It didn’t take us long to pack up the car for our drive to Purakauiti, on Tahakopa Bay in the Catlins. The fastest route takes three hours but we opted to take the Southern Scenic Drive, which is four hours driving plus stops.
First we drove into town to do some grocery shopping. The best produce was at Four Square, and they had a better bakery too. We already had wine from Clyde Village Winery, where we had gone on a tour a few days ago. Then it was on the road!
We stopped for a quick break after an hour to see the Clifden Suspension Bridge, which was just a couple minutes off the highway. It was an interesting enough stop.
Just south of Tuatapere we reached the ocean again, (technically the Foveaux Strait). The views were gorgeous. We had another quick stop at Gemstone Beach, which as its name suggests, is covered with polished stones various colours of gemstones. We spent a few minutes collecting some interesting looking ones.
We planned to call in at Southern Seafood Products in Invercargill for fresh king salmon. The folks at Clyde Village Winery had recommended it as the best place in town for fresh seafood. It was easy to get to from the highway. They are mostly a wholesaler but also have a small storefront where they sell to consumers. There was a constant flow of regulars coming in for their favourites while we were there. We picked up some salmon fillets for dinner.
It was around 12:30pm and a good time for lunch. There were some highly rated cafes nearby, so we went to the closest, The Pig Station. It turned out to be in the old train station, and had tons of character. And also excellent coffee. We split a bacon buttie, basically bacon on toast with some mayo and tomatoes. It was really tasty.
Invercargill had a really good vibe to it. It doesn’t have the big tourist draws that the rest of Fjiordland has, but we both thought we would have enjoyed a couple days here.
We got back on the Southern Scenic Route, next stop, our Airbnb. The turn off was a few minutes east of Papatowai, and then about 20 minutes on a gravel road to finally get to the Tahakopa Bay Retreat.
Our place was off the grid, with no cell reception. It’s solar powered and had wifi (I’m assuming via Starlink). It overlooked Tahakopa Bay, we could see the full bay and the waves slowly crashing in. We were a bit elevated so it wasn’t as loud as other places we’ve stayed at recently, but it had one of the best views.
There’s a path down to the beach so we changed into warmer clothes (it was only about 12C) and trekked down. The path was muddy from the recent rains, but still navigable. It took us about 20 minutes to descend to the beach.
The tide was just starting to go out, so the sand was really firm. First walked five minutes to the cliffs to the south, and then walked about 30 minutes down the beach in the other direction. We turned around to head back home at that point. (Later from the lodge it looked like we almost reached Papatowai, about half way down the beach). We were lucky with our timing just after the tide turned, as there were no sandflies at all, until just before we exited the beach.
It was nice to be able to make our own dinner after eating in restaurants the past few days. We had lamb with grilled vegetables and an excellent pinot noir. The wood pellet burner had heated the whole place up, it was a nice evening.
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