Stewart Island and the Catlins

Our friend Wil traveled to New Zealand for a holiday and spent almost 2 weeks with us.  We saw the All Girl Big Band perform as part of the Christchurch Big Band Festival, and visited the Smash Palace, a pub set up in a bus. 

The All Girl Big Band

Wil and Paul at the Smash Palace

Saturday we started traveling south.  We flew to Dunedin, rented a car there and drove to Invercargill.  In Invercargill we visited parks and also saw a truck show.  

Truck show in Invercargill

Decal on potato truck

The next day we flew to Stewart Island, the third largest island of New Zealand with fewer than 450 full time residents.  Most of the island is a national park with lots of walks, beaches and birds. 

Sunday night we joined in on the quiz at the South Sea Hotel which has the only pub on the island.  Three young men from Denmark were looking for a place to sit, and they agreed to join our team.  All three are students in Denmark, but doing internships in Dunedin.  Between the six of us we managed to come in 4^th out of 18 teams. 

We took the local water taxi out to Ulva Island, a small predator free island off Stewart Island, and saw numerous birds and plants.  

A kaka (parrot)

Paul and his buddy, the weka

Tomtit

Stewart Island robin

Hen and chick ferns - the little sprouts are ready to fall off and become new plants

Umbrella moss

Crown fern

Back on the mainland of the South Island, we picked up the rental car again and drove north through the Catlins, an area of native forests and coastline on the southeastern side of the south island.  We stopped at Curio Bay to see the petrified forest (and a rare yellow-eyed penguin).   

Petrified forest at Curio Bay

It was too dark to get a photo of the yellow-eyed penguin - this is from the wall in the Dunedin airport

Flax flowers are just starting to bloom. 

We saw several waterfalls:  one was the tiny Niagara Falls and one was McLeans Falls, the tallest falls in the Catlins.  

Niagara Falls in the Catlins - not quite as big as the US/Canada version

McLean Falls

We went to Lost Gypsy Gallery to see the fun contraptions and art works created by Blair Sommerville.

Blair Sommerville's bus full of gadgets at the Lost Gypsy Gallery

Metal whale mailbox

Boots and shells water feature

Blair Sommerville, owner and gadget maker at Lost Gypsy Gallery

And of course there were lots of sheep and even road signs for sheep.

Our own sheep in the back yard of one of our overnight stays

We went to Cathedral Caves during low tide and got to walk inside the huge caves.  We’ve tried to go other years, but access to the caves has always been closed for the season.    

One of the entrances to Cathedral Cave

Looking out of the cave toward the sea

Tide patterns in the sand

A sea lion lumbered up onto the sand while we were there. 

Nugget Point with its lighthouse, rocks, seals and birds was a beautiful place to end our Catlins travels.  

View from the Nugget Point lighthouse