Saturday, 11 October 2025
Waterfall, waterfall, waterfall, waterfall, the southernmost point of the South Island, a lighthouse and a motor museum. Maybe a bit more detail …
We set out on the Papatowai Highway heading for McLean Falls but, when we happened upon the Matai and Horseshoe Falls not far from Owaka, we decided that we might as well have a look. The bonus was two waterfalls within a short distance of each other. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we had plenty of time today to potter about, so we walked into the Matai Falls and then climbed the steps up to the Horseshoe Falls. With recent rains both falls had a decent amount of water flowing over them.
We continued to the Florence Hill Lookout with its beautiful views over Tautuku Bay before driving past the turn off to Cathedral Caves. Unfortunately the gate is closed at the moment because the caves are currently inaccessible. A little further along the road, we arrived at the turn off for McLean Falls. We parked the car and enjoyed another pleasant walk into our third waterfall for the day. Arguably another two (three?) for one as we passed a small lower fall and The Chute before reaching the main 22 metre cascade.
We continued on the Chaslands Highway before taking a left towards Waikawa. At Niagara we took the turn marked Niagara Falls. Confronted with a T-intersection I said we should go right. The point of interest marker in the atlas showed it was right, right? We travelled some way along an unmaintained road without reaching the falls, with Bernie eventually deciding we weren’t going to find the falls and turning the car around.
We drove back to where we had turned in and there were the falls, right there just across the bridge we had crossed but with the tiniest sign in the world. No wonder we missed them. Even the sign when we eventually found it, said that the surveyor who named the falls obviously had a sense of humour naming these small falls after Niagara Falls!! Apparently though, the area below the falls is very popular for whitebaiting during the whitebait season.
And Niagara has a really good cafe where we ate lunch today. Venturing into this remote area of The Catlins at the bottom of the South Island we had feared it would be difficult to find something for lunch. These concerns proved unfounded when we stumbled upon the Niagara Falls Cafe. The cafe was displaying some artwork featuring cyclists who have won medals. As we left I asked if the painting was of local sporting heroes. The guy who had served us said the cyclist on the right of the painting is his sister and headed out to the al fresco dining area with plates of food. We were heading off when he stuck his head back in and said in typical brother fashion that ‘hero’ was a bit of a stretch!!
We stopped briefly in Waikawa for a quick photo of the quaint St Mary’s Anglican Church before continuing down to Curio Bay where the wind was blowing ferociously. After a quick couple of photos of the coastline we doubled back to the Haldane-Curio Bay Road where we took a left to travel around to Slope Point, the Southernmost point of the South Island. The wind was even worse here but we slogged our way out to the point anyway. On the way out I thought we had a cross wind but, as we struggled to make our way back to the car park I realised that we must’ve just about had a tail wind because now we seemed to be walking directly into a gale!!
Our final stop in The Catlins was at Waipapa Point, so that we could photograph the lighthouse. Another day, another lighthouse. The wind was still terrible but at least we were closer to sea level, which made it a bit more bearable. We headed back to Otara and then made our way along the back roads to Fortrose, where we picked up the Tokanui-Gorge Road Highway to make our final approach to Invercargill.
Arriving in Invercargill, Bernie was excited to visit the Bill Richardson Transport World. Wow! What an amazing collection of vintage cars and trucks, petrol pumps and other motoring memorabilia. The best part though? We were indoors out of the wind which was a welcome relief after nearly being blown off the southern end of the South Island.
A quick stop at Woolies for some supplies. With the wind that has been blowing today I have been increasingly anxious about the ferry crossing to Stewart Island in the morning. We’ve had too many New Zealanders laugh at us about the perils of making the crossing between Bluff and Oban. Even people who don’t get seasick get sick on the ferry to Stewart Island we’ve been told … as they put their hands together in a gesture of prayer. I managed to catch the Woolies pharmacy just as they were closing up and buy some ‘Sea Legs’ tablets. Just having the tablets on hand makes me feel less anxious. And I have my fingers crossed that the wind will have eased off by morning. Please, please, please.
And then onto The Langlands for tonight. Our room for tonight was booked last night. After finding we were not booked in for last night, Bernie reconciled all of our accommodation bookings and found that confirmation emails had not been received for last night or tonight. Fortunately it was easy to book a room for both nights at short notice. Our rooms for these last two nights have been like chalk and cheese. Very, um, rustic last night, very luxurious tonight.
Thoroughly sick of the wind we ate at one of the in-house restaurants to avoid having to venture out into the wind again today.
Steps: 14,152 (9.79kms)
