Going to the catlins for four days was always going to be risky due to its unpredictable weather. Therefore it was a great surprise to have lots of sunshine and temps exceeding 20 c for our entire stay in this wonderful part of the world.
We stayed at the backpackers at Sloape point farm at a cost of 50 dollars a night or £25 a night. Tim and Shanti camped behind the cabins. We had a very comfortable double room with a shower just outside.
This really is an amazing place where there are no pubs, restaurants, tv's or shops. If you imagine the coastline of North Devon and Cornwall amalgamated with the rolling hills of Derbyshire and Dorset, remove most of the people and buildings and add a scattering of farms plus some large areas of rainforest then that is the nearest you will get to picturing what its like. You drive along deserted rough shale and stone chipping roads to get here and walk for miles along gorgeous beaches where you will only see wild birds and sea lions. Sloape point is the most southern point in mainland NZ so its unlikely we will ever be this close to the south pole again.
Backpackers are great for meeting other people. A guy called Tyrone went out snorkelling and as a result offered us some shellfish....Pau and Kinner. We tried the Kinner and it tasted like nothing we'd tried before, a mixture of cabbage and a bicycle inner tube!
That night we all stayed up for a new years party with plenty of booze and some fireworks provided by some Czech lads. The next day Tim and Shanti headed west while we headed east stopping on route for another night at Oamaru.
We walked around the town again looking at the few places that were open such as the book and craft shops in harbour street.
We concluded that this really is a town that shouldn't be overlooked due to its old buildings, arty workshops and quirky monuments.
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