Day 10 - Exploring the Catlins

We got up early but, given sunrise isn't until 8:20am at this latitude, it wasn't that early! After breakfast and sorting out the van ready for a couple of nights off-grid, we went for a 3km bush walk and left the camp for Owaka at 11:30.

We checked out the Museum and i-Site to get our bearings on what to do today and decided to have an early lunch before doing the exploring. The Catlins Café was a great place for an early lunch. The pies they had in their cabinet were huge and sounded delicious but we didn't buy any!

First stop was the Matai falls. This was a fairly easy 2km walk.

Next stop was the DOC campsite we decided would do us for tonight. It was easier to sort out what facilities they had and where to park in daylight since we knew we would probably get to it later in the afternoon when it was dark.

The view of Tautuku Bay was amazing as shown in the following photo:

After that we headed for the McLean Falls - which is about 6km off the main road and then a 45 minute walk to the falls and back (just over 3km). Miriam made it but was limping a bit when we got back to the vehicle. The falls were impressive.

Then we headed for Curio Bay to see the petrified forest and, possibly some wildlife. The tide was an hour short of low when we arrived which was great for viewing the Jurassic fossilised trees. At first it just looked like some rocks but you could see the shape and texture of the ancient trees.

Unfortunately no Yellow-eyed Penguins or dolphins were spotted!

Then it was a 45 minute drive back to the DOC camp at which we arrived just as it got dark. I was very pleased to have sorted out a parking spot earlier in the day.

Miriam is feeling a bit weary having walked/climbed around 10kms in one day for the first time in at least 20 years. She is self-medicating with Chardonnay as I write this.