Chris and Andrea's Travel Blog: New Zealand

We stayed in Invercargill for 3 nights so that we could explore The Catlins, a regions between Invercargill and Dunedin filled with lush farmland, forests, and beautiful ocean bays. There are numerous walks and sights to see all along the highway, so we decided we'd drive east to Nugget Point and then make our way back towards Invercargill, making sure to stop to do our hikes and walks along the way. The drive is quite beautiful, but very windy and hilly, so it took us awhile. We stopped to stretch our legs at McLean Falls and did a 30 minute return walk to see the falls. It was a nice walk and the falls were quite lovely, though the water was sort of brownish.

After that, we stopped to visit Tunnel Walk, a short walk that took you to this old railway tunnel that was built by hand in the 1870s. It was so dark inside, and we didn't have a flashlight, so it was a bit difficult to see, but still quite impressive. It's hard to believe that people tunneled through rock with nothing but picks and wheelbarrows.

After Tunnel Walk, we made our way to Owaka to get some info from the i-site on the best way to get to Nugget Point. The wind and rain were so intense that we ate our lunch in the car parked on the road by the i-site. It was still lovely! After lunch we made our way to Nugget Point, the farthest east that we wanted to go, in order to see the lighthouse and the cliffs. It was incredibly windy!!! But, the sun was shining for a bit, so that was good. It was a 1km walk from the car park to the lighthouse along a path that was right on the edge of the cliff, so we made sure to pay attention to where our feet were going! We were able to snap some great pics before we made our way back to the car. As soon as we got in, it started to pour, which seemed to be how the rest of the day would go. It would rain while we were driving and clear up just as we were doing our walks. The wind would howl the entire time.

After Nugget Point, we made our way to Purakaunui Falls where I really wanted to take some photos of the water cascading over the rocks. We were really lucky on all of our walks because no one else was around when we would show up. Same with Purakaunui. We were able to set up the tripod and get some great photos.

We then headed to Jack's Blowhole. A massive hole in the ground, 200m inland from the ocean, where water enters in through a cave...kind of hard to describe. The hole was 144m long, 68m wide, 55m deep, so it was quite impressive! There was a little platform you could stand on and see down into the hole and where the water entered from the ocean. The walk to and from the blowhole was stunning. You walked through farmland where sheep were grazing and you had amazing views of the ocean!

After the blowhole, we headed to Matai Falls and Horseshoe Falls, a 30 minute walk where you could see the lovely falls. By this time, we were quite tired, so the walk seemed a lot harder than it actually was!

We weren't quite done our day just yet! We wanted to see the Cathedral Caves, but since you could only go at low tide, we had to wait until the very end of the day. Low tide was at 7:40pm, and you had one hour on either side of that to see the caves. We got to the car park around 6:00pm and decided to just sit for a bit and rest before we headed down. It was raining and windy, so it was nice to sit in the car and have shelter. Around 6:30pm, we paid our $5 each and made our way down towards the beach to see the caves. It was a downhill walk from the car park through the forest before you got to the beach, then it was another 10 minutes of walking until you reached the caves. It was well worth it though!! The caves were amazing. There were two of them side by side, connected to each other by a passage at the backs of the caves. They were so high and very dark in the back! The water was coming into the start of the second cave (the opening was closer to the water than the first cave), so there were a few times where we had to jump on some rocks to keep dry! We really enjoyed the caves and they were well worth the wait! The walk back up to the car park was exhausting though!! We didn't make it back to Invercargill until after 9pm. We made a quick dinner and then played some card games before it was time for bed. Another wonderful, but tiring day!