A very chill day. My alarm went off and I went straight back to sleep, we all did. I came to at 7am which then woke Jenna then Rowan. We had coffee first then they went for their morning swim.

The first stop Slope Point, the most southern tip of the South Island. Jenna and I walked down while Rowan made us breakfast. After breakfast we went further along the road and walked through the farmland to the beach. We found a lot of petrified wood down there.

A nice walk around Curio Bay to see the full petrified forest.

A stop in Waikawa for lunch and a real fruit ice cream. Plus a quick visit to the museum which is great in the fact that there is a lot of interesting things in there but also full of a lot of old crap that is really only in there because someone who is now passed and lived in the area owned it.

A big discussion about how the Caitlins has a website (official) which is not government run but run by some local trust that says freedom camping is not allowed unless in a designated area. Which is a total lie. When you look on the local councils website it allows freedom camping in self contained vehicles nearly everywhere but a few spots.

We went for a sun bathe on Tautuku Beach while waiting for the right time to go to the Cathedral Caves.

Cathedral Caves are only accessible at low tide and through Māori land. It costs to gain entry $15pp which we happily pay. We arrive not long after the gates open and it is fairly busy to get in. It is closer to 6pm by the time we get in our togs and head down. You go through the most incredible bush walk. It is fairly steep and long. I will puff my way back up that later. Amazingly there are people already on their way back, they must have gone down, taken a photo and climbed back up. Down along the beach you come to the caves. Germie and I make fun of some instagram couples and take photos of kissing each others foreheads haha. We nearly leave to go down the other side of the beach for a swim. But then turn around because Jenna wants to take some new photos of her doing handstands in the caves. Most people have left now. We end up going further around the rocks which I am very glad for. There are more beautiful caves around further and really without exploring you wouldn’t realise they are there. You have to get wet to get to them but only knee deep. They don’t really advertise that they are there. So 98% of visitors do not go there. We end up finding a Sea Lion, at first we were confused by the tracks. Then we jumped in for a swim. We didn’t go in too deep as it was a bit dangerous. Rowan and I went to a cave after for a fresh water rinse.

We got back up the track with ease, surprisingly it didn’t make me puff. when we got to Camele we realised it was nearly 9pm, the cut off time when the gates close. We spent much longer than we anticipated but it was an awesome experience that I can highly recommend.

A late dinner with us parked up by a nearby lagoon. It didn’t take us long to fall asleep