What are the Catlins? Surely we had never heard of them before we traveled to Dunedin, but the quiet corner of the South Island held its attractions for us.

To give you a sense of the Catlins, they are approached by the Southern Scenic Route, the first major scenic highway in NZ. But the ongoing struggle for the route right now is still . . . paving it! Long stretches of the route still aren't sealed (gravel roads are a normal thing in NZ, but on a major scenic route?) and the occasional mob of sheep has the right of way on the road!

We took two drives down State Highway 1 - once, we were actually headed toward Bluff and Stewart Island, and decided to go part way down the Scenic Route, not realizing that the 150km might take . . . 4 hours? 3 days? We did get down past Kaka Point to Nugget Point, with its desolate lighthouse, its rugged rocky coast, and its seals.We had a fine time in the mist and rain, looking for penguins and getting a little lucky before we realized we needed to work our way through the backroads and back toward Bluff if we were going to make our ferry to Stewart. But we figured we'd come back and explore some more.

So we took a day trip off toward the Catlins, armed with a map, water and bread and cheese. Our first stop was an old railroad tunnel built in an area where today there is . . . nothing. The tunnel was pitch black inside and long enough that halfway through, you didn't get light from either end. In fact, since we didn't have torches, you were so well hidden, you could move 3 feet toward the wall of the tunnel and scare a passerby to death, if you were so inclined.

Next was the first of several waterfalls that we visited on this cloudy day. The area gets a huge amount of rain and the bush is dense, filled with ferns, moss, heavy trees, and water everywhere. We visited 3 or 4 or 5 waterfalls - all of them varied in size and appearance, and each of them had their cool features, but overall, the sense we got was of a lovely, extended forest, shared with a few people who were also in on the secret. Each falls had its own trail, between 10-30 minutes in length, from a parking lot to the falls, and while we saw people all day, we met no more than a half dozen people on each track. One of the interesting things to us about the Catlins is that while the South Island has less than a million people, some areas get the lion share of visitors - Christchurch, the glaciers, Queenstown and Wanaka, Dunedin . . . but not the Catlins. So we had a lovely visit through magical bush, and after you've spent a day fighting the pedestrian traffic jams while viewing the waterfalls at Ricketts Glen in PA, you can truly appreciate the ability to spend as much time as you'd like at every fall.

The bush is this part of NZ is dense, nearly impassable if you're trying to walk through it. The ferns grow out of some trees, vines stretch across the trail, trees you've seen before climb out of terrain that is unworldly. Of course, the tuis and bellbirds create their own form of accompaniment and the fantails flit around to keep everyone company. While we tried to make it to every place in the Catlins, we only could have done that if we had followed the advice of the tour books and spent 3 days in the area. But we were confused by that as well - unlike tourist destinations in the states, there just isn't much in the way of infrastructure. A few tiny motels, perhaps, and some b and b's, a dairy here or there, or a small restaurant in one of the tiny towns, but between the unsealed roads and the limited facilities, the Catlins really aren't set up to be a place where hundreds of thousands of people might visit. Of course, if you have all of New Zealand to see and only a few weeks to do it, the Catlins would not likely be on your itinerary . . . not that there's anything wrong with that!

We loved the Catlins - if we weren't living in Dunedin, with 6 months, we might never
have made it down the coast to take advantage of what they offer. While you go back
and forth in the densest bush, you're never more than a hill or two away from the sea.
On the way home, we took advantage of that with a stroll along some of the beaches
and this is when we discovered the real reason that the Catlins weren't too crowded -
the sandflies!

So those are some of our memories of the Catlins, a part of NZ that we felt fortunate to explore.