North on the Southern Scenic Route

This morning we visited Queens Park in Invercargill, where Solana enjoyed the aviaries and small animal enclosures - but rain stopped play when we reached the play park area! We headed back onto the Southern Scenic Route, this time driving North from Invercargill. We stopped on a headland near the town of Riverton for a picnic lunch - but the weather was still a bit wild (wet, windy & chilly), so we made it a "car picnic". Whilst there, we saw the amazing sight of a very large flock of seabirds (black petrels we think) feeding on what must have been an even larger shoal of fish just beneath the surface. There were many hundreds of birds feeding and more kept arriving the whole time we were there, so that in the end there must have been a couple of thousand birds, making shallow dives into the water to feed - fascinating to watch. As we drove away, we also saw a spoonbill feeding in the estuary. Clearly our lunchtime coincided well with that of the birdlife today! Our next stop was at Gemstone Beach, where we had a windy but mostly dry walk - although we didn't find any gemstones. We stayed in a cabin on campsite/holiday park - cheaper than a hotel/motel but still with en suite plus kettle & toaster. It was ideal for us and I think we'll be staying in more places like this. Best of all the site had a "kangaroo jumper" - like a giant trampoline, that we all enjoyed bouncing on before dinner!.We enjoyed a tasty dinner in a nearby restaurant, before an evening walk down by Te Anau Lake.Read more