Catlins NZ

Hello! We are in the Catlins, an area in the south of the South Island, where there is no phone signal and very little internet or anything else apart from scenery!

Our day trip to Doubtful Sound started apparently badly with a night of pouring rain and howling gales - we wondered if the boat would sail. But no! We were told that this was the IDEAL weather as the waterfalls would all be very good! They certainly were.

We first were taken across Lake Manapouri in a little boat, almost nothing visible, mist covering the surrounding mountains. Then on a coach across a pass covered with temperate rain forest, every tree smothered in velvet moss in varied colours, and plants growing on plants growing on plants... waterfalls pouring out onto the road.

Into Doubtful Sound itself next, the cone shaped mountains coming and going in the mist, sometimes a gleam of snow in a patch of sunlight on the top... magical. At the mouth of the sound we saw fur seals basking on rocky islets, and a group of Fiordland tufted penguins, very rare. I was glad of all the warm clothes I had, including the gloves made of possum given me by Christopher - thank you Christopher!

We went back to probably (I hope) the worst hostel we have been in, in Manapouri, where we slept in a sort of garden shed, and the loo (primitive) was some way away in the bush, the showers in the opposite direction, and a very small kitchen. To crown it all there was a couple there from Doncaster!

Enough about that, not much time left. Yesterday we had a long drive to the Catlins, and eventually, exhausted, stopped at a backpackers just by chance, Hilltop Backpackers which sure is on a hill, in the middle of a sheep farm, fab views of the coast and such a luxurious place, just what we needed after Manapouri.

It is a wooden Victorian house which was brought bodily from somewhere else, and we have a magnificent huge bed and en suite and hardly anyone else there.

We are going to have another night there. As I said, no phone, so no communication until next thrilling update! Love to all of you - mumbo.