Southland Experience - Day 4

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Today dawned a brilliant fine sunny day! So much for the it's always raining and cold in Southland theory - and we're right in the middle of winter too!

Standard start to our day: Breakfast at Zoolander, it's the only way to kick things off, although not so much from a weight watcher perspective (which clearly isn't my go), then the short walk around the corner to the Southland Times car park to pick up our car.

It is true there are two Round the Mountains - the hard peddling, sweating, grunting push bike variety, and the much less strenuous but much more my style elbow bending Pub crawl. Just to clarify we didn't actually do the Pub crawl, that would be irresponsible and for another day when we can do the bus trip - just sayen. What we did was follow the trail and meander through the western Southland countryside. The path loosely goes from Invercargill across to Riverton, Colac Bay, around to Tuatapere, past the unfriendly Otautau Hotel (boo, hiss) on to blink and you'll miss it Drummond, then top/middle/bottom (just like Greytown at home) Winton Pubs and finally back to base. There were a few other stops along the way but we somehow manged to delete the full list from my emails somewhere near Winton.

Anyhow it was a fun day for sure. We did stop for a mid strength Speights lager at the Carriers Arms in Riverton. Ordinary looking Pub from the outside but extremely clean and welcoming inside. The landlord (guessing he was the bloke pouring the pints) was a very friendly guy. The few locals in the bar looked a bit suspicious, kind of who are these foreigners invading our space! Still I had a bet and watched a Wingatui race on Trackside and Jeanette had a go on the pokies so at least we made an effort to fit in. All in all it was a short but enjoyable break on our travels. We also had quite to few stops, especially in the Riverton/Colac Bay area to admire the view and have a wander around.

I say the unfriendly Otautau Hotel because we turned up at 2.05pm to order lunch and were told in no uncertain terms the kitchen closed at 2pm, although we could order a pizza if we wanted. Jeanette wasn't keen on pizza and thought for the sake of 5 minutes they could be a little flexible, so we decided to move on. We also stopped for a 1/2 pint at the top pub in Winton. Familiar theme, 3-4 locals enjoying a quiet pint and some good company on a lazy Sunday afternoon. If only I wasn't the driver guy!

I'm a Wairarapa farm boy from way back and it was a good day taking in some really cool rural countryside and heartland towns. When we got back to Invercargill it was mid afternoon so we decided to stop off at Queens Park for a look. The Park is a dominant feature in central Invercargill, it's very much an English style park with formal structure, big open spaces and lovely mature trees. We grabbed an ice cream and enjoyed a relaxing stroll (all be it a slightly chilly one-the bright sun was just a distant memory by this stage). Great space and a credit to whoever is responsible.

By now we were ready for dinner and just looking for a simple meal. We decided on a cooked chicken and salad from Pak n Save. Easy to make into dinner and enough for us to make up 'picnic' lunch for tomorrow when we would head out in the opposite direct from today to the Catlins. Interestingly (and frustratingly) Pak N Save doesn't sell alcohol - reminded me of growing up in Masterton which was also a Licensing Trust town back in the day. Still the benefits the Trusts offer far outweigh my slight inconvenience of not being able to buy a beer to have with dinner.

Excited about the Catlins tomorrow, hoping to learn a bit about the area and see a seal/sea lion or penguin or two...

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Photos

Carriers Arms Hotel
Very friendly Pub in Riverton. Have a bet or give the Pokies a whirl!

Colac Bay
Just one example of some stunning scenery as you go "around the mountain". To be honest I've no idea if there is actually a mountain involved in the whole trip!

Queens Park entry
Awesome and very 'English' park.

Queens Park Burt Munro
Must be Southland's favourite son! Burt Munro statue at the entrance to Queens Park.

Otautau Pub
The unfriendly Pub - Boo, Hiss!