After our nighttime drive through a rather uninteresting portion of the Southern Scenic highway, from Bluff to Slope Point, we slept at the dirt road carpark right by the Slope Point access area. Behold, the magnificent directional signage!
There is no road to the point, rather you need to walk across a sheep pasture - closed from September to November for lambing season - for about 15 minutes.
After the walk, in which it is a great deal of fun to yell at the sheep and dart towards them when they become too complacent, you arrive at this sign:
It was a nifty spot to visit and made for a good early-morning walk. The trees around this area are incredibly windswept and their branches all point in one direction. Due to the force of the wind, everything on an exposed side of the tree clusters is blasted and dead, with all the leaves being on the sheltered side. I've no idea how they survive the wind, it's brutal.
We carried on with our drive along the Catlins Coast, driving a combination of the Southern Scenic highway and the Catlins Coastal Heritage Trail. We made stops at a few points of interest, such as the Curio Bay petrified forest, Nugget Point (we didn't see any penguins, but it was the wrong time of day to be looking for them) and various little rainforest walks.
The we finished at Dunedin, where we planned on staying for three evenings. Thanks to the traveller's networking service CouchSurfing, we had made arrangements to stay with a lady who had an available guest room. We got along splendidly with her and her son, and spent a very nice three days investigating the city, focussing, as usual, around the downtown area. We took the Speight's Brewery tour, which was great fun and ended with a rather lengthy beer tastig session. Incidentally, we also tried their specialty malt ice cream, which is surprisingly tasty with a caramelly like flavour.
Next up: Omaru to the West Coast!
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