South Island Road Trip Part 2

  Thursday, 9th January 2025 It was our last day in the South Island. Bags packed and random excess food things distributed to those bags with space. Battery containing things were moved into carry-on luggage - ready for the plane flight. Breakfast was tuna-melt inspired, but without any kind of glue, too much grated carrot and not enough cheese, so it was on the dry side. This just left some ham, cucumber and Corn Thins to make a lunch of some sort out on the road. We quickly drove to Baldwin Street - the World’s Steepest Street - to test how quickly we could get up. It is steep! That was a tough walk up the road, but after a short rest at the seat at the top we carefully made our way back down, avoiding the occasional car that came racing past.  To the peninsula, wrong turn into the port - should have been a gentle left, not a sharp left! Quick U-turn and then we were actually heading to the peninsula! It’s a lovely drive along the coast and we stopped at Portobello for a co...

 Sunday 5th January At 8am we woke up with the alarm. Breakfast was made odd by the pesto flavoured milk after a transportation mishap. But we all had coffee together at the Snuggery, which made up for it. We got ready and headed into town to go to the DOC centre, where we got info about the walk planned for tomorrow, bought sunnies for one of the boys, got a mankie of the Rakiura Track to somehow become the bow of our wreath. We headed up a steep hill to church for a 10:30 start. We got in, greeted with a hymn book and a piece of paper. We found a pew, sat down and enjoyed the service. It was a lovely time with all 17 of us in the congregation, and thought provoking, but it also sent us into fits of giggles at one point. We blame the complicated and unknown Christmas in the Picture Book hymn. It was unknown to the whole congregation and admittedly a tricky one from the organist. The first run through was a few steps above abysmal, but not great. So encouraged by Rev Barb to give i...

Wednesday, January 8th We said goodbye to our great little house where the boys managed to have a respite from each other, We ended up having to apologise for being good Aucklanders and separating our recycling, as it all being seen as just rubbish. Plan one was to go to Curio Bay to see what the curiosity was about. We knew we couldn’t see the petrified forest, but we found a vantage point that showed off high-ish tide moody and voluminous crashing waves against rocks. There was a cafe there with slow service and adequate coffee, clean toilets and that was about all we needed from the point. To the falls! There are many waterfalls in the Catlins, but the one of the must dos on multiple lists was McLean Falls. The word spectacular was even used. After all the rain it seemed like it would be a sight to see. The walk was lovely,  mostly in bush, but over slippery and steep rocks towards the end. I got up to the top of the walk, and then boys being boys they had to get to ...

Monday, 6th January 2025  The day started at 7am - nice and early - where we got ready for our walk ahead. We had breakfast shortly after, and this was when Mum confirmed that she had injured her knee the day before and couldn’t do the walk with us. This was a little bit sad but the show had to go on, so we packed our lunches and prepared our bags for the walk ahead. We cleared out our room, stashed the remainder of our luggage in the shed onsite and Mum confirmed that she could stay in the lounge while we were away. We headed to the cafe for a pre-walk coffee or hot chocolate before the boys walked over the hill to the jetty in Golden Bay to catch the water taxi to Port William to start our walk. The boat ride was beautiful and a bit bumpy as we got to see the coast of Rakiura/Stewart Island on our way to Port William. The journey took about 30 minutes and we were keen to set off on our walk as soon as we docked. The walk took 5 hour in total including stops. The first half of the...

Tuesday 7th January We set an alarm to see the sun rise over Slope Point, but our estimate of early wasn't really early enough. We saw the sun come up, but o ther than being the lowest point of the South Island, and now having the rights to say that I have been there, the fuss wasn't all that to get excited about I guess…… Maybe it was too many sheep, maybe it was that my shoes and socks and feet all ended up wet after walking through the paddocks. There were some windswept trees, but we’ve seen these since we'd left Tuatapere and didn't seem worth taking photos of. The day dawned to a stun ning blue day, so we put the much needed washing on, and got to hang out clothes for the first time out in the sunshine - how delightful!!!! After some breakfast and research we headed off to drive and capture all the amazing things we had been told of…….Catlins in the early week means lots of things shut. This is a place to visit in the summer and in the weekend. The first part of t...

Friday 3rd January The day started with C offee at J’s. Such a cool local cafe run by one of the many newly arrived Filipino people into the community. The coffee making down in Invercargill is incredible. I guess we put it down to the free/low cost education at the Southern Institute of Technology. This cafe was a little one, with few tables but a great theme and an awesome barista who was happy to talk to us and tell us all about living down here. We told him how Auckland was different. We had decided that this was pretty much a ‘snow day’ especially after the day before when we felt somewhat travel weary and sick of each other. So, what to do with free Netflix? Binge watch Squid Games, season 1, of course. To break up the day we headed out to try and find an i-site or something like it. No such thing to be found. It may have something to do with the museum under construction, but the DoC office was shut for Christmas, so no real help was on offer there. The trip wasn't all in va...