Monday 6th April 2026
Cathedral Caves, Curio Bay and Slope Point:
After a night spent on a local authority run site, which was good and economical, we travelled on to our first stop of the day, Cathedral Caves.
The caves are two, huge interlinked sea caves which are only accessible at low tide. We had timed our visit nicely and drove up to the car park 2 Km along the rough, steep road. After paying the fee, we followed the path down, descending a good but very steep in places, path, through some amazing dense woodland with many tree ferns.
The caves are impressive in terms of size and there are interesting rocks and seaweed to be seen.
After exploring the caves, we were waiting for the tide to recede enough to allow us to walk further along the beach. The waves were occasionally quite big, travelling up across the sand far beyond what you might expect, so Peter got his feet wet!
Curio Bay:
Moving further along the coast, we stopped at Curio Bay. So named because of the curious petrified trees to be found in the rocks on the coast here.
Slope Point:
Our next stop was at Slope Point, the most southerly point in mainland New Zealand.
It is clear where the prevailing winds are from, when you see the local trees:
That is all for today. It is clear that we will be heading north now.
"See-u-Later" 