So, this post is mostly a few photographs from a day trip earlier this month to The Catlins. Asta had to work on the weekend, so Aras, Julija and I ventured eastward for the day to discover a couple of more places on our “to-do” list. There’s a photo gallery at the bottom of this page.
The first place we stopped was Slope Point. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about Slope Point – it looks pretty much the same as the rest of the southern coast – rocky, wet, waves, gulls, etc. One noticeable difference is that it was a gorgeous, sunny day! What Slope Point is known for is being the southern-most point in “mainland” New Zealand. Stewart Island is definitely further south, but Slope Point is the furthest point on the South Island. We (i.e., “I”) were hoping to walk across a farmer’s sheep paddock to get all the way to the coast, except it’s “lambing season” now, which means that some of the tramps across farmland are off limits during September and October, while the ewes are birthing their lambs during the austral spring.
Our second major stop was Nugget Point. It’s a pretty place on the SE coast of the South Island. There’s a nice lighthouse at the end of Nugget Point, and a very pleasant walk to get there. Nugget Point is named this way because of the “nuggets” (small islands) that sit just offshore of the point. One of the other great things about Nugget Point is that this was our first place to see New Zealand fur seals! There also is a yellow-eyed penguin rookery on Nugget Point, but we were there just a bit too early in the season and day to see the penguins. We’re hoping to see more penguins on our next trips when we get to the coast.