Exploring Tuatapere, Southland – Day 153

Today we are going to be exploring Tuatapere.

We are in Tuatapere which is in the Southland region of the South Island and today’s activity is meant to be doing the Humpridge Track but the road to get there is a gravel road which is a little bit muddy a little bit gnarly so we decide to turn back with our massive campervan.

Alright guys, so we were trying to find ourselves a hike not too far from here but as you saw the road was full of very rough gravel and it was getting rougher and rougher so we were trying to find a spot which was not too rough and we did a U turn. It was challenging but now here we are we drove backward for a little while and we found ourselves a really nice beach right here.

Luckily, there is this beach alongside the road for us to spend some time at this is the Blue Cliffs Beach in Te Waewae Bay. I hope I pronounced that right but this is a really awesome beach which so secluded right at the bottom of the Fiordland National Park.

Blue Cliffs Beach is absolutely amazing and it oversees one of the many marine mammal sanctuaries in New Zealand so it’s really not rare to see orca and dolphins playing in the waves.

Every time Laura and I arrive on a pebble stone beach like this one we only have one thing on mind for now it is to try and find greenstone. Since we’ve been in Hokitika with Steve and Bonz n Stonz Carving and he told us how to find pounamu or greenstone and we always try to find some on a pebble beach we go through. And Southland is really well known to be one of the most prominent areas for greenstoen finding in New Zealand.

But alas we do not find a single greenstone today. The pebbles are mesmerising and very hard to walk onto because of the very loose pebbles but no greenstone in sight.

Although this was not the world famous Humpridge Track we still had a blast on Bluecliff Beach and we still had a lot of very different scenery than usual.

So there was a massive forefront of rain coming toward us at high speed so we decided to walk back.

Tuatapere is one of those classic Kiwi towns where everyone talks to everyone. Everyone’s really friendly so we really want to check out that side of Tuatapere today so we head back on the road toward the town where hopefully we find plenty of stuff to do.

So believe it or not it was raining like hell on the Humpridge track we could see it from where we were but now we’re back in Tuatapere and it’s stunning weather. So we decided to have a little walk around town, visit a little bit the garden and maybe grab ourselves a nice lovely coffee.

We park our campervan up at the Tuatapere Backpackers then head off into these small really cute gardens here in Tuatapere. There’s all sorts of native plants like flax and a few exotic flowers as well but while we’re walking around on this nice little stroll we spot over a bridge that there is a cafe ready for us to have some cake and chocolate in.

The Yesteryears Cafe is kind of a really good mix between a tiny antique museum and an awesome cake shop. Helen is world famous for making pavolva which is the traditional New Zealand desert it’s one of the specialties of the country and we’ve got to try it at some point during our trip so we’re making the most of that failure of the Humpridge Track and tasting awesome New Zealand culinary delights with the locals.

Despite pavlova being a classic Kiwi dish it’s actually pretty hard to find in cafes so we jump on the chance to try some here at the Yesteryears Cafe. And Helen is actually showing us her famous and totally awesome recipe book and then speaking of locals, we’re gonna be heading back to the Tuatapere Backpackers now to feed the animals with Murray.

Murray is the colourful owner of the Tuatapere Backpackers and the Highway 99 Bar here in Tuatapere. I think that the Highway 99 bar in Tuatapere is the only store which is open after 8pm so we’re gonna be hanging out there tonight. And of course if we hang out at the bar, we’re gonna meet the locals.

So that was the deer mating call that all the local hunters have to know when they head to the hills and go hunting for meat. Ok.

Alright Piddling Pete a founders dog once came to town his christian name was Pete his piddling way two yards long and his looks were hard to beat….. The city dog said so long friend your piddling did defeat us but no one ever found our was that Pete had diabetes. What a sad end end to the story. And he died from cancer. Oh my God that was quite the story. That’s actually really good. The Piddling competition.