Southern Scenic Route - Dunedin to Te Anau
Commence Dunedin
Dunedin - Invercargill via The Catlins (275 kms - 5 hrs 30 mins)
Dunedin marks the beginning of the Southern Scenic Route. A bustling university city, celebrated for its wildlife, architecture, museums, galleries and theatres, Dunedin is widely regarded as the bdst preservered Victorian and Edwardian heritage city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also home to some of New Zealand's top fashion designers and vibrant cafes and bars. The Clock Tower at the University of Oago, New Zealand's oldest and most pre-eminnent University, tolls the hours for the lively students who make up almost a fifth of the city's population.
Overnight stop suggestions:
- Dunedin Holiday Park
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Portobello Village Tourist Park
From Dunedin trvel south to Balclutha. Situated on the Southern Scenic Route, this small town is a great place to stop and take stock before journeying southward. Then follow the sign-postedscenic route via Southland's wild coast to Invercargill. Waterfalls, forests and marine mammal encounters awai8t you on the stunning Catlins Coast, a stretch of wilderness that begins just south of Balclutha.
Nugget Point is the surest bet for wildlife viewing - it's the only place where you can find fur seals, Hooker's seal lions and sea elephants co-existing. It is also home to colonies of yellow-eyed penguins and blue penguins.
Curio Bay lives up to its name with a very curious fossilised forest - its is 180 million years old.
New Zealand's southern-most city, Invercargill arguably rivals Dunedin as one of the country's most intact from New Zealand's early period. While in more recent times a number of fine old buildings have bowed to new structures, Invercargill remains much the cityof consequence it became in the late 19th and early 20th centures.
Its early prosperity resulted not only in the construction of many fine commercial buildings, but also of some notable churches, among them St. Paul's Presbyterian, St. Mary's Catholic Basilica, St. Jon's Anglican and the First Presbyterian Church. Other historic landmarks of interested include the Railway Hotel and the Water Tower.
Nowadays, with a combination of cultural attractions, a rejuvenated city life and outstanding nature reserves and parks to choose from, visitors to Invercargill often say how much there is to see and do.
Overnight stop suggestions:
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Catlins McLeans Falls Holiday Park
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Lorneville Holiday Park, Invercargill
Invercargill - Te Anau (157 kms - 2 hrs 30 mins)
Before you start out for Te Anau, take a short side trip from Invercargill to Bluff, the southern-most town in New Zealand. Try the succulent Bluff oysters - oyster-lovers tell us they are the world's best! Blue cod and crayfish are also superb in this region.
From Bluff you can take a ferry to Stewart Island, home of New Zealand's newest National Park. Department of Conservation hiking trails and an island bird sanctuary make it easy to imagine an earlier New Zealand without people.
Back on the mainland, take State Highway 99 from Invercargill to Clifden. Enroute you will find the Tuatapere Humpridge Track, New Zealand's newest walking track and fast becoming a legend in the hiking world. The three day/two night walking experience provides a wide variety of scenery, passing through landscapes that include the world famous Waitutu coastal marine terraces, podocarp and beech forest, sub-alpine settings and spectacular sandstone outcrops. Walkers see unique wildlife including seals, Hector's dolphins and New Zealand's inquisitive parrot, the kea. The area is rich in history for both Maori and European cultures. Key attractations are the recently restored Percy Burn Viaduct and the Edwin, Sandhill and Francis Burn Viaducts.
Find time to take a look at the Clifden Suspension Bridge which was opened in 1899 to replace the punt used by early sheep stations. Although it is no longer open to traffic, the bridge provides an interesting stroll over the river. It is an impressive structure built from totara and Australian hardwood, with concrete towers made to look like stone and 28 steel cables. It is a significant engineering achievement and one of the longest bridges in the South Island.
From Clifden follow the Southern Scenic Route to your final frontier, the eastern edge of Fiordland, where you will come to the lakeside towns of Manapouri and Te Anau. The small town of Manapouri is located on the eastern shore of beautiful lake Manapouri, scattered over which are 30 small, bush covered islands, all accessible by boat.
15 minutes further north, Te Anau is an attractive town nestled on the edge of Lake Te Anau, with a spectacular backdrop of Mt Luxmore and the Murchison mountains. Gateway to fiordland National park, Te Anau provides a full range of services to visitors, and is the closest service base to Milford Sound, with a scenic 2.5 hour drive from Te Anau to Milford. Guided tours depart from Te Anau daily to visit the fiords or to explore other features within the National Park.
Fiordland National Park is New Zealand's largest, accounting for 5% of the country's total land mass, and is home to top tourist attractions Doubtful Sond and iconic Milford Sound. Milford Sound is actually a glacier-carved fiord (a Sound is a river valley flooded by the sea), has the highest sea cliffs found anywhere in the world and receives over 6 metres of rainfall annually, resulting in a layer of tannin-stained freshwater that sits on top of the walt water, blocking out the sunlight.
Overnight stop suggestions:
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Te Anau Great Lake Holiday Park
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Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park
THINGS TO SEE AND DO
Dunedin
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Taieri Gorge Railway. Daily departures. Pre-booking is essential
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Speight's Brewery Heritage tours and Cadbury World's Chocolate Factory tour
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Enroute from Dunedin to Invercargill explore all that the Catlins area has to offer: Marine mammal encounters, waterfalls and forests. At low tide at Curio Bay a petrified forest is exposed on a rock shelf. This example of a Jurassic fossil forest is one of the geological wonders of the world.
Invercargill
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Thrill to jet boating on Lake Hauroko, near Tutapere. At 462 metres this is New Zealand's deepest lake
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There are 27 excellent fishing rivers and streams within 2 hours drive from Invercargill
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See New Zealand's Tuatara lizard - living dinosaurs at the Southland Museum, Invercargill
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Take a day trip to Stewart Island - either ferry or fly. Pre-booking is advised
Te Anau
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Milford Sound coach and cruise from Te Anau. Pre-bookings are essential
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Doubtful Sound cruise. Pre-bookings are essential
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For a real experience join an overnight cruise on eithe rDoubtful or Milford Sound. Pre-bookings are essential
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Te Anau Glow-worm Caves tour. Pre-bookings are essential
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The breathtaking 119 km drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound - regarded as one of the world's most scenic drives. Because the roads are narrow and require full attention to negotiate, we recommend that you don't drive yourself but take a tour coach so that you can sit back and enjoy the scenery
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Doubtful Sound - 3 times longer and 10 times larger than Milford Sound
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Te Anau's Wildlife Centre with its rare flightless Takahe
