In the comments section a few days ago, Wendy suggested we should go to Slope Point. To be completely honest, I’d never even heard of Slope Point before. A quick investigation with Dr. Google (or in my case, Dr. DuckDuckGo) told me that it is the southernmost point on New Zealand’s South Island. That would also make it the farthest south that we have ever been, so of course we had to see it.

It was too far from the cottage for a day trip, but we realized it was more-or-less on the way to Dunedin, so we updated our plans. An unexpected bonus was that we were now driving along the Scenic Southern Route. No pictures from the drive – eyes on the road all the way – but I can say that it was amazing, without being terrifying. And we can offer these from Slope Point.

The sea was fairly calm but still very impressive. Apparently rogue waves have swept people to their death while fishing on the point, even when the sea looks calm.

Duncan asked us to wave to Antarctica, so we obliged.

I don’t think Antarctica waved back.

The ground right at the point was covered in a plant unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. (Seeing unusual plants happens a lot in New Zealand.) Here is a view of the ground cover.

But if you look closer, you see this.

You can see a lot more detail, but you don’t get a sense of scale. This should help.

If anyone knows what the plant is, please let me know.

Then it was onward to Dunedin where we checked into a lovely apartment (another one of Jan’s finds) with views over the city and the countryside.

We don’t have firm plans for tomorrow, but we will likely walk around town admiring the street art, and the local microbrewery looks very interesting. We will see…