The Southern Touring Route Pt. 2 — Invercargill to Te Anau
Our Second New Zealand Driving Tour
The Southern touring route may be the most underappreciated drive on the South Island. We always hear about the West coast, but we rarely hear anything about the South coast. We’re glad we did it though, because we found some spectacular views along the way.
Not far from Invercargill on the coast is the small town of Riverton. I took a wrong turn after a bridge and left the main road. Seeing an interesting view, I turned around and parked so that we could take some photos. Just seconds after we got out of the car, Yuki exclaimed and pointed out into the bay where a pod of 20 dolphins were swimming up the estuary.
We ran along the shore to keep up with them as they swam under the bridge and into the river estuary. We later found out that the town is well-known for having dolphins feeding in the estuary, but no one had told us before and we hadn’t seen any signs for it previously, so it felt like a privilege.
When the dolphins were gone, I took a photo of the old fishing boats moored against a rickety pier that I’d seen on the way in.
The last bay on the South coast (before the landscape evolves into mountains and fjord lands) has a beach called Gemstone Beach. Here, we were surprised to find towering cliffs, a sign warning us of falling rocks, and a nice sandy beach. Though the waves blew into shore with much strength, the beach felt very calm and relaxing.
At the other end of the bay is McCracken’s rest stop, a pullout beside the highway. The Google Maps review that convinced us it was worth visiting said this:
The wind straightened my hair for me 10/10 would go again before dinner — Holly Adcock
I’m not sure it was a 10/10 for us, having just experienced Gemstone Beach, but it was still beautiful and a lovely sight to behold. Yuki’s hair, however, was not straightened… just more windswept.
We thought that once the road turned inland it would become less interesting, so we were surprised when we saw a sign for caves. We took a detour to the caves.
The carpark for Clifden Cave is a small pullout in a small gully between hills covered in black and white spots. The black spots are rocks sticking out of the grass and the white spots are sheep. A small yellow sign points to the cave on the other side of a low fence.
The limestone cave went in quite deep. Had I known how many caves there are to explore in New Zealand (a lot), I probably would have brought proper caving gear, including a headlamp. With just the iPhone’s flashlight to guide us, we carefully moved between light and shadow together.
When I looked up at the ceiling, I found glowing dots and realized we’d stumbled onto some glow worms. There were around a dozen glowing specs that looked just like stars against a black night sky. I felt completely content with life.
I knew that mountains dominate the West coast of New Zealand’s South Island, but I didn’t realize that there would be flat plains and lakes on the East side of those mountains. The towns of Manapouri and Te Anau are situated beside lakes that are at the base of mountains. We stopped at both lakes for a look and headed to our accommodations for the night. After eating dinner at our hotel, we went back to Te Anau to sit beside the lake there.
Yuki browsed the internet while I took a short walk along the lakeside as the sun turned golden. Though there were a few jet boats and jet skis prowling the water, the surface of the lake was nearly still and quite tranquil. We stayed until the sun dipped below the mountains and figured that we ought to get going as we were to be up early the next morning for a cruise in Milford Sound.
