McLean Falls to Dunedin

McLean Falls forest walk

McLean Falls

This was essentially a day in the Catlins, as we weren't expected in Dunedin till late evening. After a cold night we woke to clear blue skies. First on the agenda was a walk to the McLean Falls, just a few km up the road from where we stayed the night. This was a 45 minute forest walk to a rather spectacular waterfall. Although not the most famous of the Catlins waterfalls (that accolade is given to the Purakaunui Falls), we thought it was the most impressive and the walk through the forest was also one of the best.

Woodland walk to Tautuku Estuary

Tautuku Estuary

Our next excursion was the Tautuku Estuary Boardwalk. This short walk started in woodland and continued on a boardwalk across the Tautuku Estuary wetlands. The tide was going out and the muddy pools were full of tiny little crabs. This was closely followed by the short walk to Lake Wilkie. This walk is designed to show a succession of forest development from the small, water-tolerant shrubs that grow at the lake edge to the mature forest.

Lake Wilkie

Both the previous two walks were in the hinterland of Tautuku Bay. Our next walk took us through the coast strip of forest and down to Tautuko Bay itself. This was another glorious sweeping sandy bay with the waves rolling in. Only other people there were a party of hikers we'd seen earlier at the MacLean Falls who were doing a spot of yoga on the sands. Aenea got her feet wet while John took more photographs of waves.

Tautuku Bay

Stopped for our picnic lunch at Papatowai - another beautiful beach. Then we had a hilly stretch of road and visited the Matai and Horseshoe Falls. These were nice but less impressive than the others we saw today. Next stop was the famous Purakauni Falls - these are the ones that appear in the brochures. Very impressive but didn't beat the McLean Falls in our opinion.

Purakaunui Falls

Then our drive took us through Owaka, a tourist centre for the Catlins, and on to the turn off for Kaka Point and Nugget Point. The drive to Nugget Point was over a long stretch of unsealed road but the view from the lighthouse at the end was well worth it. We also saw fur seals basking in the rock pools below the point. Failed to find a nice place for coffee in Kaka Point, so drove on the Baclutha, the last town in the Catlins, where we had some soup to keep us alive till dinner later in Dunedin.

Nugget Point

By now it was after 6pm and time to hit the road for Dunedin. Nothing particularly memorable about the road from Baclutha to Dunedin - fairly flat and pastoral. Headed straight for the Octagon - the centre of Dunedin - and had dinner in a bar/restaurant there. Then drove round to the home of Pat Langhorne, an old friend from the Physics Department in Aberdeen, who had kindly invited us to stay with here and her husband for a couple of nights.