The day looked mixed, yes blue sky, but some clouds and it had been raining during the night.  Let’s see how the day progresses. Down to the kitchen for our breakfast of coffee, yoghurt, fruit and mixed grains.

Our first destination for the day was Wilkie Lake, called the Mirror Lake at the Campsite to make it a bit more interesting. (Rosemary v insulted cos Wilkie was her nickname at school and certain friends still call her that.) The walk to the lake was through a tree fern forest, the first glimpse was from a platform well above the lake. You then descended down to the lake onto a boardwalk. Access to the lake is very limited. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing again, and ripples broke the mirror surface. It was notable in the 30 minutes we were there how much the wind had risen.

Back in the van we headed to the Cathedral Cave, stopping at a boardwalk en route. The boardwalk at Tautuka Estuary took us down to an estuary with reeds. Not much wild life to be seen. Bit disappointing, could have been good for dragons, but not on a cold windy autumn day.

Cathedral Cave was interesting, a lovely 1K walk down through a tree fern forest which allowed us to see many light effects. Masses of photographs of various light textures to be binned! The cave is large, you walk in one side and walk out the other side. You visit at low tide, two hours before and after. One of the few times I have used flash on a walk.  The waves on the lovely beach were spectacular, especially with the offshore wind blowing their heads off.

Next stop was Curio Bay. We parked in the car park and wondered why we were here, then we saw the notice for the Petrified Forest and the Penguins. We saw the forest, but not the Penguins. The rain did come for a short period of time here. The forest reminded me of the first season of Dr Who with William Hartnell.

Now it was a drive to Invercargill where we stayed at the Beach Road Motor Camp, stopping at the Lignite Pit Café for one of our slowest arriving coffees yet.

Tonight was reasonably warm, the wind dropped and we were parked in a sheltered area, so able to cook and eat next to the van.