Trip to the Catlins

On Thursday, after lunch, we started our trip to the Catlins. Our first stop was at a beautiful lighthouse called Waipapa Point. Under the lighthouse, we enjoyed the view of the wild sea crashing against the rocks. On the way back to the car, we saw five sea lions playing on the beach or enjoying the sun.

After that, we continued to Slope Point, the southernmost point of New Zealand, where our campground for the night would be. A long gravel road (like every road off the highway/country road) led us through the green sheep-infested landscape to the relatively unspectacular, but beautiful, Slope Point. Following Jane's suggestion, we decided to drive a bit further to Curio Bay to finally see the long-awaited penguins. To make sure not to miss them, we prepared the dinner Jane gave us on the beach. However, the penguins took a long time to show up, so we and about 100 other tourists/hobby photographers shivered on the beach in the twilight for at least 2 hours. Then, FINALLY! A penguin climbed ashore, barely larger than 45cm. It shook and cleaned itself and looked very cute, unaffected by the onlookers. With the typical awkward and clumsy behavior of penguins, it hopped and waddled towards its nest. Relieved, we could now make our way back home and arrived at the campground at Slope Point in the dark.

The next day, we were awakened by the morning sun shining through our windshield. With a beautiful view of the lake at the campground, the day could start.
Unfortunately, we were still without energy when we headed to Porpoise Bay to see dolphins. After breakfast on the beach, which was not as pleasant as it sounds due to the thousands of sandflies (mosquitoes, but worse) that stung us, we focused on the open sea in search of dolphins. But they also took a while to show up. While Meret counted her bites in the car due to sandfly annoyance (over 20 bites on her ankles alone), I (Axel) went back to the beach. At first, we couldn't spot any dolphins, until a fin emerged. Nevertheless, I waited to see if it was a wave before sending Meret a text message to lure her out of the car. Like before, we now watched the sea carefully for occasional sightings of dolphins emerging from the water. Although we saw very few of them, we were glad to have seen them at all.
So we continued to McLean Falls, which is the largest waterfall in the Catlins. After a short walk through the jungle-like forest, we stood in front of the huge waterfall, which was very impressive.
Next, we went to the nearby Cathedral Caves, but we had to wait for an hour because the access was closed due to the tide. The wait was worth it, especially because we were the first visitors of the day to enter the deserted beach leading to the cave.
The last stop took us to Purakanui Falls, which were beautiful but not as impressive as the McLean Falls.

Thus, the very successful trip to the Catlins came to an end and we looked forward to the delicious dinner in Invercargill, where we also met the two new Wwoofers from England.