Catlins Part 2b

The funniest things I forgot to mention whilst setting up camp was we had three airbeds that needed blown up and when we purchased the beds we also purchased a electric pump. It plugs into the lighter and your beds are up in a jiffy. Well when it came to blowing up the beds, for some reason I think the lighter in our car blew a fuse thus no pump worked oh no what were we to do?? Dave and Ben took turns blowing up the beds it took at least an hour. Thank goodness Dave's a fitness freak his lung capacity is amazing.

We were all pretty tired and so sleep was high on the agenda. However Nicholas and Kate had other ideas. It was rather hot and so sleeping was not on Kate's agenda and when she finally did go to sleep Nicholas decided his sleeping bag was a toilet. So at 3am I was swapping my nice dry bed for a wet one lucky you can turn those airbeds over. Just getting comfy and the plug of the airbed pops out hissssssssssssssssss ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I'm not going to get any sleep tonight. My wonderful husband kindly blew the bed back up and so I managed to get in a couple of zzzz before Kate arose again.

Day 3 and it was going to be a very hot day. The main attraction to visit today would be McLean Falls and Cathedral Caves. I was feeling rather jaded so I was in no hurry to go walking to soon. Once Dave got back from his run we packed up the car and it was off to Mclean Falls.

McLean Falls

The 22-metre falls are on the Tautuku River in Catlins Forest Park and often described as the most spectacular in the region. The walk to the falls, though uphill, is not too steep and very pleasant. It passes through a variety of forest and shrub types: divaricating shrubland, huge tree fuchsia, stands of olearia and podocarp forest. Spectacular is one word for it but I would also use awesome, unbelieveable, beautiful, and I could go on but I wont. We stayed there for ages it was worth every minute.

We got back to the car and it was lunch time and as the camp site was just down the road we headed back to camp and ate and rested. We had to wait for the tide to be right before we could visit the caves. We decided to take a trip into Papatowai to get some supplies which we weren't looking forward too because being the only shop they can charge what ever they like. However, the shop was really reasonable and we got what we wanted without breaking the bank awesome. Then it was back to the Cathedral Caves. The Cathedral Caves Walk is managed by a group of landowners of Kāi Tahu descent. The caves are very impressive, as the sea has cut deeply into weaker sections of the cliffs and created caverns as much as 30 metres high.

Cathedral Caves

These caves were impressive however I was a little bit disappointed that we were charged so much. I actually wouldn't mind paying if some of the money was going towards upgrading the toilets and the office. On the internet it says $3 per adult and $1 per school child. However it actually cost $5 per adult and $1 per school child. I'm guessing it makes a fortune because the day we were there I could count at least 50 people and we were there when the tide was coming in. Inside the cave was rather airy and Nicholas didn't like it one bit. The walk was very cool.

Back to camp where the weather was quite unbearable and the flies/mozzies were annoying. Stay tuned for more in the next post........