Southern Scenic Route - Dunedin to Bluff suggestions
 

As part of our SI trip we are planning on starting in Dunedin and ending up in Bluff (spending the night in Bluff before and heading over to Stewart Island in the AM).

Looked at http://www.southernscenicroute.co.nz/ and am wondering if we should allocate two days to be able to cover the area by doing some short hikes etc. Any recommendations on things to do/see along the way. I see Curio Bay and Nugget Point are popular. Any others ?

We were thinking of doing it in one long day but don't want to rush. Has anyone stayed overnight midway - say around Papatowai and can recommend a place to stay.

Thanks.
Ken

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You might consider spending the night prior to Stewart Island in Invercargill. It's only a 25-30 minute drive from there to Bluff and there are loads more lodging and restaurant options, although having said that, I just did a search and found more in Bluff than I remember.

There's plenty to keep you busy in the Catlins, especially if you like to hike. We spent three nights there, giving us two full days to explore - one we dedicated to the south Catlins, the other to the north.

I have the details outlined here if you'd like to read about what we did, including the hikes we took, just scroll down to days 2&3:

http://www.fodors.com/community/aust...rip-report.cfm

Forgot to mention that I found this site really helpful when planning our visit to the Catlins:

http://www.catlins-nz.com/

Maybe a day to get to Curio Bay/Fortrose. Really it depends on how early a start you get from Dunedin.

I'd just do one short forest walk (it's a different type of forest) and go to more of the coastal lookouts, eg Slope Point. If the wind is blowing you won't want to spend that much time on the beach. In the right season look for the yellow eyed penguins at Nugget Pt/Curio Bay.

Invercargill has a good museum with the famous ancient tuataras.

Thanks for the additional links ad the trip report. It looks like a great area to explore and most likely will spend at least one overnight.

We did that same route last december and we would have spent at least one extra night in the Catlins if we'd known how much we'd enjoy it, so we'd have had more time to hike around. Read my trip report (click on my name, if interested, as I'm not sure how to do a link to it) for details of where we stayed in Curio Bay, Bluff, Stewart Island and what we saw in Invercargill. Our penguin sighting at the Petrified Forest at low tide was absolutely the best one we had. We were too late in the day for the Cathedral Cave, so that's another thing we might have done if we'd had time. The weather was crazy the day we were at Nugget Point, but it was nice having a cappucino looking out at the waves at the little restaurant at (?) Kaka Point.

@susncrg - Thanks ! After reading your trip report I think we will try and spend an extra night in the Catlins. One more question. We are going in late Feb./early March time frame.How far in advance did you book the Salthouse ? If we decide to book just one night and if we decide to add on a night once we were in the area do you think it would be a problem ? Did it seem fairly busy when you were traveling in the north Catlins ?

Glad the report helped. We probably booked the Salthouse about two months in advance. That was one of the stops Moa Trek reserved for us so I'm not sure. I can't remember whether they had more than 2 units, I'd call them to check. Are you currently thinking one night or 2? If 2, I think I'd stay somewhere north in the Catlins for one night and more southerly the 2nd, unless you dislike hotel hopping. That way you can do some leisurely hiking if that's something you were planning.

BTW, I never finished the trip report as I was getting quite wordy, but have info on our NI trip too, if you need info on that.

Most likely 2 nights but not sure at this point. Still in the whole trip planning phase.

The NI trip report would be great. If you don'it want to post it feel free to email it to me. Actually your trip report is really good so I would not worry about being to wordy.

Depending on how much time we have we may try to do ort trip on the NI also afer the SI. I think at most we have 4 weeks give it take a day.

Flattery will get you anything. If I get a chance, I'll write a short NI report (though it was fresher in my memory earlier). Thanks.