The day starts with heading north to grab some breakfast from New World Gardens

This is very nearby to Baldwin Street – The Steepest Street in the World with a maximum slope of 19° (35%)

We get on the road after this including having a brief stop along the way to pick up lunch components from New World Balclutha

Catlins Forest Park is the main part of our day today and we aim first for Cathedral Caves; sadly, they seem to have bizarre opening hours, probably because of tide times and not being monitored due to the holiday season

Instead, we carry on and get to McLean Falls – it’s a 30-minute return walk

We do this walk with some ham sandwich we made along the journey

After here, we continue the drive through the forest and find a sign for Koropuku Falls

This is a bit less of a formal walk and more of a bush walk which is fun

When we return back to the car, Dave spots an amazing treat for us – a kererū (aka a big Barry for us)!

Next up is Curio Bay; here they have a Petrified Forest (fossilised trees) and a windy and cliffy headland that entices wildlife, such as yellow-eyed penguins

We don’t see any penguins but pop to Porpoise Bay which is the other side of the headland and get another amazing treat and sighting – two Hector’s dolphins!

Following this, we head to Waipohatu Walk – they have a walk to the waterfall here but it’s about 2.5 hours and that’ll be a little late for us so we just do the walk back-and-forth through the forest

As it’s getting late, we just make our way into Invercargill to check into Admiral Court Motel & Apartments where we drop our bags and head out to Hong Kong Restaurant for a feast

Peking duck, Singapore noodles and sweet & sour pork – so much we even take some away to have as a cheeky breakfast tomorrow

To walk off dinner, we pop round to Aurora Australis viewpoint marked on Google – there’s too much cloud to even consider getting a sighting of the southern lights tonight, and the sun’s still out

We just wander on the shoreside walk briefly and see a rainbow (see the featured image)

As the sun begins to set, we decide to drive to a very west-facing point to get a nice view: Oreti Beach

This beach also appears to allow driving on the beach so we have a go!

It gets dark and we make our way back for the day