We took the coastal scenic route from Dunedin to Invercargill and stopped at any turning that caught our eye. We had no idea what to expect on this route. The sun shone but the roads were icy in the shadows, and though Joe drove carefully, we still had a few scary swerves in the ice!
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| Nugget point |
Our first stop was nugget point. Our reason for stopping here was 80% because of the name. We were expecting chicken nuggets, or even golden nuggets, but what we found was a beautiful morning walk up to a lighthouse overlooking "the nuggets" - which are a group of large rocks in the ocean just off the edge of the peninsular. The sea was so blue and the water swirled around these rocks with such power and force of the waves crashing on the cliffs.
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| Nugget Point |
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| The nuggets at Nugget Point |
Stop #2 - Cannibal Bay. Again, the name caught our eye first. But I'm glad we did, because what we found on this beautiful little beach was one of the highlights of my whole trip. We wanted to find out how Cannibal Bay got it's name, but instead of enlightenment, we found the most awesome majestic creature basking in the glorious sunshine. A flump! Or as most people call them, a sea lion. It was so amazing to see one so close in the wild, and we completely weren't expecting it!
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| Tired flump |
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| Sandy flump |
Sea lions are a much different species to seals - like we saw in
Kaikoura, but are both part of a group called Pinnipeds. Differences can be seen in their size - as sea lions are much bigger and have larger flippers which they use for walking on land, where seals usually floop on their bellies.
Our third stop was Purakaurai Falls in the Catlins forest. It was a short walk from the car park to this picturesque and powerful waterfall in the forest. The flowing water made a change from all the frozen water we'd seen on this trip.
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| Purakaurai Falls |
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| Beautiful view over a bay along the route |
In my next post, I'll tell you what happened when we reached Invercargill, and why we made a speedy exit from there to go to Queenstown!
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