A highlight of the southern scenic route, the little-known Catlin coast offers scenic landscapes and dense temperate rainforest, home to many rare and endangered species of bird and marine life.
The varied natural landscapes offer scores of attractions for the visitor and a wonderful range of wildlife. From Curio Bay, with its petrified forest where 160 million-year-old fossilized trees can be seen at low tide and where you may spot the yellow-eyed penguin, to the Purakaunui Falls where an easy walk through beech and podocarp forest brings you to a spectacular waterfall.
From one of New Zealand’s oldest lighthouses, at Nugget Point, where you may see more yellow-eyed penguins and New Zealand fur seals, to the southernmost point of South Island, Slope Point. Wherever you explore, keep an eye open for seabirds such as Australasian gannets and mollymawks, and threatened birds such as the fernbird and, in the forests, kakariki, tui, fantail and kererū. The forest is also home to one of New Zealand’s only two native species of non-marine mammal, the long-tailed bat. Hector’s dolphin can often be seen close to the coast while southern right and humpback whales may also visit on migration during the winter months.
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