Waitangi Day

Dear all

Today is Waitangi day, the day that the treaty was signed between the English and the Maori's back in 1840. There are various events and loads of sports races on the day so we had planned to drive down to the Catlins which we thought would be a relatively safe bet. So we left a beautifully warm Dunedin and headed south.  Just outside of town is a short, but spectacular Tunnel Beach Walk, which crosses down through farmland before descending through a tunnel down to the aptly named Tunnel Beach. Around the beach are sea stacks, arches and strange carved rock shapes and carved by the wild Pacific and was stunned albeit the walk down was advised as 20 Min's but is an estimated 40 minutes back up - More leaden legs! We could see some cloud further down the coast, but didn't think anything of it. So we then wound our way down the coast towards the Catlins. The first stop on the route is Nugget Point at the North of the route, but as we travelled down the metal road the rain started to fall and by the time we got there it was absolutely pounding down! We waited for a while, but by then the clouds had started to swirl around the point so we gave up and retreated to the local camp park at Kata Point. 

The rain didn't abate all night and the main street ended up flooded so other tourists had to be ferried up to the site by one of the towns 4WD owners!

Not much else to say but hope it stops soon - forecast for tomorrow is rubbish!

Night

Sara