The Catlins Coastal & Waterfall Walk
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RouteInvercargill

The Catlins Coastal & Waterfall Walk

Drive east from Invercargill into the wild Catlins Coast, where cascading waterfalls, ancient podocarp forest, and sea lions create one of New Zealand's most remote landscapes.

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  1. 1

    Waipapa Point Lighthouse

    New Zealand's last manned lighthouse (now automated) stands at Waipapa Point where 131 immigrants drowned in the 1881 SS Tararua shipwreck — a sobering memorial.

  2. 2

    Porpoise Bay Hector's Dolphins

    Porpoise Bay is home to a resident pod of Hector's dolphins — the world's smallest marine dolphin, endemic to New Zealand and critically endangered.

  3. 3

    McLean Falls

    McLean Falls is the Catlins' most dramatic waterfall — a 22-metre cascade through ancient podocarp forest of rimu, mataī, and tōtara trees.

  4. 4

    Curio Bay Petrified Forest

    The 180-million-year-old petrified forest at Curio Bay is exposed at low tide — fallen Jurassic trees turned to stone, visible as log cross-sections in the rock platform.

  5. 5

    Yellow-Eyed Penguin Colony

    Hoiho yellow-eyed penguins — the world's rarest penguin — come ashore at Curio Bay at dusk to nest in the dunes behind the beach, observed from dedicated hides.

  6. 6

    Slope Point — NZ's Southernmost Land

    Slope Point is the actual southernmost point of the South Island — a windswept clifftop where trees grow horizontally from the relentless Antarctic winds.

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