After leaving Fiordland, we headed further south. From Te Anau to the next largest place, Invercargill, is only a drive of less than 3 hours on good roads and we were able to stop by mid-afternoon at a motor camp just north of Invercargill. The wind had been howling pretty much the while way and although it did calm a bit overnight, it was off again first thing in the morning.
Invercargill is a city of 50,000 and it’s seaport is a small place just south called Bluff. It was even windier there with nothing much other than a few small islands between the southern tip and Antarctica. Bluff is essentially the end of the road. We watched the boat to Stewart Island leave and it looked like it was going to be a very rough crossing.
Invercargill had a nice Museum and some interesting buildings, but otherwise, we only re-supplied the camper and headed further south and east. There is a Coastal Route that we took, stopping at a few places along the way to battle the wind and capture the views. Slope Point is the most southerly point on the South Island but I could hardly stand up in the wind. It was a brief stop.
We camped at Curio Bay where hedges of NZ Flax (large, broad-leaved plants) provided very good shelter from the wind. We were able to see 3 Yellow-Eyed Penguins coming ashore which was quite exciting as they are very rare and this is the only place where they can be seen. A sea lion was visible on the beach later in the evening, and the surf kept pounding and the wind kept blowing he rest of the night. A neat place.
The next morning, we drove slowly along exploring more of the Catlins, hiking to a few waterfalls and visiting another lighthouse on a very scenic point. We saw sea lions and/or fur seals (from a distance it was hard to tell which they were), and ending the day a bit early at Kaka Point Campground. The wind, which had disappeared for awhile, came back with a vengeance, so we found a camp spot in a sheltered location and hunkered in for the evening. We’re off to Dunedin tomorrow.
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