On Friday 20. of August Marcell and me headed out in the late afternoon to pay Signal Hill a visit. It´s one of the best lookout-points in the area around Dunedin and is located within a 10 minute drive from our flat.
To be honest, this picture has nothing to do with the actual blog-post about Signal Hill. I just didn´t find any other blog-post that would have been suitable for it, so I just added it in here.
But I have to admit that this car we saw last Friday at the Farmer´s Market in Dunedin is definitely one of the most awesome cars I´ve ever seen.
This picture shows the stunning view onto the Otago Peninsula on the right side and Port Chalmers on the left side. We took this photo on the way up to Signal Hill; unfortunately the wrong (!) way up... The windy road ended somewhere in the middle of the hill and we had to turn around and drive back to the city in order to get onto the opposite side of the hill where the actual way up is located.
But although we were on the completely wrong side of the hill, our drive up here was totally worth it. The road was one of the steepest and most thrilling roads I´ve ever driven on and the amazing view at the end of it was absolutely worth the 15 minutes we lost due to the pathetic navigating skills of my passenger Marcell.
Here you can see the miraculous view from atop of the actual Signal Hill lookout-point, which we reached 15 minutes later.
We arrived just on time to see the sun vanish behind the hills, creating a staggering play of colors in the scarcely clouded sky.
Here I am meditating across a cross-legged copper statue and contemplating about life and our (hopefully) legendary trip to Samoa during the midterm break.
Posing atop of Dunedin and enjoying the last rays of the descending sun.
Marcell once more revealed his vertiginous climbing skills and clambered on top of the monument to have an even more astonishing view onto Dunedin, its encircling hills and the beautiful pacific ocean.
We took a last view onto the Otago-Peninsula before driving back down into town to spend our last night in Dunedin before we´ll leave for Christchurch and our midterm vacation in Samoa tomorrow morning.
On Saturday 8. August Marcell and I decamped from our cozy flat in Dunedin and started a short weekend trip to the Catlins, an undulating quite remote area in the very southeastern part of New Zealand with heaps of stunning bays and waterfalls as you will see. To make the best out of these two days we departed early Saturday morning and came back Sunday in the afternoon.
We left Dunedin a few minutes past 9 am and started our journey south on Highway #1 that leads from Dunedin to Invercargil, the southernmost city of New Zealand. As one can clearly see on the picture above I´m sometimes quite scared of Marcell´s "driving skills".
Our first out of at least a dozen stops on the way south: Kaka Point. As you can see on the next picture, the main attraction (besides the name on the sign of course) is the beautiful sand beach. Unfortunately the weather was quite choppy and freezing so we decided to take a rain-check for our swim in the Pacific Ocean and took some decent pictures of the marvelous landscape instead.
The next sightseeing-point on our long, loong list was Nugget Point:
A tiny path lead us out to the famous lighthouse of Nugget Point. The view towards the lighthouse shows the main attraction on the right side of the hill: The Nuggets, a natural formation of rocks in the ocean.
Picture of me standing on the viewing platform underneath the lighthouse and directly in front of the Nuggets.
Another view onto the Nugget rocks. Frankly spoken Marcell and I had thought about climbing down that hill and clamber to the tip of the mainland to get an even better view onto the rocks. But there was no official path leading there and the first part (jumping down from the viewing platform) seemed us to be too risky so we stayed where we were and enjoyed the stunning view from the bottom of the lighthouse.
This is the coastline south of the lighthouse on Nugget Point.
And here you can see parts of the northern coastline surrounded by the amazingly turquoise water of the Pacific.
After visiting this absolutely astonishing place and taking these quite good pictures (and loads more, which I unfortunately can´t upload all on my blog) we began to feel our stomachs getting hungry and decided to have a little break and get some lunch in the nearest town. While looking for a suitable restaurant to get something to eat we wondered about the numerous Rallye-cars in town. Until one of the servants in the restaurants told us that apparently a Rallye was taking place here. So we tried to eat as fast as possible, managed to get a map of the Rallye-tracks and departed to the nearest viewpoint.
It was a first for both of us to watch a Ralley-race live and I have to say that it was an absolutely terrific experience. We were able to get quite close to the racetrack and took a shitload of photos and videos of the incredibly loud cars.
Back on the street to our next destination we came across this race-car that was clearly on the way to its next racetrack. So we decided to give our car a try and chase the race-car as long as possible. The race-driver obviously didn´t floor his car as he still had a few races in front of him, so we were able to chase the car until it turned right after several km to reach his starting point for the next racing stage. Believe it or not, it was an enormous amount of fun to compete in this little "race"!
On the way to our next attraction we stopped on top of a hill right in front of the glorious Cannibal Bay. As you will read later on in this blog-post this is one of the bays we will probably not forget in a very long time. But for now just enjoy the miraculous view on Cannibal Bay.
By now it was around 3:30 pm and we still had a few more attractions on our list for today. So we spent just enough time to take a few pictures and left the viewpoint on top of Cannibal Bay.
After a drive of about 30 or 40 minutes we reached our next destination: Lake Wilkie, a tiny but gorgeous lake 15 minutes from the car-park. The best thing about the lake definitely was the handy boardwalk that lead around almost half of the lake and provided an excellent and very convenient way of exploring the tranquil and peaceful environment of Lake Wilkie.
Just 5 to 10 minutes drive away from Lake Wilkie we found the car-park for our next stop: The splendid MacLean Falls. Fortunately the waterfall is way bigger and more exciting than the tiny Nicolls-Fall we visited a few days prior in Dunedin.
To get as close as possible we had to clamber some rock-walls and jump over numerous puddles. But it was totally worth it!
Marcell and me in front of the MacLean waterfall.
This is the car-park and starting point for the track to the MacLean Falls. Time to take one of the almost compulsory selfies with some sheep!
We were quite close to dawn now and decided to drive to our hostel, The Slope Point Backpackers, where we would stay for the night. On the next morning we got up at 6:30 am to watch the sunrise at Slope Point, the southernmost point of New Zealand!
Marcell standing on top of a measuring station at Slope Point.
Me standing on top of the sign that shows HOW close to the South Pole we were!
Here you can see how the slowly rising sun changes the colors of the sky from dark blue to yellow and orange hues. Although the sun itself was unfortunately hidden behind this hill it nevertheless truly was a beautiful scenery with all these colors in the sky. And all that happening so close to the Antarctica (there are only two countries in the whole world where you can get even more south: Chile and Argentina)!
Posing with the mascot of the Cafe where we had a delicious brunch after watching sunrise: The Whistling Frog.
This estuary boardwalk at Tautuku Bay slightly reminded us of the way Frodo and Sam took through a marsh on the way to Mordor.
Originally we had the intention to visit the Cathedral Caves at this point. But due to the rough tide they had been closed for the past few weeks and wouldn´t be open today. So instead of visiting the caves we decided to drive back to a place we had only discovered yesterday but had already begun to miss. Yeah, you got it, here is our second visit of Cannibal Bay:
We never had a visit to the beach as convenient as this one, not having to walk a single footstep. Instead we took an absolutely terrific, thrilling and bodacious drive on the beach. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had!!
And of course we also took some videos of this remarkable drive (or should I rather say drifting?) which you can watch here:
Our next destination were the Purakaunui Falls. This was only one of several waterfalls we visited that day but I won´t bother you with pictures of all the others. In the end they all look quite similar! But nevertheless it was a great experience to visit all these different falls, I wouldn´t want to miss it!
Our final stop was another stunning bay, the Purakaunui Bay. It is one of the places where it is very likely to see penguins or seals. As we didn´t see any at the beach itself, Marcell and I decided to climb out the rocky coastline a little bit in order to maybe eventually reach a point with some seals or penguins.
Climbing out just one or two feet above the sea-level was quite a challenge. Especially because we had to pay utmost attention to the waves which were sometimes higher than we appreciated.
Unfortunately we didn´t see any seals or penguins out there either. Too bad! But the climbing itself and the associated risk were fun enough to make it a worthwhile experience!
That´s all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading the blog and I will write another blog-post in one and a half weeks when I´ll be back from my mid-semester-break in Samoa.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more posts!
On Wednesday 5. August Marcell, Nicole and I decided to enjoy this beautiful winter-day outside and get at least a little bit of the spare rays of this utmost welcome winter-sun. So we drove to St. Clair Beach and had a look at the marvelous beach and the Pacific Ocean.
Marcell and I are standing on the rocky St. Clair Beach and glancing into the distance, imagining the approximately 3000 km distant Antarctica. To be honest, after giving the water temperature a try we we´re quite certain about the vicinity of the "Terra Australis" (Southern Land).
A few metres elevated from the beach, we found a nice narrow path that led us a bit further out the beach towards the end of the bay. Here I am taking a selfie quite at the end of our little path that ended abruptly in front of a giant wall of rocks.
Nicole and me, standing a few metres heightened above the sea level, watching the waves crashing against the solid coastline.
View from the terminal point of our path: On the left side you can see the beginning of St. Clair Beach that merges softly into the adjacent St. Kilda Beach and reaches out till the end of the bay that you can see in the background. A little further on the left hand side (just outside of the picture) the city of Dunedin begins.
Marcell and I in front of the beach that, according to rumors, is one of the best surfing spots in New Zealand. And believe it or not, we were able to spot some crazy guys that tried to make the best out of this beautiful sunny day and indeed went surfing in the freezing ocean.
After taking these nice shots at the St. Clair Beach we went back to our car and drove to the adjacent St. Kilda Beach that´s just a few minutes drive away. Whereas St. Clair is a quite rocky beach that might be the perfect surfing spot but can not really be considered as an awesome beach to hang out, chill a while, drink a beer and play some volleyball; St. Kilda Beach is quite the opposite. The waves might not be as huge as at St. Clair, but therefor St. Kilda reflects a perfect golden sand beach that invites one to stay for a few hours and go for a nice swim, if we weren´t in the middle of the winter and the ocean freezing cold (~12° Celsius).
St. Kilda is a perfect beach to go for a run and I will definitely use this chance during the next few days and figure out a decent route from my flat to the beach, along the St. Clair and St. Kilda beach and back to Campus where my flat is located. Just below the hill in the background, maybe right in the centre of the hill, you can see (or rather imagine) the end point of the St. Clair path I just showed you.
Posing at the white or rather golden sand beach, absolutely enjoying every second of this amazing day.
On the very same day another one of Dunedin´s most worthwhile locations would capture our imagination: Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world!! Located just a few minutes north of my flat, Baldwin Street is definitely one of the biggest draws for tourist in Dunedin and hundreds of spectators come here every day to take some astonishing snapshots walking up or down the 35% tilted street.
Nicole and me walking up the worlds steepest street. Unfortunately it´s everything but easy to take a good picture of the street that really shows HOW steep it is.
Marcell and me sitting on top of Baldwin Street in front of an awesome painting that shows the street itself and its history (left side of the picture).
Two days later on Friday 7. August we went to see another one of Dunedins sights, the Nicol Falls. We drove for about 10 minutes from our flat to the car-park and started our one-hour-walk from there.
The tight path to the Nicol Falls, led us through a nice rainforest for about half an hour until we finally reached the waterfall.
The way back to our car was even more slippery than the way up to the falls and it was quite a challenge to stay on the path and avoid falling to the ground and ruining one´s pants and jacket.
Taking a selfie in front of the Nicol waterfall. And yeah, we have to admit that it´s definitely not one of the biggest or most stunning falls we have ever seen. Unfortunately!
But we are going to the Catlins next weekend, a group of hills in the very south of New Zealand where an awesome more lot of waterfalls and beaches will await us. So stay tuned!
