The Catlins Area Guide
The beautiful wild, windswept Catlins Coast lies on the south east corner of the South Island, between the two 19th century lighthouses that stand sentinel at Nugget Point in South Otago and Waipapa Point in Southland.To get there, follow the southern scenic route south from Balclutha, as it winds its way through dense rainforest and deep valleys, past rocky bays and estuaries. The Catlins Coast is home to a rich variety of sea life, including penguins, seals and dolphins while, inland, the Catlins Forest Park is rich in native birdlife.
The beach village of Kaka Point lies 22 kilometres south of Balclutha, and has a long stretch of sandy beach for swimming and surfing. The township provides a good base from which to explore rugged Nugget Point, where the 1869 lighthouse perches on top of a cliff high above the sea. The lighthouse provides a spectacular viewing platform down to the elephant seals, sea lions, and fur seals on the rocks below. Just offshore lie The Nuggets, a collection of distinctive jagged rocks named for their resemblance in shape to gold nuggets. At nearby Roaring Bay there is a hide where you can watch unobtrusively as yellow-eyed penguins go out to sea in the early morning, or return in the evening.
Just inland is the farming town of Owaka, the largest settlement in the Catlins, and the best place to plan an exploration of the area, with the Catlins Visitor Centre and the Department of Conservation both at 20 Ryley Street. On the way south from Owaka take the short walk through beech and podocarp forest to the beautiful and much photographed Purakaunui Falls, which cascade 20 metres over three tiers.
To the south lies Papatowai in a picturesque setting on the banks of the Tahakopa estuary. The small settlement was once a seasonal campsite for the Maori people, and archaeologists have found the bones of the extinct flightless bird, the moa, here in ovens and middens dating from between 1000 and 1700AD. The privately-operated Catlins Top Track, a two-day walk across beaches and through bush and farmland, starts here.
South east of Papatowai, turn off to reach the imposing Cathedral Caves on Waipati Beach, named for their resemblance to an English cathedral. From the car park, it is a 40-minute walk to the caves, which rise 30 metres in places, and resonate with the sound of the sea. The caves are accessible for two hours either side of low tide.
Continue on to Curio Bay, where the fossilised remains of an ancient 160-million-year-old forest are exposed at low tide. This is one of the most extensive and least disturbed examples of a Jurassic fossil forest in the world, a fascinating remnant from the time New Zealand was connected to the ancient super continent of Gondwanaland.
From Curio Bay, it is a 16-kilometre drive along unsealed roads to the southernmost point in the South Island, Slope Point. A walking track leads to the point, where a sign points one way to the South Pole (4,803 kilometres), and the other to the Equator (5,140 kilometres). The walk is across private farmland and is closed in September and October for lambing.
Twenty-two kilometres beyond Curio Bay is Waipapa Point, the site of one of New Zealand's worst shipwrecks, when the SS Tararua sunk with the loss of 131 lives in 1881. The lighthouse that now stands on the point was erected in 1884, the last wooden lighthouse to be built in New Zealand.