South of South Island - Sheep, Coast, & the Cave

TUTAPERE

We pull into a motel sometime after 11pm.  There’s a rowdy bunch at the bar next to the motel; singing, dancing on the table... Turns out they’re all sheep shearers partying hard, as this time of year there are no days off unless it’s raining.  And, it just so happens to be raining. Where it might have been obnoxious, a family late at night in the rain looking for a quiet place to sleep, we find it amusing, even charming, a subtle reminder we are definitely far from home. 

Pulling into our cheap dated motel room, you’d think we were entering a palace. The room is massive and kids are thrilled, opening cabinets exclaiming “there are 6 bowls here!!” (Compared to the one bowl we’ve been sharing the last few days).  Everything feels like luxury in this buttered popcorn colored walled two bedroom place.  We pile all the spare blankets on our beds, turn on the bed warmers, just because.  We relish in plush beds to stretch out and sleep heavy and deep. 

The next morning it’s porridge, apricots, and muffins from the mart across the road, then a scramble to pack up, check out, and hit the road.

We head a bit further south to a place called “Gemstone Beach” to see the NZ south coast.  

Passing through rolling green landscapes, fields dotted with sheep, cows, and hay bales. Mountains still ever in the distance. Then comes the first sight of ocean! 

Waves rolling in, sandstone carved cliffs of turmeric yellow.  Beach checkered full of polished stones, beach combers, and even folks panning for gold in the stream.  Strong pulls of the wave prohibit swimming, but barefoot walking along the shore in the wind whipping glory of the coast is reviving nonetheless. 

Back in Tutapere for a quick bathroom break, Danforth discovers $4.20 in the “clean” toilet! He looks to Corey, Corey shrugs and says to him, "Well, what do you want to do about it?"  

So, Danforth emerges $4.20 richer with a sheepish grin and extra scrubbed clean hands.

CLIFDEN

We head next towards Clifden caves, just a bit up the road.  Not knowing what to expect, we’re a bit nervous. 

We pull up to the unassuming sheep paddock and find multiple caravans parked along the road.  In a rush, Corey gets us paired up with another couple about to head into the cave, and before we have a chance to realize what we’re fully getting ourselves into, we’re climbing into the cave! 

Hallways slick with muddy smooth stones, fantastic limestone formations, stalactites, and to our utter excitement, glowworms!  After turning off the headlamps, they literally glow like little constellations on the cave ceilings and overhangs. 

We crawl through tight passageways, on hands and knees, ducking under boulders jammed in crevasses.  

More tunnels and turns take us deeper and deeper in. Formations looking like ice, frosting, or mashed potatoes, and others like coral amaze us. 

Melody urgently wants to turn back because, of course, in our rush to get into the cave with another couple, we didn’t have her empty her bladder first. Big whoops for parents of a 5 yr old. Lucky for her, I came prepared with an empty trail mix bag.  (In the spirit of "caving gently" or what I've learned as "Leave No Trace" I would not allow her to pop-a-squat in the cave). So she finally conceded to this idea, and got to check off peeing in a bag off her bucketlist! 

Deeper and deeper into the cave, we pass a few folks on their way out.  And after ducking through a few more tight passageways, and balancing across small pools of water, our trail ends at a gigantic cavernous pool, supposedly 7 meters deep. It's unbelievably eerie. The only way around it is a narrow, slick, sloped edge in which one must carefully tread. Or swim in deep dark waters...yikes. We watch a few ppl from other groups carefully make it around and continue on in the passage beyond, and despite Danforth and I reaaalllly wanting to try it, I decided we shouldn't spilt up. By this point, Melody was adamant that we turn around, as the depth of the cave and length of time underground was undoubtedly catching up with her psyche. 

The way back was much quicker, as it was both familiar and well marked. The kids took turns leading and quickly learned not to be overly confident after Danforth knocked his noggin pretty hard on some unforgiving rock. We pause for a moment of utter silence and darkness in a large cavernous space. We wind and clamber and crawl and eventually find our way back out into the green bright of day!  

It was an incredible experience, and an added bonus that it was FREE.   Danforth has been asking to go caving without being a part of a “guided tour” for some years now, so it was awesome to come upon this opportunity in the guidebook. 

We took a brief stop at a bakery in this middle of nowhere place along the way to this super friendly Scottish man who sells us some cheese rolls and a steak pie.  

Then it’s another sleepy drive through rolling pasturelands back North!

-M