Cathedral Caves to Fortrose

Saturday 26th January
We had planned to move on down the Catlin Coast after our walk yesterday but because we felt so tired it was nice to stay put at the DOC camp for another night. We headed off earlyish this morning though so we could get to the Cathedral Caves, which are only accessible at low tide. We have been out of internet and cellphone range so couldn't check the tide time and on arriving there we found our reckoning from last week's tide was slightly out and we were on the verge of being beaten by the water coming in. They say you need to be there within one hour either side of low tide and we were 1 hour past with a half hour walk through lovely bush and along the beach to get there. But we paid our $5 each and, even with our stiff muscles from yesterday, jogged virtually the whole way and got there in plenty of time. There are two 30 metre high caves which are joined up at the back and are quite impressive but once you have seen them you wouldn't need to visit again. They are described as resonating with the sound of the sea but we couldn't discern this.

Debussy's dirty backside from gravel road tripping

We also had a short walk to the viewpoint at Lake Wilkie and to the tiny Niagara Falls which were named by a surveyor with a sense of humour! We enjoyed some carrot cake and coffee at the Niagara cafe where we could pay to link into their wifi for a quick check of our emails. It's seems so wierd to have to go for days with no cellphone or internet connection.
We revisited Curio Bay where you see the fossilised forest with it's imprints of fallen trees, ferns and tree stumps - quite an amazing sight and his time we were lucky enough to also see 2 yelloweyed penguins close-up in the undergrowth at the edge of the beach.

Some old fossils!

It has been another fabulously hot day at about 26°, so different from when we were last down in these parts when the cold and strong wind we experienced at Slope Point is forever etched in our memories. Fortrose, a tiny wee place at the Southern end of the Catlin's scenic route, has a beautiful free parking/camping area right beside the estuary, called Toetoes Bay, and this is where we are parked right now and for the night. We have enjoyed having a swim even though the weedy stuff under the feet isn't very nice and it has been great to sit and read in our deck chairs with the nice beachy outlook. I think we're not doing this often enough. It's 9.00pm now and still sunny and warm with the extra long days in the south.

Absolute beachfront @ Fortrose

The weather looks settled for the next week and we are looking forward to getting to Stewart Island for a few days which means that we will head to Invercargill tomorrow so we can make some last minute bookings which we can't do from here.