Guide de camping de la Route panoramique du Sud

Dunedin à travers les Catlins

Faites le plein à Dunedin, puis utilisez Balclutha ou Owaka comme entrée pratique aux Catlins. Les cascades et les plages se trouvent sur des routes secondaires qui transforment une courte distance en un après-midi complet.

À Nugget Point, Curio Bay et sur les plages réservées aux animaux sauvages, suivez les accès saisonniers et tenez-vous à l'écart des lions de mer, des manchots et des oiseaux nicheurs. L'obscurité et la faune font de la conduite côtière tardive un mauvais métier.

Invercargill et le sud

Invercargill propose des réparations, des produits d'épicerie et des options d'intérieur après les journées pluvieuses. Bluff ajoute un marqueur géographique satisfaisant, mais il ne devrait pas remplacer le temps consacré aux musées locaux, à la nourriture ou à la réinitialisation du véhicule.

Si vous voyagez à Rakiura, garez ou réservez le véhicule selon les modalités du ferry et attendez-vous à ce que la météo du détroit de Foveaux change les horaires. Gardez une nuit flexible sur le continent.

Te Anau à Queenstown

Utilisez Te Anau pour le Fiordland plutôt que de conduire Milford Sound pour une excursion d'une journée au départ de Queenstown. Le carburant, les conditions routières et les contrôles d'avalanche doivent être vérifiés avant le départ anticipé.

Terminez par les lacs jusqu'à Queenstown avec suffisamment de marge pour la circulation et les travaux. Une dernière journée plus courte préserve la concentration nécessaire après une semaine de routes étroites.

The Catlins are the reason to take this route

Between Balclutha and Invercargill the coastline holds Nugget Point, Purakaunui Falls, Cathedral Caves and Curio Bay, and it sees a fraction of the traffic of the main highway. The road includes unsealed sections and everything takes longer than the map suggests.

Give the Catlins two days rather than one. Compressed into a single transit it becomes a series of car park visits, which is exactly what the route is not for.

Cathedral Caves and Curio Bay run on the tide

Cathedral Caves are only accessible around two hours either side of low tide, the access road is privately managed with an entry fee and seasonal opening, and it closes entirely outside the season. Turning up without checking is the standard disappointment here.

Curio Bay's petrified forest is also tide-dependent, and the yellow-eyed penguins come ashore in the evening. Keep well back and behind the roped areas, because disturbance keeps them at sea and away from their chicks.

Wildlife here needs distance

Nugget Point has fur seals and sea lions, Curio Bay has hoiho, and sea lions haul out on beaches throughout the region. New Zealand sea lions are large, fast over short distances and will charge if you get between them and the water.

Twenty metres is the minimum for seals and sea lions, and considerably more for penguins coming ashore. Never position yourself between an animal and the sea, and keep dogs away entirely.

Weather from the south

This coast faces the Southern Ocean and gets weather straight off it. It can be genuinely cold and wind-driven at any time of year, and a warm Invercargill afternoon means nothing about conditions at Slope Point an hour later.

Carry warm and windproof layers regardless of the season, and choose sheltered campsites. An exposed pitch on this coast in a southerly is not a good night.

The Otago Peninsula and Dunedin

The peninsula east of Dunedin has the world's only mainland royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head, along with sea lions, fur seals and yellow-eyed penguins. The albatross centre is a paid tour and the birds are visible year-round, with the best flying in windy conditions.

The peninsula road is narrow, winding and slow, hugging the harbour edge with almost no shoulder. It is not a comfortable drive in a large campervan and the high road over the ridge is the easier alternative in either direction.

Dunedin itself has the Otago Museum, Speight's brewery and Baldwin Street, and it is the last full-service city before Invercargill. Restock properly here, because the Catlins have very limited shops.

Invercargill and Bluff

Invercargill is the last full-service city and the natural restock before Fiordland or the ferry to Rakiura. Bluff, half an hour south, is the signpost at the end of the country and the departure point for Stewart Island.

Bluff oysters are in season roughly March to August and are genuinely worth the detour when they are. Outside that, the town is quiet and the drive is mostly about having reached the end.

Lieux sur le chemin