The Southern Scenic Route - And all the blues between

We've arrived in Invercargill - another Scottish sounding town in the South Island of New Zealand, and despite it being only about a 2.5 hour drive away from Dunedin, it took us most of the day to get here. Of course the 2.5 hours is the short version of the way here - the much longer version is a road called the Southern Scenic route. Now, to be fair, (to be fair) the longer version is only about...mmm...4.5 hours? It's one thing to know that other countries are physically smaller than America. It's another thing entirely to be like, "Oh, we're taking the long way." "How much time does it add to your trip?" "An hour." "......No, but seriously." Do you know, that I've talked to people about "swinging by Buccees between my drive from Tampa to Atlanta? And part of the reason I haven't done it yet is because it adds like another 30 min to my drive of 7 hours? And that those same people are like, "That's nothing" and I.KNOW.THEY'RE.RIGHT. Don't get me wrong, I love that we can actually explore New Zealand as much as we are but it's also one of those moments where you just have to compare what's "normal" for you, versus what's normal for the world. It was similar in Iceland I think. I was there for a week and I managed to travel around like, half the country? (Okay, I made it to Hofn, but still.) Same thing with Ireland. We had a bit more time, but we were all up and down that isle. We had to get gas before we started our scenic route, and BOY howdy it's expensive. But then we started doing the math of km and whatnot, and how many hours a day we're driving....it made it less.....depressing. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to weep over how much we will end up spending on gas, but it'll be that regal single tear sorta cry, not full on sobbing. (I kid.) (I always ugly cry.) So! What was the Route actually like? It started off in Dunedin, and took us through some residential areas at first, then as we got further away, it became less suburbs and more....spaced out. We did have two planned stops that we *had* to see, but we swung by a beach until we saw that the path down to the beach was like, an hour walk at a super steep angle, we swung by a little info kiosk by a river, and then it was a mix of seaside coastal driving and driving past so many farms with sheep. Again, it's one thing to know New Zealand is known for it's wool, it's another to see HOW MANY SHEEP THAT TAKES. Maybe that's the secret to moving to New Zealand. You have to agree to raise like, 5 sheep minimum. But we do love the sheep. It's spring here, so we keep seeing baby sheep being playful and cute, and hopping around or running in the field or headbutting another baby sheep. We did see one black sheep! They had a sibling white one (I'm guessing) next to them so we took a picture. And for like the first hour and a half, we would take the road as it swept us towards the shoreline, then back up into the more hilly areas full of sheep. Our first stop was in a place called Kaka Point....to see the Nugget lighthouse. We stopped a bit before the lighthouse. Sarah and I saw a cop on the side of the road (we think) and made a comment about him. (He was wearing shorts, but also that vest thing cops wear?) We drive slow, (as you can recall) and I pulled over at one point to let someone pass me. He ended up passing us as well because *while* we were stopped, I wanted to take a picture of the ocean and the rocks and the waves. Then we continued on, saw him coming up the road, and he waved us down so I pull over again. Turns out, he was waving for us to stop and see some Sea Lions sleeping on the beach!

Well sleeping, dozing, being generally pretty cute. It was really nice. But also, didn't want him to think we were gonna harass the wildlife, so we kept our time there short, and made our way to the lighthouse. To get to the Nugget Point lighthouse requires a short walk, and this morning delivered once more on the weather. Blue skies, slightly cloudy, crisp wind, temps that could use a light jacket or just a t-shirt. And again, not super crowded. We got to take our time wandering over, snapping pics - the view is incredible. And I realized, at the furthest part of the point we can stand on, we face South. The only landmass in that direction is Antarctica. Also, on one side of the outcropping of land, the water couldn't really be heard - you could see the waves, but when you looked on the other side, you could hear the swells from hundreds of feet below. It was all very neat. They also had like....informational plaques that read....kinda like poems. Gave us a little info about some stuff, and was a vibe. I liked it, but it felt....melancholy.

It was a bit of a juxtaposition. The scenery was beyond the pale, and the sky and the seas combined into the most beautiful palette of blue I think the world has on offer, but then these plaques kinda....didn't bring the mood down, but it put it into perspective. I probably could have stayed there for a much longer time, but I realized Sarah was off heading back towards the carpark....to be fair, there was one bathroom, and we did finally come across a kinda large group....also heading back. (And I had to go too.) Afterwards we found a Penguin Hide which is...well a place humans hide from penguins. It's a viewing platform that blocks you from the penguins view. We didn't see any penguins today, BUT Sarah did see another Sea Lion make it's way to shore, and then we watched it go from the rocky beach to the grassy hillside. By then it was about 2:15? Smidge later? So we left, cause we still had a ways to go and another thing to see! The other thing was the Purakaunui Falls. They are one of the most famous waterfalls in New Zealand. They even made it onto the postage stamp! When we first got there, we saw a whole school group walking down the trail. So, we did what reasonable people do. We left. I AM KIDDING. We just took our time grabbing our things from the car, and then meandered extra slow down the trail. Apparently we did a great job cause we weren't even halfway there before the kids were returning to the bus to do...whatever. Go back to school? I did forget to mention - the lead up to the falls. Driving? Sheep, sheep, grazing land, green fields, green fields, cows - so agriculture...y....that I just needed some coveralls to fit in. But the trail? The actual walking path? Lush forest, fern trees, rivers, streams, that smell of wet earth mixed with leaves, songbirds, that dark overhang only found in the densest of mountains. It was the same effect we had going into Trotter's Gorge. And then, of course, at the end of this short hike (it was short) was a three tiered waterfall crashing into a pool filled with boulders the size of me? I love the contrast. And speaking of contrasts... The beautiful morning of blue skies? Yeah, that was over. We were lucky. We were already back at the car when the first rain drops fell. And it took a little bit for the rain to truly start - we were back on the scenic route when it started to really pour. And then we kinda just decided to head straight to Invercargill from there - no more stops. We thought about a few, but rain, walking, we were hungry and still an hour away? Our stomachs won. We made it to Invercargill at around 6pm. We left Dunedin at 10 am. Not a bad day. Not a bad day at all. The rain has picked up and lessened since we arrived, with the wind howling and throwing the rain at the window of where we are staying, but at the moment, it is calm. It's cold, and will be cold tomorrow, but nothing we can't handle. We've gotten lucky with the weather. It's time to see if that was a brief thing. Until tomorrow!