The southern part of the South Island is far from the tourists’ destinations of the past week. The landscape transitioned from steep grey mountains to rolling green hills covered in sheep, goats and cows. Eventually we hit the Southern Ocean and the rugged undisturbed beaches. We saw no one all day. As we travelled east, we eventually hit the Catlin Forest and the Waipohatu Waterfall Loop, our hike for today.
Over 5 miles, we trudged through mud, steps and more mud to reach 2 amazing waterfalls. We had all that mud and the waterfalls to ourselves. A really cool and different hike than the mountain summits we have been hiking.
After trying to get some of the mud off our shoes and pants, we made a quick stop at McLean Falls before continuing along the southern coast stopping at deserted beaches until we hit Dunedin.
