New Zealand's Deep South: Dunedin, the Catlins and Stewart Island

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Dunedin

   Dunedin Airport to your hotel in central Dunedin, then a walk round the city centre

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Dunedin
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Dunedin Airport (DUD), about 30 km south-west of the city, where a driver meets you for the half-hour transfer to your central hotel. Most flights from Canada connect through Auckland, so the afternoon is free to rest; plan to land by about 3 pm. At around 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the wildlife days work, what the tides and the Foveaux Strait can do, and what to wear. Then we walk the centre together. Dunedin was settled by Scottish Presbyterians in 1848 and grew rich in the Otago gold rush of the 1860s, and it shows: the eight-sided Octagon with its statue of Robert Burns, the stone First Church, and the Flemish-style railway station with its mosaic floor. The walk ends at a welcome dinner at a restaurant in the centre, a few minutes from the hotel.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Dunedin Airport (DUD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Guided walk: the Octagon, First Church and the Dunedin Railway Station
   • Welcome dinner in Dunedin

   Temps libre : Free until the early-evening briefing

   Activité : Plan to land by about 3 pm; if you arrive later, your guide meets you at dinner. The walk is about an hour on city streets.

2. Jour 2 : The Otago Peninsula: albatross and penguins

   Dunedin along the Otago Peninsula to Larnach Castle, Taiaroa Head and a penguin reserve, then back to Dunedin

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Dunedin
   Détail du jour 2

   The morning is free in Dunedin: Toitū Otago Settlers Museum is free to enter and five minutes from the Octagon, or sleep in. We leave after an early lunch on your own and drive up onto the spine of the Otago Peninsula to Larnach Castle, a stone house finished in the 1870s, for an hour in its gardens with views down the harbour. Then out to Taiaroa Head at the peninsula's tip, where the Royal Albatross Centre looks after the only mainland breeding colony of albatross in the world. A guide explains the birds, and from the centre and the headland, or the observatory when it is open, you look for northern royal albatross, with a wingspan of about three metres, riding the wind. In the late afternoon, when they come ashore from fishing, we join a guided tour at a yellow-eyed penguin reserve, watching hoiho from covered trenches and hides. Dinner together is on the peninsula, then back to Dunedin.

   Compris

   • Larnach Castle gardens
   • Royal Albatross Centre guided tour, Taiaroa Head (the observatory when open)
   • Guided tour at a yellow-eyed penguin reserve on the Otago Peninsula
   • Dinner on the Otago Peninsula

   Activités en option

   • Little blue penguins coming ashore after dark at Pilots Beach
   • Wildlife cruise off Taiaroa Head to see albatross from the water

   Option plus facile : Stay in the castle tearoom instead of the gardens; the penguin hides are reached by short paths and some steps.

   Option plus active : In the free morning, walk with your guide up Signal Hill above the city, about 1.5 hours return.

   Temps libre : Morning free in Dunedin

   Activité : About 2 hours of driving on narrow peninsula roads. The albatross observatory is closed for part of the breeding season, and we confirm at booking whether it is open on your dates; when it is closed, you see the birds from the centre and the headland.

3. Jour 3 : Nugget Point and Purakaunui Falls

   Dunedin to Balclutha, Kaka Point and Nugget Point, then Owaka and Purakaunui Falls

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Owaka (the Catlins)
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Dunedin at 9 am and drive south through farmland to Balclutha, about an hour, then turn for the coast at Kaka Point. Nugget Point, Tokatā, is the Catlins' best-known headland: a walk of about 20 minutes each way on a formed track climbs to the 1870 lighthouse, with the Nuggets, a line of sea-worn rocks, running out to sea below. New Zealand fur seals haul out on the rocks, and sometimes elephant seals. Lunch is a sit-down meal nearby. In the afternoon we reach Owaka, the Catlins' main village and our base for two nights, and drop the luggage. Then a short drive inland to Purakaunui Falls, about 10 minutes' walk through beech and podocarp forest to falls that step down three tiers of rock. Dinner together tonight in Owaka.

   Compris

   • Guided walk to the Nugget Point lighthouse
   • Sit-down lunch near Kaka Point
   • Guided walk to Purakaunui Falls
   • Dinner in Owaka

   Option plus facile : Wait at the Nugget Point car park lookout, which has a view of the coast, and take the short, flat path at Purakaunui Falls only as far as you like.

   Option plus active : Walk down with your guide to the Roaring Bay hide near the Nugget Point car park, about 15 minutes each way, to look for yellow-eyed penguins on the beach.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Owaka

   Activité : About 2 hours 45 minutes of driving with stops. The Nugget Point track has a steady climb and can be windy.

   

4. Jour 4 : Cathedral Caves, McLean Falls and Curio Bay

   Owaka to Cathedral Caves and McLean Falls, then Curio Bay and Porpoise Bay, and back to Owaka

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Owaka (the Catlins)
   Détail du jour 4

   Today runs by the tide table, so your guide sets the order the night before. Cathedral Caves, on Waipati Beach, can only be reached for about two hours either side of low tide: a path drops through forest to the sand and a walk along the beach brings you to sea caves about 30 metres high. Nearby, McLean Falls is about 40 minutes return through the forest to a 22-metre fall. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the way. At Curio Bay, when the tide is out, the rock platform shows the stumps and fallen logs of a forest about 180 million years old, turned to stone. Next door, Porpoise Bay is a summer home of Hector's dolphins, among the smallest dolphins anywhere; they often swim close to the beach, and you watch from the sand. Yellow-eyed penguins sometimes land on the platform in the evening. We drive back to Owaka in the late afternoon. The evening is free, and your guide books a table in Owaka for anyone who wants company at dinner.

   Compris

   • Cathedral Caves at low tide, when open for the season
   • Guided walk to McLean Falls
   • Sit-down lunch in the southern Catlins
   • Curio Bay fossil forest at low tide
   • Porpoise Bay and its Hector's dolphins, from the beach

   Option plus facile : Skip the steep path to Cathedral Caves and wait with the driver at the car park; Curio Bay's fossil forest is seen from a viewing platform a few steps from the car park.

   Option plus active : Walk the full length of Porpoise Bay beach and back with your guide, about an hour, while the rest of the group stays at the dolphin viewpoint.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Owaka; a booked table for anyone who wants to eat together

   Activité : About 2 hours 20 minutes of driving. Cathedral Caves are on private land and open only from about late October or November to May, and spring tides can delay the opening; if they are shut, the guide takes you to Nugget Point's Roaring Bay or the sea lions at Surat Bay instead. The path is steep and the beach walk is on soft sand. Do not approach the dolphins; let them come to you.

5. Jour 5 : Invercargill, Bluff and across to Stewart Island

   Owaka along the Southern Scenic Route to Invercargill, then Bluff, then the ferry across Foveaux Strait to Oban

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Oban (Stewart Island)
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave Owaka at 9 am along the Southern Scenic Route, through Chaslands and past Waipapa Point, about 2 hours 30 minutes, to Invercargill, New Zealand's southernmost city. Your guide gives the city a real hour, not a drive-past: the red-brick water tower of 1889, seen from outside, Queens Park, and the hardware store where Burt Munro's record-breaking motorcycle stands among the tools. Lunch together in the centre. Then 30 minutes south to Bluff and the signpost at Stirling Point, and on to the ferry. The crossing of Foveaux Strait to Oban on Stewart Island takes about an hour and is often rough, so take seasickness tablets before boarding if you need them; if you would rather fly, the small plane from Invercargill takes about 20 minutes and can be booked at cost. The van stays in Bluff and your guide crosses with you. Oban is a village of a few hundred people on Halfmoon Bay. Weka wander the beach, and dinner is together. If tonight's forecast is better than tomorrow's, the kiwi-spotting tour runs tonight instead.

   Compris

   • Guided hour in Invercargill: the water tower, Queens Park and Burt Munro's motorcycle
   • Lunch in Invercargill
   • Stirling Point, Bluff
   • Ferry from Bluff to Oban, Stewart Island
   • Dinner in Oban
   • Kiwi-spotting tour tonight instead of night 6, if the forecast is better

   Activités en option

   • Flight from Invercargill to Stewart Island in place of the ferry, about 20 minutes, booked at cost

   Option plus facile : Fly from Invercargill to Stewart Island instead of taking the ferry; your guide meets you at the Oban airstrip shuttle.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Oban

   Activité : About 3 hours of driving with stops, then about an hour on the ferry. Foveaux Strait is often rough: if you are prone to seasickness, take tablets before you board or choose the flight.

   

6. Jour 6 : Ulva Island and the bays of Stewart Island

   Oban to Golden Bay, water taxi to Ulva Island, then Lee Bay and Observation Rock, with kiwi spotting after dark

   • Environ 24 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Oban (Stewart Island)
   Détail du jour 6

   About 85 percent of Stewart Island is Rakiura National Park, and Ulva Island, ten minutes by water taxi from Golden Bay, is its open sanctuary, kept free of rats and stoats. In the morning a local naturalist guide walks the group along its bush tracks for about 2 to 3 hours. The birds that are rare on the mainland are close here: tīeke, the saddleback, Stewart Island robins that come to your boots, kākā, rifleman, yellowhead and weka, and sometimes a Stewart Island kiwi feeding by day. Back in Oban for a lunch of your own choosing. In the afternoon a local vehicle and driver on the island take the group along its short road network to Lee Bay, where a giant anchor chain sculpture marks the start of the Rakiura Track, and up to Observation Rock for the view over Paterson Inlet. After dark tonight, or on night 5 if the forecast is better, a local operator takes the group kiwi spotting with red torches. Sightings are likely but not guaranteed.

   Compris

   • Water taxi to Ulva Island
   • Guided walk on Ulva Island with a local naturalist guide
   • Village and bays drive: Lee Bay and Observation Rock
   • Kiwi-spotting tour after dark

   Activités en option

   • Sea kayaking on Paterson Inlet
   • Fishing trip from Halfmoon Bay

   Option plus facile : On Ulva Island, stay on the flat track near the wharf with a seat by Sydney Cove while the group walks the longer loop.

   Option plus active : Walk the first section of the Rakiura Track from Lee Bay to Maori Beach with your guide, about 2 to 3 hours return, in place of Observation Rock.

   Temps libre : Lunch and early evening free in Oban

   Activité : About 2 to 3 hours of gentle walking on Ulva Island. If wind stops the water taxi in the morning, the guide swaps the Ulva walk and the bays drive. The kiwi tour is late at night in summer and runs only if the weather allows, which is why it can move to night 5.

   

7. Jour 7 : Back across the strait and on to Queenstown

   Oban to Bluff by ferry, then Bluff to Invercargill, Lumsden, Kingston and Queenstown

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 7

   A morning ferry takes us back across Foveaux Strait to Bluff, about an hour, at a time we confirm at booking; the same note on rough water applies, and the flight to Invercargill is again an option. Our van and driver meet the boat. We drive north through Invercargill and the farmland of central Southland to Lumsden, then along the eastern shore of Lake Wakatipu from Kingston, with the Remarkables ahead of us, about 215 km and 3 hours with a stop for lunch on the way, which is on you. We reach Queenstown Airport in the mid-afternoon and the town a few minutes later. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm, or stay on in Queenstown: this trip runs straight into our Queenstown, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound trip, and we can quote extra nights in between.

   Compris

   • Ferry from Oban to Bluff
   • Drive from Bluff to Queenstown with your guide
   • Drop-off at Queenstown Airport (ZQN) or your hotel in town

   Activités en option

   • Flight from Stewart Island to Invercargill in place of the ferry, booked at cost

   Activité : Book a flight out of Queenstown leaving after about 5 pm. About an hour on the ferry and 3 hours of driving.

   

Faune et météo : November to April is late spring, summer and early autumn in the far south, and it is cooler and windier than the rest of New Zealand: expect 12 to 20 degrees, rain on some days and long summer evenings. Albatross are at Taiaroa Head year-round, but the centre's observatory is closed for part of the breeding season, which we confirm at booking; chicks hatch from late January. Yellow-eyed penguins raise chicks from about November to February. Hector's dolphins visit Porpoise Bay mostly in summer. Stewart Island kiwi are seen in every month, but no sighting is guaranteed.

• Dunedin2 nuits
• Owaka (the Catlins)2 nuits
• Oban (Stewart Island)2 nuits