Die Catlins

Moeraki Boulders - Nugget Point - Cathedral Caves - Curio Bay

The following three days were also going to be very exciting:

Early Monday morning, we continued south from Timaru. The first stop was supposed to be the famous Moeraki Boulders, which we wanted to reach before the arrival of all the tour buses, according to the plan. But far from it... a tour bus full of seniors arrived with us, who stormed directly to the beach. For this reason, we decided to observe the whole hustle and bustle from the café in peace before joining the crowd and heading to the spherical rocks. Arriving in the sunshine, fog rolled in a few minutes later, which somehow made the visit even more exciting and, in our opinion, almost more beautiful to look at.

Generally, it's crazy how quickly the weather changes here or even changes within a few kilometers.

We also noticed this when we drove on one of the most wonderful roads ever to Otago Peninsula in glorious weather... along the Portobello Road DIREKT along the water to the "Royal Albatross Center", where we saw albatrosses flying in the fog and observed sealions again. We would have liked to join the guided tour there, but 90 NZD (=55EUR) per person for a little walk in the fog along the albatross nests was too much for us. So we got our information at the center itself and observed albatrosses in the air. 😃

On the way back along the same beautiful road, we made a stop for an hour, set up our camping chairs by the water, and enjoyed the view in the sunshine... almost like a vacation! 😉

The goal in the evening was Kaka Point, where we arrived well in the early evening and Flo had to try out the new children's bodyboard in the freezing water. The board is too small for Flo, but he was still excited and played like a kid.. so it fits quite well. 😛 He loves playing in the waves. 🌊

The sunset at Nugget Point was one of the most beautiful landscapes Nadia has ever seen... she was thrilled, which - as you can perhaps see from the pictures - is understandable. Flo also didn't think it was so bad.. 😉

The next morning, we only had a two-hour time window (9.00-11.00 a.m.) to visit the Cathedral Caves because they can only be reached at low tide. It is very impressive what water can do, but we can't quite share the hype we found on the internet or elsewhere. But we've seen it now and of course took 1-2 photos. 🙃🙈

For lunch, we went to Curio Bay, which was crazy: a large bay with calm water but still decent waves for bodyboarding. ;-) But that wasn't all, because here you could swim with dolphins for free. Unbelievable! Numerous Hector's dolphins swim in the bay all day, a few meters from the beach, with dolphins passing by us at a distance of only 1.5m. Five dolphins also rode the waves with us while bodyboarding. In addition, these wonderful animals repeatedly jumped several meters high out of the water further out... amazing! That was unbelievably powerful again! A real treat!!

Since we liked it there so much, we booked a night at the campground directly and spent the rest of the day in Curio Bay.