The Southern Scenic Route.

Monday, October 20
South Island: Dunedin to Invercargill

We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little bit on Monday, but we had to check out of the hostel by 10. We headed back into the city to hit up the ATM, buy some postcards, and grab some sandwiches for lunch on the road. We were bound for Invercargill that day, via the Catlins and the Southern Scenic Route.

Driving along the Southern Scenic Route was possibly one of my favorite days in New Zealand. We had good weather for the majority of our drive, and the south coast of the country is absolutely gorgeous. Since we were travelling in the off-season, we had the road to ourselves most of the time, too.

We had a touring map of the area, and decided on all the places we wanted to stop. Of course, we stopped quite a bit along the way, at first any time that we saw a pretty scene worth photographing. We soon realized that there were gorgeous scenes about every 20 feet, though, and so had to reign ourselves in.

We stopped at Kaka Point for a time, and in the town of Balclutha to hit up a New World for more food.

Our longest stop was at Nugget Point. We trekked down to Roaring Bay, where we hoped to see some penguins. But, alas, the wildlife seemed to have something against us, because we didn’t see any penguins.

We then made our way to the lighthouse at Nugget Point, where we ran into a younger Israeli guy that we had seen the day before on the Otago Peninsula. He seemed to be making the same trip that we were along the south coast. We spent some time at Nugget Point, enjoying the sunshine and beautiful scenery.

Nugget Point is so named because of the rocks that jut out of the sea just below the cliffs. They look like little nuggets, yet are really unique and striking.

After Nugget Point, the road took us away from the coast for a little while, and into the rolling hills. We saw lots of gamboling lambs – even a few black ones! – and so much green grass it wasn’t even funny. I wish Ohio’s winter grass looked like New Zealand’s.

We stopped in a little clearing, and followed a path beside small stream for about five minutes, until the path opened up and the stream cascaded over stair-stepped stones in a fairly impressive little waterfall. These are the Purakaunui Falls, and we spent some time there just listening to the water and taking photos. Andrea had been dying to see a New Zealand waterfall, so she was especially excited.

We tried to visit Cathedral Caves next, but the high winds made the site – which is only viewable at and around low tide – too dangerous by the time we got there. We were slightly upset, since we’d taken a detour onto an unpaved road for about 20 minutes to get to there, but decided it was probably for the best. As it was, it was probably going to take us until dusk to reach Invercargill.

The next stop was a joint one at Porpoise and Curio bays. Here, Jamie had to use the restroom, and, thanks to some creepy crawlies in the women’s toilets, decided to use the men’s room. As soon as she went in, however, two men walked up wanting to use the bathroom. I think I yelled something like, “Men are coming, Jamie!” and Andrea and I nearly died laughing as she came streaking out of the bathroom with a horrified look on her face.

We hoped to see some dolphins – namely the rare, little Hector’s Dolphins – at porpoise bay, but we were, once again, out of luck. Perhaps it was the incoming bad weather that kept the little guys away.

We climbed down onto the rocky cliffs in between the two bays for some photos, in which we appeared as nothing more than little specks on a breathtaking, natural landscape. I love that about New Zealand – even in the touristy areas, everything is so untouched.

A sudden hail/rainstorm drove us back to the car, and we decided we’d had enough of wind-swept cliffs for the day. Jamie got us back to the main road, and we began on the last stretch to Invercargill.

The closer we got to the city, the scenery changed markedly. It got flatter, with much more farm land. You can tell that it’s often windy in that part of the country, because the trees literally grow slightly sideways. We couldn’t believe it when we saw it, but it’s true! They’re bent all funny.

Before we reached the city, however, we chased some loose sheep down the road (they were dumb, and didn’t get that we would leave them alone if they would only get off the road). And then, soon after, we pulled over after Andrea’s exclamation of, “Jamie, stop the car!!!” so that we could try and pet some lambs who had gotten out of a fence.

This happened a few times (the stopping), but most of the sheep would run as soon as we stopped. Finally, though, we stopped near two large lambs, who seemed curious instead of afraid. In fact, one walked right up to our car. So Andrea and I hopped out to pet them. “Wild sheep,” according to Andrea. Haha.

We then continued on to Invercargill, arriving in the late afternoon after a long day of driving. We wanted to find our farm stay first, so we got out the directions Andrea had printed off for us. But after roughly an hour driving all over town and the countryside, we realized something wasn’t right. We eventually found the road that the farm stay was supposed to be on, only to find out that the address we were given did not exist on that road. Fun times.

We stopped in a few gas stations, and finally found someone who was smart enough to pull out a phonebook and look up the Braemar Farm Stay. We got the correct address at last, but decided to stop for dinner before doing any more driving. This we procured at Hell’s Pizza – mmm, it tasted so good after a long day of driving.

Then I got behind the wheel and got us to the farm stay, which ended up being much closer to town than we originally thought.

The farm was small, and the actual farm house smelled horribly of cats and other various smelly animals. But, thankfully, our room was in an entirely different building. The room was ridiculously nice, with sleeping space enough for 5 or 6 and a huge bathroom. We had a large TV, and a lovely view out our sliding glass doors.

By that point, however, we were beat. It was barely after sunset, but none of us felt like doing anything that required much effort. So Jamie and Andrea showered – in one of the most powerful showers in NZ; it was like getting a massage – and then we sat on one of the beds, opened up some of our Cadbury chocolate bars, and watched “New Zealand’s Got Talent” on TV.

Surf, sun, and a chocolate factory.

Sunday, October 19
South Island: Dunedin

We woke up extra early on Sunday (not that I slept much, thanks to creepy, snoring boot man) and caught a taxi to the airport for our flight to Dunedin. It was overcast and wet in Christchurch when we left the sleepy city behind, but the skies cleared the further south we flew. Halfway through the flight, the Southern Alps – including Mount Cook, NZ’s tallest mountain – could be seen poking up through the cloud cover.

We were in a tiny Air NZ Link plane, and I was seated next to a guy from Dunedin who lives at the top of Baldwin Street – the steepest street in the world. He told me we needed to make sure to check it out (which we’d already planned to do), and also told us not to miss the Catlins if we were planning to go further south.

We landed in sunny Dunedin in possibly one of the tiniest airports I’ve ever been to, and then picked up our rental car. After getting our instructions and warnings, we headed into town. We drove around until we found the i-Site, which was located in the center of the city, in the Octagon. It’s kind of like a city square, except that it was shaped like – you guessed it – an octagon.

We grabbed a few maps at the i-Site, and admired the cathedrals and gothic architecture nearby. Dunedin really is a pretty city, especially on a bright, sunny day.

After getting our bearings, we made our way to Cadbury World, located near the city center. Cadbury World is kind of like a real-world Willy Wanka’s Chocolate Factory. We took a tour of the factory, though it was a shortened one since we were there on a Sunday, when the factory was closed. We saw a chocolate waterfall, and learned a lot about Cadbury from our old, excitable guide. Contrary to popular American belief, they don’t just make the chocolate eggs at Easter – they make all sorts of other yummy treats.

We learned that the Dunedin Cadbury factory was the first chocolate factory to use cocoa powder in their white chocolate. It’s a “secret” recipe now, and really delicious. After our tour, we went into the shop, where we bought tons of chocolate for really low prices. I think Andrea, Jamie and I each bought about 7 or 8 giant chocolate bars. Totally worth it.

We grabbed lunch at a little café near the i-Site, and took a short walk to look at some more of the architecture. This included the Dunedin train station, and a sweet Gothic cathedral.

Jamie gave the Esplanade Surf School a call to set up a surf lesson for later in the afternoon. Since the weather was good (even if a bit windy), the lesson was a go at 2:30. But we had some time to kill before we had to squeeze ourselves into wet suits, so we decided to try and find Baldwin Street. Dunedin is a pretty small city, and the street is listed explicitly on nearly every map, so finding it wasn’t too difficult.

After taking a few pictures from the bottom of the street, we decided to climb up it. Jamie wanted to run, but she was overruled. I don’t know that she would have made it anyway – the street is ridiculously steep.

We eventually made it to the top – sweaty and out of breath. I can’t imagine living in one of the houses at the top of the street. Especially considering that Dunedin DOES get a fair amount of snow in the winter. These people must be thrill-seekers; that’s the only explanation I can come up with.

After meandering back down the hill, we stopped in a gift shop to get official certificates commemorating our accomplishment. And then it was on to St. Clair Beach.

We didn’t have very good directions when it came to finding the surf school. But this was because (we soon found out) the surf “school” was actually operated out of the back of a van. We found it, though, and were soon struggling to get into wet suits. This task was perhaps even more difficult than surfing itself, especially when I had to help get Jamie and Andrea out of their wet suits when they put them on backwards.

Clad in the rubbery jumpsuits at last, it was finally time to surf!

I’ve always wanted to surf. I’ve always been interested to find out what it is about the seemingly scary and dangerous sport that makes people fall so deeply in love with it. Well, I think I figured it out – it’s soo fun and easy to get addicted to!

Our lesson started out on the wind-swept sand, where we learned how to stand up properly on the boards. Because of the wind and stinging sand, though, we got into the water rather quickly. Our instructor (I can’t seem to remember his name) told us we’d get a better feel for everything once we were in the water anyway.

The water was cold – possibly even frigid – but our thick wet suits and the adrenaline that surfing incites kept us warm. I’m sure that to onlookers, we were hilarious out in the water. None of us were naturals with a surfboard, and we all took some pretty spectacular tumbles. But we improved.

After a few mouthfuls of saltwater and with the help of the instructor picking out the right wave, I actually started standing up! Not for very long, but I still did it. It was especially exciting because, as athletic as Andrea and Jamie are, I seemed to get the hang of surfing before they did. I’ll attribute it to the years of dance and gymnastics training and my amazing sense of balance. ;^)

Our two-hour lesson ended far too soon. When it was time to make our way back to the sand, we all did so reluctantly. I could have stayed out there all day!

After peeling ourselves out of our wet suits and chatting with our surf instructor for a while, we returned to the car and started trying to figure out what else we could do in the city. We didn’t really have any concrete plans. We knew we were hungry, but we also knew that the Otago Peninsula and an albatross colony awaited us.

In the end, the Otago Peninsula won. We didn’t have a map of how to get there, though, so we had some fun driving around the city until we found highway signs to point us in the right direction.

The peninsula is definitely worth a visit, but I suppose a late Sunday afternoon wasn’t the best time to go. Larnach Castle (a remnant of Dunedin’s Scottish heritage) was closed, and the last tour to view the little yellow-eye penguin colony left an hour before we got there. But the drive along the edge of the peninsula was probably worth the gas we used.

We ended up at the Royal Albatross Colony before sunset, and spent probably half an hour in the freezing cold wind trying to capture one of the huge birds on our cameras. The colony, we were told, is one of the only land-based breeding colonies for the albatross in the world. So it’s kind of a big deal.

The birds are kind of a big deal, too. According to our guide at Cadbury World, an albatross has “the body of a 3-year-old with the wingspan of a car.” We had lots of fun repeating that statement in our best Michael Scott voices as we waited – somewhat impatiently – to see them for ourselves. The birds tend to fly quickly, and high up in the air, though, so we didn’t get any great shots. Andrea didn’t get any photos, and decided that the albatrosses were also hatin’.

On the way back from the albatross colony – which was at the tip of the farthest reach of the peninsula – we stopped for dinner at a little pub. Andrea ordered off the kid’s menu, and Jamie and I split a sandwich in order to conserve a bit of cash. It just seemed to be flying out of our bank accounts on this trip.

We took the “high road” back into Dunedin, as opposed to the coastal route we’d taken on the way in. This road afforded us a gorgeous view of the sun setting over the city, but also got us a little bit lost. We found our way back downtown totally by accident.

We checked into the YHA Stafford Gables just after dark, and it was hard to believe we’d squeezed so much into one day. Jamie and I checked our e-mail while Andrea showered, and we all turned in early. From chocolate to surfing to birds the size of children, we figured we owed ourselves a good night’s sleep.