Catlins 🌳

On the road again - was the motto of our trip to the Catlins. Without knowing what to expect, we spontaneously booked a bit of luxury for 3 days and reserved a cabin in the middle of nowhere. On the way there we made a few stops for shopping, refueling and sightseeing. We even went to the southernmost point of the South Island in New Zealand - Slope Point. Almost tripped over a seal on the beach because it was so quiet. The next day it was time to explore the area. We decided to do the Catlins River Track and took full advantage of the beautiful weather not only to hike along the river but also to swim. Then we went on to one of the many waterfalls in the area. Since it hadn't really rained much the previous days, it didn't have much water and wasn't really that impressive. The bay next to it was all the more impressive. It was quite windy but it definitely paid off to jump into the waves (without a surfboard). The next day we went surfing in Curio Bay. Before that we hiked to McLean Falls, which were actually quite impressive. When we arrived at Curio Bay, we didn't see any waves at first and were pretty sure that surfing wouldn't work out today. An hour later we were in the water with fairly high waves and dolphins. Surfing itself is super cool, but surfing with dolphins is a different cool thing. The dolphins just swam around us, jumped and were so close that you could almost attack them. After almost 4 hours of surfing, a storm came and took us out of the water. Since the day wasn't exciting enough, we were able to observe a breathtaking starry sky in the evening. As I had no expectations going into these 3 days, I was even more surprised by the Catlins area. Because the Catlins are really not that well known, there were only a few tourists there! A successful road trip through and through 🐬🏄🏼‍♀️