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Southland Times
The iconic Southland Times building, the team are about to move to a new purpose built activity based work environment on the first floor of a nearby building. One of the pleasant surprises from our time in Invecargill was the number of beautiful historic buildings (and churches) that still exist. Beautiful day for travelling and an early start. Public transport in Wellington is great and the Airport Flyer which will take us from Lower Hutt to Wellington Airport leaves from just down the road. We had planned to jump aboard the 6.30am bus but in the end were early and caught the 6.10am. It meant a ridiculously early arrival at the airport - 6.45am for flight being called at 8.10am. Still time to get ourselves organised and enjoy a relaxing breakfast. People watching at airports is always a good way to pass time...
In terms of domestic travel in NZ the Wellington to Invercargill route must be one of the most expensive in the country! We fly Wellington-Christchurch/Christchurch-Invercargill, although there are direct flights this was the cheapest option-it still cost us more than return airfares to Brisbane would have! Air NZ have a monopoly on flying into Invercargill and that's where it all turns to custard. We learnt later that most people drive to/from Queenstown or Dunedin and bus/drive to Invercargill as airfares are soo over the top. Disappointing because as you follow our blog over the next few days hopefully you'll agree it's an awesome part of the world
The Grille
Nice lunch spot in Invercargill with a distinctly motoring theme. well worth a look! Can't deny cost of getting there is a major deterrent though.
Trip down was uneventful, plane a bit late into Christchurch which lead to scramble to make connecting flight (not that they would actually have left without us) aside. The weather was beautiful with great views of the coastline and southern alps for most of the trip. UNTIL right on queue as we descended into Invercargill we were blanketed by fog, rain and mist. It was like there was a pocket of bad weather that hung permanently over the city - enough of the stereotypes - looking forward to getting on the ground and getting our holiday underway!
Maybe not so fast! As soon as I turned my phone on there was a panicked message from someone who needed to get a full page in next weeks Hutt News! Jody picked us up from the Airport, we dropped Jeanette at the Ibis (our Hotel) and headed to the Southland Times so I could sort getting the advert into the paper out. That accomplished we all met Sue (Jody's boss) for lunch at the Grille Restaurant which is part of the Bill Richardson Transport Museum
Jimmy Cassidy-Legend
Jimmy Cassidy. Winner of 2 Melbourne Cups (including the greatest ever-last to first on Kiwi). Plus over 100 Group 1 (elite) wins). A boy from Lower Hutt inducted as a Hutt Valley Sporting Legend this year. Will anyone from Invercargill recognise the little champion! complex. Company was excellent, food OK, great opportunity to get myself reacquainted with the locally brewed Wasp Lager - its a good one!
From there Jeanette was off to check out the shops. I went back to Southland Times with Jody to run through the Gift Basket I'd brought down for her team. I'd themed it around local - my patch - food, she seamed pretty pleased with it and my sometimes colourful narrative so all good on that front. The package included a personally signed bottle of wine by Jimmy Cassidy - Lower Hutt legend and absolute champion jockey. Would anyone be able to identify him and win the prized bottle - clearly it wouldn't be Jody who thought he might be a comedian! In her defense he is a pretty funny guy - just don't ask him how he got the nickname the Pumper!
The weather was still awful, cold and wet! Jeanette called into 'work', we made arrangements to have dinner with Jody and then headed off to find a place for a quiet drink, we settled on the Editors Cut next to the Times building and then migrated to Speights which was a very
Buster Crabb
Awesome restaurant in a lovely historic building pleasant spot indeed. In lieu of an official bar tab the barman (friendly happy bloke) kept my empty pints behind the bar, and we just paid one bill based on the number of empty glasses when we left (not that there were many!). A very simple and effective system I must say! Jeanette reckons there were heaps of interesting shops in the CDB especially women's fashion ones but she refrained from spending too much which was a bonus!
Dinner at Buster Crabb restaurant was great. Excellent restaurant, friendly service and very nice food - would highly recommend. Was perfect way for Jeanette and I to finish long and busy day. Also to spend some time away from work with Jody, although in the end there was a strangely familiar theme there - so much to talk about and not enough time! Still plenty of chatter, some good laughs and a very enjoyable evening all round. Jody is going into public holiday (always a nightmare in publishing) and getting organised for family trip to Aussie (leaving Saturday) so given all that really appreciated her taking the time to look after us so well.
Looking forward to tomorrow...a bit more of the same (work/shopping) plus the official presentation of the gift basket to Invercargill sales team - from the little I saw today they seam like a pretty good bunch. Also learnt tonight that Katherine (their Key Acount Manager) is the Southland Sharks mascot, it just adds a whole new dimension to the banter (credit where it's due Katherine - Shooter the Shark's - performance on semi finals night was something to behold-more about that later)!
Then it's the big one, the NBL semi's with the Saints taking on the Sharks in what will undoubtedly be the highlight of our stay!
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