On to the Southland

We have been on the move and often with limited Internet access. This post is about our travels to the Southland which is the south end of the south island. Only 1 million people live on the south island but very few live in this area. The scenery is fantastic. We drove for miles without seeing a car or any people, just lots of sheep.

Nugget Point in the Catlins. There is also a lighthouse here.



Rare, yellow eyed penguins coming ashore at Curio Bay where they nest.



This is a petrified forest estimated to be 160 million years old. It is only visible at low tide.

McLean Falls is accessible by a beautiful, short forest hike. We are always surprised at how many people we encounter in these remote locations since we see so few cars on the road.

Invercargill is a big city (50,000) near the tip of the south island. We came through on the way to catch the ferry at Bluff. Since we had time, we went through an excellent museum that included a small section about Burt Munro. He is famous for building the fastest Indian, a motorcycle. His story was made into a movie. A few blocks from the museum is the E Hayes hardware store that has a large motorcycle collection on display.