New Zealand - Day 7

Travelled 282 kms

Oh dear, what a grey day. And it was raining. We’d planned to backtrack for 110kms to Slope Point. This is geographically the lowest point of mainland NZ. And then call in to interesting places on the way back and on through to Dunedin especially to see the Royal Albatrosses.

Slope Point. If you didn’t know it was there you wouldn’t even get out of your car to go and see it. You park in a tiny car park or lay by and walk over a couple of fields, here you will first see a white building and beside it a signpost that you won’t be able to read until you get further down the field. It’s a bit sad it’s not kept a bit better. Look at the picture. This sad, it was kinda strange being at almost the lowest point of the Eastern side of Earth. And yet it's only East compared to where we live, and South America particularly Chile is a lot more Southerly.

So it was at this early point of the day that Mr Sun decided to join us. He would be keeping us company for the rest of the day. A very welcome friend indeed.

After doing Slope Point we retraced our steps back to Curio Bay. Here we were to find a petrified forest, which according to the ould seadog was well worth a visit. It might have been years ago but now the forest wasn’t even a bush! There was assign explaining that visitors had gradually stole all the petrified wood and trees for souvenirs, and left nothing. Never mind that but. We went for a stroll to see if there was much sign of these things in the sandstone cliff face. There was no real signs, but on our way back we found two wee Yellow Eyed Penguin chicks playing on the rocks beside their wee house / nest. That really was worth the visit. We’d seen the mother from the distance but she’d cleared off to do the dishes or something.

On and on up the road, until we reached Waikawa where we pulled in at a chippy van (NZ style) to see what they did. Don't you just love the New Zealand place names. I’d a whitebait sammy and we’d both a coffee. The whitebait sammy was a two-egg omelette with wee spricks in it between two pieces of bread. It was well worth the money though because it kept repeating on me all morning. Different.

Cathedral Caves is another of those freaky geological mistakes that draw you to their beauty. Because they are accessed from the each, there is a window of opportunity to see them and this is governed by the tides. I think this is one of those times when a link will say it far better than I can.



After another drive towards our destination we came across Sawers Nature Reserve. This sort of place is duplicated the whole way round the Island, as indeed many parts of the Malbourne Sydney run. It was here we found McClean Falls. The only way to see them as a walk through the bush on well tended paths, and then up a series of three very steep inclines. The walk itself was really pleasant and the sight that was to greet us would be even more appealing. These were quite spectacular falls and would be awesome after the thaw in Spring, but we were being drawn to yet another waterfall, this one named after one of the mightiest.


Niagra Falls, again on the Southern Scenic Route, were clearly signposted so obviously not one to miss. They were to be found up a wee path, and only a couple of hundred meters away. I found it odd that there was not a mountain where they could descend nor the thunder of falling water and yet we were so close. We found a sign declaring that some wag journalist some years ago had found these falls and decided the only way to get tourists to come and visit was to exaggerate a bit. The water, after we had found the river fell about three feet, but hey at least it was wet. I remember when writing notes for this thinking " They were awesome in their smallness"

Margaret was writing down interesting place names on the way through. Places like Tatuka Bay Conservation Area, alas the other places require an expert in hieroglyphics to decipher the writing. Needless to say all beautiful.

After a couple more stops we finally arrived at Dunedin. This was to be our double night stop, the only one of this trip. We found Dunedin Holiday Park and it really was a treasure. Very nearly as good as five star but only $34 per night. It has eighty pitches including tent sites cabins and all-inclusive bungalows. The facilities are excellent and really child friendly.
Earlier in the day we’d been to a farmers market in Queenstown and among other things had bought a lovely loin of lamb. Well it is lamb land! Sweet potato and locally grown, (naturally) peppers and stuff.

I cooked the lamb on one of the outdoor bbq’s along with grilled veg and homemade wedges. Delicious, you get a fair old appetite camping!

A word of caution about the outdoor barrbies. They are nearly all run on electricity and take a lot longer to get hot than you'd imagine. Err on the long side of pre heating if you ever get to use one of these. Even more important, leave it as you found it. All the barbies except one that we used were spotless. The only soiled one in five star Creek Syde!

Just after dinner it turned really cold, compared to what we were having. We retired to the van and put the heating on. Some facts, the heating is run on LPG, the fridge on solar power, the water is heated by the engine. The air con is not really designed for the sort of heat we were getting. I think I might have mentioned this before but I can’t see it anywhere.