas' (we stayed longer than our originally planned 2 nights of course), we visited just about all the attractions of the lovely Catlins area. In the north we hiked to numerous waterfalls, my favorite of them all was the McLean Falls, reached through what I reckon was the most beautiful forest I've ever been in. The uniqueness of many of New Zealand's forests (from my experience I mean, not a botanist's or anything), comes from the density of the verdant, spongy moss than can cover everything - rocks, tree trucks, branches and the entire forest floor. It just gives the forest a fantastic atmosphere I think, something I've never seen anywhere else.

We also hiked around Lake Wilkie, and got numerous expansive sea, beach and bay views. We stopped for a drink at the very nice Whistling Frog restaurant, where they happened to be spit roasting a pig, but we didn't have time to stay for dinner that night, so that particular wish-list item remains unticked!

Another highlight of the Catlins was a full day river walk. It had been recommended, and hyped up a bit, by Craig and a couple of locals and involved following a taxi (driven by friendly local Doug), to the trail's end point in our van, then being driven in the taxi to the start point, from where of course we'd walk along the trail back to our van to drive ourselves home. It was a lovely walk alright, although over-hyped I think - but maybe I'm just getting spoilt. It was marvelously isolated though, and we only met a couple of other people for the whole day, and having our lunch in the sunshine by the river was a real treat for sure.

As we left Craig and the Catlins area heading for Invercargill we stopped off at the Cathedral Caves. These are mighty impressive, very high and deep natural sea caves and are only accessible at low tide. Even then you still have to wade in a bit, but it just means you carry your shoes and go barefoot (which I always prefer anyway of course).