Ahhh... Invercargill

Sorry for the sparse postings thus far, but we have been crazy busy, what with the vacationing and all. We are mostly done the hectic part of the trip, and postings should approach some level of regularity. I'm a few days behind and I won't probably catch up until we get to the cottage we've rented which will be next Saturday (NZ time). Until then, I'll try to get a few updates out to keep the For Sale signs off our property as our friends and family try to cash in on our surmised demise.

Also, please be warned that the next few posts will mostly consist of "And here's a picture of ..." entries. It's the low "free-time/fatigue" ratio combined with limited internet access, each of which will increase in the future one hopes.

And ... While we're doing housekeeping, note that if you click on a picture, it will bring up a bigger view of the same image. Also, the GPS track at the top of each post is a mostly-accurate reflection of our travels that day. You can zoom in on the image using the "+" and "-" boxes in the upper left corner, and you can drag the map around by clicking and dragging on the image. Sometimes the GPS loses signal and the GPS track might look like we jumped over some buildings, but rest assured that Debbie and I did not jump over any buildings. We're much too tired for that.



We awoke unnaturally early (for me) and headed out to see the sights of Invercargill. The town was very quiet that morning and we only after a while discovered that Wednesday February 6 was Waitangi Day in New Zealand. As a result, most businesses were either not opening at all or opening late. We found a backpacker's hotel that had a cafe open and had ourselves some breakfast. We then set off to walk the town.

Debbie wanted to see the river, so we selected a street heading in roughly the right direction and started off. That street led to an industrial area that got progressively more industrial.


We eventually found the river which turned out to be more like a creek. Apparently the river leads out to the ocean and is affected by the tides. As the tide goes out, so does the river leaving a lot of muddy banks.




With that urge satisfied, the rest of the walk was more of a random sampling of the city. Along the way up from the creek, we passed the local military installation, though the sign suggested something more grand.


We found the local prison which is a formidable structure fronted by the original prison building.


This walkway led to a monument of some sort, but I liked the way they incorporated some nature.


There is a campervan rental company in NZ that personalizes each vehicle by spraypainting a saying on the back. Here is the first one we saw. I've seen a few since, and will try to post the sayings.


We found the large park that is the greenspace centre of the city. You'll see from the GPS track above that we didn't penetrate very far into the park. There is a museum and visitor's centre in the park, and we took some time to wander the museum. The focus on one floor is on local flora and fauna including a display showing the size of the (now extinct) Moa birds that at one time lived in New Zealand. Due to the lack of mammal predators, these birds grew to some pretty frightening sizes. Here is Debbie next to a leg from the largest of these birds.


There was also an entire floor dedicated to the subantarctic islands that are protectorates of New Zealand. These islands are mostly uninhabited but were used in the past as bases for fishing and whaling. There are some descriptions of some pretty harrowing survivors' tales of shipwrecks on these most remote of islands.

Leaving the museum, we wandered through a more prosperous area and admired some of the well tended gardens.




I liked this little sculptural installation on the roof of a Bed and Breakfast.


This is the old water tower.


By this time, we had travelled several kilometers and felt ready for some late lunch and to replenish our fluids.


We headed back to the room and spent the rest of the day enjoying the fine weather on the balcony of the hotel.


To close, here is a panoramic shot of the city taken from the balcony. The panorama program I'm using is a little flaky at times, so please forgive the seams.



Until next time,

Don