I set out to the south west, down into the norhern part of The Catlins and towards a waterfall called Purakaunui Falls. I had been having a read through some books about the area the night before and it sounded, and from the pictures looked, pretty impressive. Paul told me it would take about 2 hours to drive there. He was obviousely expecting me to drive like an old woman.
Apart from the road works, which seem to be everywhere around here, I had no delays and arrived at Purakaunui Falls after about a 45 minute drive. I passed through the town of Owaka on the way which isn't impressive atall but it is the biggest town in the area. From the car park at the falls, there was a path leading into the forest and after a short walk I was at the base of the waterfall. I have to admit it wasn't as impressive as the pictures I had seen, as it wasn't in full flood, but it was really nice. It has like 3 teirs which looks really unnatural but it was cool.
After a photo or 2 i headed back to the car and set out for another near by waterfall called Matai Falls. It too was closer than I had expected and I was there in no time. When I arrived in the car park it started to rain pretty heavy so I decided to have my packed lunch and give the waterfall a bit time to see if the rain would make it more impressive. The weather had been really odd the whole day, bright and sunny one minute and then chucking it down the next. Conveniently the rain had stopped after my sandwich so I set down the track. This was a slightly longer walk, a bit of uphill too, but nothing my now seasoned walking legs couldn't handle. Matai Falls, although the least popular of the 2 waterfalls, was actually in my opinnion the most impressive. It didn't need to be quite as flooded to look good which was nice.
I enjoyed the sight for a minute or two and then noticed a sign directing me along another path for 5 minutes to Horse Shoe Falls. Out of the 3 it was my favoirite. It was much smaller than the other 2 and there was much less water. It was basically a horseshoe shaped ledge and loads of little streams of water kind of delicately trickled over the edge. Snappy snappy went my camera finger and then it was back to the car.
Seeing how it was much earlier than I had planned to be finished exploring I decided to make one more stop. On the way back I would pass by the road leading to Jack's Blowhole so I decided to check it out. The road out went around the Catline Lake which was pretty nice however it wasn't the best to drive over, being made of gravel. I carefully navagated along it untill I arrived at a beach, known as Jacks Bay. From here there was a walking track which lead to the blowhole.
I hiked along the track, with sheep and farmland on my right and the cliff edge and sea on my left, for half an hour. It felt kind of good having a decent walk again and the scenery was so so nice. It's really amazing how diverse the scenery in New Zealand is. In one day in just a small area I seen rainforest, waterfalls, farmland, lakes, cliffs and the sea. It's one of the things I like most about this country and, from what I gather, so do lots of other people.
Eventually I reached the blowhole. There was a path around it whith a fence incase I wandered too close. All around it were trees so I had to walk round to the otherside to ctually see into it. It wasn a pretty amazing sight, much better than the blowhole I had seen up north. It's basically a huge cavern without a roof. Everytime a big wave comes in from the sea it rushes into the cavern and is blown up the the sides of thbe walls. I stood for a while and then headed back to the car and drove myself back home.
Back at Paul's I've just been chilling out as usual. I managed to get the fire going which I was pretty chuffed at and did a bit more washing. I need to head into Balclutha to pick up Paul soon, apparently were going for some drinks with his work colleauges since its Friday. Tomorrow. since Paul has no work, he'll probably show me around the place a bit himself. At night were supposed to be going to Lazer Quest with some of his mates and then out afterwards. Should be pretty damn fun.
**For some reason I cant put the photos from my camera onto this computer which is rather annoying cos I have some good ones. I'll look into it.
