The Catlins
A coast battered by the Southern Ocean's furies, penguins commuting home at dusk and empty gravel roads: the Catlins are the South Island's best-kept secret.
Suggested stay — 2 nights
Between Dunedin and Invercargill, the Southern Scenic Route leaves the classic circuits for an old-fashioned coast: the Nugget Point lighthouse on its spur above the nugget rocks, fur seals sprawled on the beaches, the Purakaunui and McLean waterfalls beneath the rainforest, and Slope Point, the island's southernmost tip, where the trees grow horizontal under the wind of the roaring fifties. Next landfall due south: Antarctica.
The great rendezvous plays out at Curio Bay at dusk: the hoiho — yellow-eyed penguins, among the rarest in the world — cross the 170-million-year-old petrified forest to reach their nests, while Hector's dolphins, the planet's smallest, surf in the neighbouring bay. You watch from a distance, no flash, behind the ropes: every disturbance counts for a species numbered in hundreds of pairs.
Don't miss
- The Nugget Point lighthouse at sunrise, when the light sets the reefs ablaze
- The Curio Bay hoiho at dusk, in the petrified forest at low tide
- Cathedral Caves — a 30 m vault, accessible only for two hours around low tide
- The McLean and Purakaunui falls, short walks beneath giant ferns
Our tips on the ground
- Fill up before entering (Balclutha or Invercargill): stations in the Catlins are rare, expensive and close early — and part of the roads are gravel, thirsty on fuel.
- Check the tide tables BEFORE planning the day: Cathedral Caves (seasonal opening, paid access) and the Curio Bay petrified forest can only be visited at low tide.
- On the beaches, keep a 10 m minimum from seals and sea lions — they sleep in the dunes and charge faster than you can run, especially if you're between them and the shore.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“New Zealand on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about The Catlins
Are the Catlins worth the detour on a packed itinerary?
If you're after the New Zealand of before tourism, a thousand times yes: it's the only coastal region of the South where you can stand alone before penguins. Count the detour honestly — two full days between Dunedin and Fiordland via the Southern Scenic Route — and sacrifice an urban stop instead: the Catlins resemble nothing else on the trip.
Is seeing the penguins guaranteed?
Nothing is guaranteed with 200 pairs of hoiho along the whole coast: the best odds are at Curio Bay 1-2 h before sunset, when the adults come home to feed the chicks (October-February). Out of respect as much as strategy: motionless, silent, never between the ocean and the forest — a disturbed penguin may abandon feeding its brood.