A Day Of Driving & Sightseeing

 

Day five of our Road Trip involved around five-plus hours of driving and several stops, the first being a little place called Fortrose so we could stretch our legs. 

We arrived here around 7.30 so probably woke up some of the Freedom Campers set up here for the night (although we did try and be quiet).

From this point, until we reached Owaka, we were travelling through the area known as The Catlins.  

This is a lovely scenic area (often windswept) and worthy of one or more days of dedicated sightseeing, but we opted not to visit many of them as we’d seen them before.

The sunshine did not stay with us.  As we headed into the Catlins rain forest we became enveloped in misty cloud, which later turned into the wettest day we experienced while away.

Lake Wilkie is a bog lake that was formed after the last Ice Age.  It is known for its reflections on a good day, and is surrounded by mature podocarp forest and wetlands.

We walked as far as the lookout but did not descend to the Lake as the track was too wet.

A little further along the road is the Tautuku Beach Nature Walk, which leads out onto the beach (we could hear the ocean when we parked).

This track was a little muddy in places but generally well formed, and the bush we walked through was very typical of New Zealand forest.

Tautuku Beach itself was very windswept and totally devoid of other human life.  We later stopped at Florence Hill lookout to see back over the whole bay.

The village of Owaka was our next stopping point and we were enticed into the local country store by their intriguing outdoor display of goods.

I ended up purchasing a tiny colourful glass rooster and a small multi-coloured seal.  The shop had lots on offer but I was very aware that anything I purchased had to fly home with me.

By now we were experiencing a constant drizzle of light rain.  Nevertheless, we made a side-trip out to Surat Bay in the hope of seeing some sealions.

We did see three in the distance – small black blobs that disappeared into the sea as a group of people approached them along the beach.

When we reached Balclutha the sun began peeping through the clouds, and we stopped at a small rest area to photograph their attractive 1930s reinforced-concrete bridge.  It spans the Clutha River, the second longest river in the country.

Up the country to Dunedin next, and into steady rain for most of the way.

At Dunedin, we drove directly out onto the Otago Peninsula to visit the Royal Albatross Centre.  We took the coast road out there and I imagine it would be a beautiful drive on a fine day.

We did not take the tour to see the albatross, but instead chose to visit the free lookout area next to the carpark.

We saw several albatross in flight – they were easy to differentiate from the myriad seagulls as their wing-span can reach 2-3 metres.

The seagulls themselves were busy nesting, including several nests alongside the path.  We caught a quick glimpse of one chick as its parent came in to feed it – so fast, and then gone again.

I won’t bore you with photos of misty silhouettes of birds flying overhead, and will instead show you our view of the Taiaroa Head lighthouse which sits here in the middle of the world’s only mainland breeding colony of Northern Royal Albatross.

We drove the Highcliff Road back into Dunedin, probably not the best of ideas in the gathering gloom of a wet evening.  The road was narrow and windy in many places, and the thick misty cloud often made me feel like there was nothing except a long drop-off beside us, simply because there was total white-out and nothing could be seen.

But we made it back to Dunedin safely and checked into our motel.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was a Saturday night and, notwithstanding the rain, there was a student party in full swing behind us (not part of the motel).

However, they were all quiet by midnight so we had no complaints.

Margaret 😊