Tumu Toka Curio Bay is stunning, and if you’re visiting during the summer and autumn, you can often see Hector's dolphins playing in the surf!

This area is most famous for its petrified forest, a World Heritage Site featuring a fossil forest dating back to the Jurassic period. The fossilised trees you can see here were alive around 180 million years ago, when New Zealand was part of the Gondwanaland supercontinent.

Another reason to visit Curio Bay is that the next peninsula south is Slope Point. People often think the southernmost point on the South Island is Bluff, but it’s actually Slope Point, just a 20-minute walk from Curio Bay across private farmland.