We were up and out of Te Anau just after 9am this morning, headed for Invercargill. It wasn’t in my original itinerary but Ross remembered visiting it last time (19years ago!) and I remembered a historic clock tower that we could visit.

Over two hours later, we arrived in Invercargill, a much bigger city than we remembered! The clock tower was the centre of a roundabout, impossible to look at, so instead we went to Queens Park for morning tea and a game of frisbee.

Ross had read a brochure yesterday about The Catlins, a southern scenic route along the bottom of the country and decided we should explore that on our way to Dunedin. It was beautiful scenery, sometimes through farmlands, sometimes along the coastline, occasionally on gravel roads. There were no major towns though with decent food options, so I was drip feeding the kids the snacks in the car along the way – and now need to shop again!! Over a six hour trip, they ate no lunch as such, but had grapes, mandarins, Grainwaves, choc chip cookies, almonds and gummi bears. Another #proudparenting moment….

We visited along the route a lighthouse at Waipapa Point (almost the southernmost point of the South Island), Purakaunui Falls (the most photographed waterfall in NZ), and another lighthouse at Nugget Point. The scenic route ended at Balclutha and it was then another hour to Dunedin from there, which we reached at 6pm.

Our accommodation at Dunedin is nice but basic – it’s a three bedroom apartment so we are all together, but there’s only one bathroom and the laundry is elsewhere in the complex. And the wifi is not great, so my photos are not uploading. We are a block away from the University of Otago, so Ross and I feel we are really bringing up the average age in this suburb! 

A lot of my research before we left home was about Dunedin. The Ale House attached to the Speight’s Brewery had good reviews for its meals, so we went there for dinner. The booth we were given had views of the AFL Grand Final, so the boys enjoyed that. 

It was still light when we finished, so we went to admire Dunedin Railway Station (above), before returning to our accommodation where we watched tv for the first time this week – I still don’t know which party Winston Peters helped into government, but we watched some local rugby, a show on Christopher Columbus set in Florence, and “Sing: China” – not a normal Saturday night for team Jones…😂