Invercargill

Waving goodbye to Maxine we drove down to Invercargill. Trying to get to the southernmost point we were disappointed to find it blocked by a closed road. Plan B was Waipapa point, somewhere James had camped at his last visit.

A pretty lighthouse stands at the coast with sealions and seals having a nap on the grass outside. Wandering down to the sea the waves were crashing over the rocky inlet and an orange haze lay in the sky despite being hours from sunset. An idyllic stop.

We arrived into Invercagill and ran over to Queens park for a walk during the sunset where the sky turned a fiery orange. Our hostel had a friendly English man who had been to New Zealand for months mostly trying to do the great hikes and had hopes if doing the Te Araroa hike down the spine of the country.

Next morning our first stop was Transport world. Created by Bob a local businessman with a passion for old cars it now holds over a thousand cara, trucks and tractors in 5 warehouses. Cars looked so much better in the 50's and 60's! While I wasn't as enamoured by the trucks their back history was enough to keep me going through. The museum had a good restaurant so we treated ourselves to lunch before leaving!

We drove on to Bluff which is the end of route 1 which started in Cape Reinga so we'd done from the top of the north to the bottom of the south (if we ignore Stewart Island)! That night was the first test for NZ v Lions, we were beaten but there might be hope!Læs mere