New Zealand. Invercargil.

Today was a long day trip through the Catlins area from one Scottish town to another. Invercargil is another Scottish origin town, and seriously is the arse hole of NZ, both in location and in reality. But the journey there was fantastic. 

We set off early out of Dunedin and started on our many stops along the way.  First up was a beach, not very exciting, it was just a breakfast stop. But I walked along the beach and there was so much massive seaweed it was amazing. Huge swaths of kelp which had been pulled up from the sea. There were huge muscle attached to a lot of the roots too. But best off all, after waking the beach I found paua shells! So happy! I found some small pinkish ones, not sure what breed they are and then I found part of a paua and then yay I found a whole paua shell! The outer shell is really beautiful too, not all calcified like the ones in the shops. Those are from fisheries so maybe they add stuff to the water for the pauas. 

Next up was a nice lighthouse stop which also had a colony of fur seals laying beneath it. It was a but of a grey start but it was still cool to see the views. 

Then we were told we were going to have a walk along a beach. But when we got to the beach there was actually a pack of New Zealand sea lions! They were pretty scary as they are so aggressive but so cool to see them up close. Maybe a little too close!

We then made a quick stop off for another walk around a lake, very glass like a pretty also got to hear a but of info about some of the wildlife from our driver. 

Next up was another waterfall. This one we got to climb up to and it was very impressive. 

Then it started to rain! I did get out for more than a couple of minutes at the next stop which was a lookout at a couple if beaches, but we then drove down to one of the beaches which is home to a flock of yellow eyed penguins. There was one there!! Just one but was not scared and just hanging out for the tourists! 

These are the rarest penguins and just 18 live around this area. The beach they are on is a fossilised forest and you can see the old tree stumps and trunks. 

There was so much seaweed here too. It was cool to watch it move about up a narrow channel which the waves sloshed up. This was our last stop before heading to Invercargil. Such a weird place. I have no idea why anyone would come here. The rest of NZ has felt about 20 years begging the uk, but here feels about 40! Everything feels so dated and bizarre.