The Catlins - Meowww

(because you know I can never pass up the opportunity for a pun, even if the pun makes no sense whatsoever)

Spent the last week in the Catlins, and I'll upload some photos when I get the chance. This is the very southern edge of New Zealand's south island. I could go even further south to Stewart Island (or if I wanted to be krazy, could go to the Campbell Islands or the Auckland Islands, which have little besides endangered birds and rocks), but it's time to get back to the beaten track for now. The Catlins are lovely and often overlooked by non-locals - it's sort of like England's Lake District or Vermont's Northeast Kingdom in that respect, meaning you could drive for an hour or so amongst dramatic ocean views and vast expanses of native bush and farmland, and see maybe two or three cars. Which I did, several times. I also did an overnight hike and slept in a trolley bus from pre-1960s Dunedin, which had been converted to have bunk beds and a gas stove and all that. Kinda cool. Saw a total of one person for 36 hours on that hike. So I guess you get my point - very sparse in terms of people (though really not that far from a few semi-major population areas). Way more sheep then people. Even the endangered Hooker's sea lion species that inhabits many of the beaches probably rivals the human population here.

But, glad to be back in a city for now. I'm in Invercargill this morning, which is cool in places but is kinda bland for my tastes. I'm heading back to Dunedin this afternoon to check out the Fringe Festival there for a few days, then heading up through Central Otago (wine and gold country) for a few days, then wwoofing some more in Wanaka in the mountains, where I'll be doing chicken work, planting some native plants, and building stone walls (something I sort of know how to do!)

So, next step will be putting up some pics, which I'll do when I get to Dunedin (will try, anyway...)