15.-16.12. - Day 9-10 - The Catlins 3

After the coldest and most unpleasant night so far, we were woken up in the morning by the steady sound of rain on our tent. Perfect conditions for our planned excursions...

... But of course it doesn't help, after all, you only have one chance to be there and it's just cold water... So we grabbed our rain jackets and started our day of exploration...

The first stop was the 'Cathedral Caves', accessible at low tide. The two largest accessible caves are connected to each other and each have an impressive height of 30 meters. Truly beautiful and truly impressive... And the best part is, after a 30-minute walk from the coastal road over the beach to the cave entrance, you are actually inside the cave and dry.... Fantastic! So, as you can imagine, we spent quite a long time in the Cathedral Caves, then eventually realizing that we probably wouldn't have any drier weather on this day.

Next, we continued our waterfall sightseeing from the previous day and hiked to the 'McLean Fall'. These terraced waterfalls, the tallest in the region at 22 meters, are worth a visit even in constant rain and truly beautiful to see. Moreover, the wet weather adds to the jungle feeling.

However, after that, we had enough of rain and nature for the day and spent the afternoon at the 'Lost Gypsy Gallery', yet another insider tip from the beach house owner at Sealion Beach. In an old school bus and a three-room theater, inventor and artist Blair Sommerville has been showcasing his own-built automatons since 1999. Over the course of 20 years, hundreds of different machines and contraptions have been created from found trash, with the sole purpose of astonishing and surprising people when they try them out, and that is absolutely achieved. There are thousands of buttons to press, everything blinks and moves, makes sounds or plays with the basic principles of physics, such as gravity, pressure, temperature, or refraction of light. It's like a big playground for adults, with excellent cappuccino on top. After a few enjoyable hours, we were dry again, in a good mood, and thanks to the lack of supermarkets in the Catlins, we actually bought a large garbage bag from the operators of the Lost Gypsy Gallery in exchange for a donation, in which we could store our soaking wet tent when we packed up for the next leg of our journey.

Our final destination for the day and the following night was the camping site at 'Curio Bay/Porpoise Bay', known for the hector dolphins and yellow-eyed penguins that reside there. When we arrived, it was actually sunny and in the early evening, we were able to observe the penguins returning from their hunt to their breeding grounds during a walk, and shortly after that, we watched dolphins swimming and jumping. Truly impressive and very surreal to see these animals in their free and natural environment.

The last highlight was the 'Petrified Forest', which is especially visible in the bay at low tide. The largest and best-preserved petrified trees in the world still look like wood today, but they are made of stone. Created from prehistoric conifer trees, the forest was destroyed by floods 180 million years ago and covered in ash and volcanic mud. Soaked with minerals and protected from decay, the trees petrified over millions of years (a process called 'silicification'). Later, they were partially unearthed again by coastal erosion, allowing us to admire this very rare phenomenon today. A beautiful excursion to the era of dinosaurs as a perfect end to the day, what more could you want.