South Island Day 14: Taking It Easy

We woke up late. We left late. We meandered along the Catlins Coast at 80kph and annoyed the shit out of everyone behind us and we stopped frequently for tea in random beautiful spots which we admired from the back of the Fun Bus on account of the fact it was freezing cold. It's a nice enough drive though but not something you'd want to go out of your way for unless you just wanted your photo taken at Bluff just to prove you'd been there. Invercargill isn't the most exciting place in the world, not even the Lonely Planet can think of anything interesting to say about it an someone forgot to tell them that Christmas finished nearly two months ago. They still have their decorations up but I guess if you don't take them down you don't have the hassle of having to put them back up again the following year and it gives visitors something to write about your city in their blogs.

Bluff is also amazingly dull but as you gaze over the ocean you can think to yourself, next stop, Antarctica. If you ignore Stewart Island anyway. Which generally everyone does.

There are heaps of things to see along the road to Dunedin if you don't mind pulling off the highway to have a look including NZ's answer to Niagara Falls which were named by a surveyer with "an obvious sense of humour." There's also the petrified forest which is visible four hours either side of low tide. It's a bit like the stromatolites in Western Australia, you know you should ooh and ahh as its something so rare and old but you just find yourself gazing over something not actually that impressive thinking, "Is that it?" before wandering off to photograph some sheep instead.

Petrified Forest; Ooooh And Stuff

Niagara Falls. No, Really.

So it was a pretty uneventful day, we rocked up to a DoC site next to the Catlins Conservation Park and just chilled there for the evening.

I could get used to all this relaxing shizzle ay.

written by

Koala Bear on February 16, 2009 from Catlins Conservation Park, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Tiny Little NZ Road Trip

tagged RoadTrip and SouthIsland

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