NZ South Island Motorhome Road trip 2018 Day 11

There is a Curio Bay Cliffs and Porpoise Bay just at the top of the campground, so we detour total a look. Hectors dolphins are supposed frequent visitors to the Porpoise Bay but was too windy with many waves this morning so cannot see anything.
We decided to make a detour back to slope point because yesterday was raining so won't have good pictures even if we went there, it was about 20 min drive back from Curio bay. Slope point is the most southernmost point you can get to on mainland New Zealand , but southeast point is actually in Steward Island ( but that you have to take a ferry there ) Do note that the access to Slope point is on private land and it's closed during the lambing season from 1st September to 1st November.
After Slope point we decided to take one the Waipohatu falls hike which is supposed to be a 3 hour loop hike. there are 2 waterfalls to be seen in this hike. The pictures above were taken at the lower fall - Punehu Falls. It was a bad choice to do this hike as the past few days had been raining , so the whole walk inside the forest gets very muddy. We did not see any living soul during our 3 hours + hike. See the last picture ? does it look like a huge Chameleon ??
These 2 were taken at the upper fall - Pouriwai Falls. It was very disappointing cos from the pictures online we saw was taken from the other side of the falls , but the track only bring you to this side , in order to take nicer pictures , you will need to climb those rocks over to the other side but cos it was too slippery, we gave up and just take a quick look and left. really not worth the 3 hours + hike , maybe you can consider to do it in the dryer season. Online picture looks like this here.

Home Sweet Home

All covered in Mud

I survived

We end up all the shoes and pants in mud and also super hungry. Did not expect to be so muddy inside and there isn't really any place where you can sit to have a break inside this trek.
After a quick late lunch , we moved on to McLean Falls, This is a much easier walk ( except for some stairs ) once you reach the lower falls , move on up the steep stone stairs to the upper falls else you will regret as the upper falls is so much nicer. There is a toilet and sink at the entrance which is surprisingly quite clean , not like what you will expect in places like this ( if you are in some country ).

Lake Wilkie

It was about 4-5 pm when we left and so we have to decide where to go next. We did not exactly plan where to go these few days but rather just go and decide on the road. We were deciding between Purakaunui Falls or Lake Wilkie which are both along the way. We actually hope to reach Nugget point before sunset so we are kinda of rushing along the way ( all thanks to the 3 hours + hike in the morning). Lake Wilkie supposed to be like a mirror lake where you can see the reflection of the landscape but as we reached there it's already evening , the sun is actually on the wrong side , so if you place to visit, best to come in the morning or afternoon.

Came across some dogs herding the cows across the road when we were rushing to Nugget Point. Apparently we only go to the Light house but there is actually a place where you can view the Yellow-eyed penguins called Roaring Bay Penguins & Seals Observatory.Would loved to explore here more if we had time.I think it would be best to come here in the afternoon to have a better view of this place.
Pictures are bit blur cos it's already dark and I need to use flash to capture some of the pictures. It's called Nugget Point because of those rocks in the sea that looks like gold nuggets. We decided to stay till night fall and take some night sky pictures before moving off to next location for the night cos no freedom camping is allowed here. From the carpark to the lighthouse will take you about 15 mins.
By the time we finished and left the place it was already 8pm. We decided to stay at Brighton Domain for the night , which is about 1 hr 30 min drive away from Nugget Point Lighthouse. But before that , we did a detour to Ocean View Recreational Reserve Brighton for the dump station to clear our waste and also top up clean water. It's also a freedom camping site but I thin the rule is need to leave by 8:30 am , also there are specific lots to park in. When we finally reach and settle for the night , it's almost 10 pm. There is a toilet at the entrance but it's closed during the night but there is another one nearby about 1-2 min drive at the Surf club which is open but without lights. All these informations you can find at Campmate.

NZ South Island Motorhome Road trip 2018 Day 10

Wake up in the morning and trying to catch the sunrise but as per normal it's super cloudy this season in the morning. My new way of taking photo/time lapse is from the top window of the motorhome, this is where I dry my shoe/socks in the sun also.
It's so nice to wake up with the sound of waves, took a stroll on the beach and pick up some stones and shells just for picture only , I did not bring any of these home.today we will start to explore the southern part of the south island. We did not explore this part during our last time in 2005 and apparently there seems to be much lesser tourists here , We did not even spot another motorhome when we were at Invercargill.

Nice to finally see the Sea

Been driving for more then a week , finally we get to see the Sea. the problem is that the lakes here are so big that you often will mistake it as the sea. We be driving along the coast the next few days so it kinda like saying goodbye to Lakes/Mountains and "Hello" to the Sea/Wildlife.

All the beer in chiller room

We drop by supermarket at Invercargill to top up some food and realised that they DO NOT sell alcohol in the supermarket , been to both Countdown and Pak'nSave. Apparently this is because there are a lot of Southlander youth with drinking problem so they put a restriction to only sell alcohol at places with liquor license so as to better control the problem. , thus they only sell alcohol at shops like Liquorland.
We also drop by Devil Burger for early lunch. Read some online post there had been the comparison between Devil Burger Vs Fergbuger in Queenstown. So since we they have an outlet here, we decided to try and do our own comparison.  I had to say we both feel Fergburger win hands down ( of cos there is no like on like burgers to compare) If you are in Queenstown and can only have ONE burger , please go try Fergburger. Do note that for Devil Burger , they have some promotion on the "red dot" burgers which are going for only $10 on certain day/time. ( see the first picture , lower right corner )
We drove to a few places and stop once in a while for photo shoot but it being to rain soon after we reach the Cliffs at Fortrose. ( we did wanted to visit the shipwreck at Fortrose but it was high tide so it can't be seen ) Next we drive to the lighthouse at Wapapa Point ( was trying to see seals/sealions ). Like I mentioned , the next few days will be trying to catch some wildlife in their nature habitat.
We will b staying at Curio Bay Camping Ground for the night as we need a power site to charge , usually recommended is to charge every 2-3 days but we stretched it to the 4th day and it was still ok as when the motorhome is moving , it will charge the house battery as well. There is an Petrified Forest just 5-10 min walk away from the reception block and also supposed to have chances to see the Yellow-eyed Penguin during evening time when they going back to their home.Yellow-eyed penguins are one of the rarest penguins in the world and are unique to New Zealand. They were given their Maori name, hoiho (meaning noise shouter) because of their shrill call.

Can you spot the Penguin ?

We managed to spot 3 of them after like 20 min ? but very far away , did not managed to close up as not to scare them off also the surface is quite slippery as it was still drizzling.You can really heard they way they shrill. Do note that the kitchen here is without much utensil for cooking , please remember to bring your own plates and cutlery. Don't remember that they have any oven , just some stoves and 2 microwave. It's more like a cabin then a building. Sky was bit cloudy but did clear up after a while but very soon the whole sky is filled with cloud again. Was thinking of finally can watch the Lord go The Ring with the DVD player onboard. We go the disks from Wilderness Motorhome when we collected the motorhome. But out of the 5 disks we took , some were empty, some were spoilt , and only 1 can be watched. Sent an email to Wilderness Motorhome to inform them of that and they did a very good recovery. They actually replied and ask us to just pick up new discs from some video shop they mentioned and they will pay us back the amount for the purchases. Of cos we did not bother to do that but to me that was very good customer services.