NZ - South Scenic Route

We drove along the Southern Scenic Route, which was not too dissimilar to the Great Ocean Road, with views over the cliffs and out to see.

When we finally reached our destination at Pounewa, which was a decent place on the mouth of the river. The river was little more than mud flats and when the tide receded we took a little walk across the flats to enjoy the peacefulness and admire the hilly, green scenery.

The campsite had decent facilities so we sat in the camper kitchen, planned our next few days, and watched a bit of the NZ classic film – Whale Rider. However once we went to bed, the night was not so peaceful, and Marc was kept up until gone 1am by people chatting and drinking at one of the tents on the far side of the site. This was when we realised that nights are very cold, and we were unprepared.

The next day, Marc went for an early morning run hoping that this would make him feel better, and Evelyn’s cold took a turn for the worse. Despite this she managed to stick to the plan and went on the various walks. She should have stayed in bed though (not that we had one), as she was really sick - something Marc would appreciate more in the coming days ;(

But as our travelling is a once in a lifetime opportunity we started the gorgeous sunny day off with a walk along the beach at Stewart Bay closer to the river mouth. This was a really nice stroll, walking through fields of long grass, seeing the spiders webs glisten with the morning dew, before getting to the beach. Our first sight on the beach was when Marc spotted a big log. Though this didn’t really look like a log, and Evelyn quickly corrected him as on closer inspection this was actually a big seal ??

Careful not to disturb the seal, we got quite close and took a few snaps before walking a bit further along this beautiful beach. It was so peaceful, with the wind gently blowing sand across the surface of the beach, giving a wavy dessert like effect. It was so cold as well though, and this not only looked, but also felt like one of the closest beaches to the Antarctic!!

We then came across a few more seals, which seemed to acknowledge us. One lay there for a few minutes, then sat up on his front flippers arching his back, taking up the “I’m the boss” position, yawned, scratched his head, but as this took a lot of effort, lay back down to sleep again ;)

We then began the days long drive, which would end about 400ks away at Queenstown. We had 2-3 stops on the way, the first being Nugget Point, which was again another beautiful spot, once you got passed the traffic jam (this being caused by a flock of sheep and not cars ;) This was a short cliff top walk, with the peninsula surrounded by rocks in the shape of nuggets (though technically a nugget is an indefinable shape;) Around the base of the rocks, sea lions played in the waves, and the wind howled in our ears, you could even hear the sea lions yelping.

Our next stop was Purakauri Falls and then McLean Falls where we had our lunch stop. It was a 20 minute walk through the forest to a pretty little waterfall, where we sat and chilled out for a bit. Some guys came really well prepared and had a little stove going.

Marc did fancy a stop at Cathedral Caves, where you wade though the sea at low tide to reach these beautiful caves, but we weren’t there at the right time, and Evelyn was beginning to feel a lot worse so wasn’t really up to much more today.

We had one more stop at Curio Bay, which was very interesting. There were fossilised tree stumps and logs down on the rocks at sea level. This has been formed over millions of years. Again, this sight can only really been seen at low tide. The trees look like real wood, but when you touch it, it has actually become stone. Amazing!! We also saw another yellow-eyed penguin here…

On the way to Invercargill, the next big town still 100+ kms away; we got another little scare with the petrol gauge. There are not many gas stations along these roads, with each town having a population of 10, and not necessarily having fuel. We passed a couple of gas stations, but they were all closed, as were the info centres so we couldn’t ask for help!! Luckily, when we were 50ks from Inver, and dangerously close to empty, we came to one gas station, which we caught just before closing!! Phew ;)

We then stopped off at the Bluff to photograph the signpost that they have at the peninsular to say how far away from home we were – being 18 958km’s. We also drove up to the top of the hill to have a look out over the islands but the wind was so strong here we almost got blown over!

Our last stop was at Invercargill to refuel ourselves this time at MacDs, before embarking on the final leg of our journey to Queenstown 100ks or so up the road. This was the most beautiful part of the drive, with some spectacular scenery. From the southern point of the lakes, some 50ks from the northern tip of QT, the drive became more and more beautiful. The large lakes, surrounded by lush green hills and mountains, this was the beginning of the Lord of the Rings settings and we could see why. Absolutely awesome!! We just knew we were going to enjoy staying here ;)