After Milford and Doubtful Sounds we started to head down the Southern Scenic Route of the South Island for our last bit in New Zealand. The first place we wanted to make sure we hit was Bluff to sample the famous Bluff Oysters.
Bluff oysters are only dredged in the Foveaux Strait from March to August and we happened to be there right in season. The Bluff oysters lived up to the hype of being fat and delicate. The only disappointing thing is that they are not served after being freshly cracked open on the half shell. We bought them fresh from the source, however, which made them about half the cost of getting them at a restaurant!
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After Bluff we headed to the Catlins area. Here there is beautiful coastline with dramatic cliffs dropping into the ocean. We stopped at Nugget Point where there is an old lighthouse that was built in 1869. Also we spotted a bunch of seals down at the bottom of the cliffs.
After driving the Southern Scenic Route all the way to Dunedin, we went back to Queenstown. We had a few days so decided to head up to Glenorchy to walk a little of the Routeburn Track which is another one of New Zealand's Great Walks. We camped at one of the Department of Conservation sites and had a really fun night with some people we met there. Marisa from San Francisco and Stephan and Sabine from Germany.
We all decided to make the walk together the next morning on the Routeburn. The Routeburn follows a beautiful river and has more amazing waterfalls. If you haven't figured it out by now, if you're a fan of waterfalls New Zealand is your place.
We hiked all the way above treeline to the Routeburn falls. Once above the falls in the valley, the weather got rough with wind and rain, so we headed back down.
The short trek was a great way to wrap up the New Zealand trip. We loved the hiking that we did around New Zealand, and wish we could have done even more of the Great Walks. We were sad to leave New Zealand but excited to head to Australia for a short trip and then to Southeast Asia.
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're having a sweet holiday! Some good photos, I'm especially feeling that one of Nugget Point in the Catlins. Amazing place.
I work for DOC, and thought that you and your readers might be interested in some little known gems of campsites that we manage, there's about 200 of them around the country. I'll include some links at the end here.
General camping info: www.doc.govt.nz/camping
A map containing Conservation Campsites: http://bit.ly/dp41aa
And if you'd like to add any of your photos to our flickr stream, then head over here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/docnz/
Cheers, and hope your holiday continues well!
Sam O'Leary
DOC Web Team