Blogs from Invercargill, Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania
May 6th 2010
Polling day for everyone back in the UK - we’re looking forward to hearing the results as it sounds like it’s going to be an interesting election! Although being the other side of the world, polling won’t officially close until after we’ve had our breakfast tomorrow morning! Today was another quiet laid-back day for us, but oh such a perfect day! We went into Invercargill to have a look at its architecture which we were told was wonderful, I suppose it wasn’t bad, but someone had chosen to paint it in the most awful colours. There was also The Crescent, which was spoken of as something grand - I suppose I was expecting something like the Royal Crescent in Bath, and instead got something more reminiscent of Slough! You may be disappointed to know that we ... read more
Pining for the Fiords?
Published: May 8th 2010Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
May 5th 2010
Now I really don’t want to whine or winge, but I have to say it is getting jolly cold at night here. It’s all very nice to see the dusting of snow on the mountain tops in the morning, but the hard frost overnight ain’t so grand when you’re in a converted van with no insulation!! John said it wasn’t too bad ... and then I realised he was sleeping in a T-shirt with a sweatshirt over the top! But then what can we expect - it is autumn here and we knew it would be cold ... I suppose from years of caravanning in my younger years (once in the snow) I expected to be warm when snuggled inside the van. The good news is that we’ve done all the dashing and chasing we needed ... read more
The Grass Really is Greener
Published: November 9th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
November 9th 2008
We decided on New Zealand for a short-ish visit because we thought that it might be polite to check out the neighbours before we started our travels around the rest of the world in earnest. In our, or perhaps just my, mind New Zealand has always seemed to be pretty much like Australia except that they worship the All Blacks and can be laughed at for saying ‘fush and chups’. I find that I was pretty right but not really complete. We flew into Christchurch from Brisbane last Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day. Weather fine, sun shining, gentle wind blowing. And that was that. The sun then disappeared until a brief appearance on Friday being replaced by howling winds, rain, sleet and snow flurries. I kid you not - snow! We have been congratulating ourselves on hiring ... read more
Cruising Around Southland
Published: February 14th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
February 14th 2007
On the 12th Dave and I did a tour of the Manapouri Power Station. To get to the power station we had to cross Lake Manapouri, which is NZ's 5th largest lake covering 14,164 hec, 35,000 acres. Again the lake was surrounded by islands and cliffs. This lake has the most islands in it at 33 and is know for its high rainfall 4.5 m or 179.7 inches a year. Fortunetly for us we had a clear day with no rain in sight. The power station is different because it is built underneath a mountain and is the largest power plant in NZ. As part of our tour we were taking underground through the tunnel in a tour bus. The tunnel is 2kms long and is made through solid granite, which is one of the hardest ... read more
אינברקרגיל - אנחנו אוהבים אותך!!!
Published: January 24th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
January 18th 2007
אוייי... אז ממה נתחיל.. ככה: קמנו לנו אתמול בבוקר בידיעה שאנחנו הולכים לישון באיזה היט איפשהו ליד אינברקרגיל. אלא שגילינו באמצע הדרך שהוא לא ממש ליד, אז ביטלנו אותו והזמנו לנו מקום באכסניה שנמצאת בעיר עצמה. באסה. כשהגענו לאינברקרגיל עדי גילתה שהיא לא העיר הכי דרומית בניו זילנד, כי יש איזה מקום שנקרא בלאפ, 22 ק"מ מהעיר שהוא באמת הכי דרומי. ושאנחנו נפסיד אותו?? מה פתאום! אז נסענו לבלאפ. ובלאפ נראית כמו שהיא נשמעת, ישנה ומשעממת. כשהגענו לחוף הים, לקצה העיר די התאכזבנו מהמקום, למרות שאפשר היה לראות בא... read more
Holiday Update
Published: January 11th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
January 11th 2007
Happy New Year Well we're now a couple of weeks into the New Year and within the last 23 or so days before we leave. I'm back at work after a very pleasant and relaxing break while Emma continues to holiday it up. Work is pretty quiet as I'm not being given any new work to do and am almost finished all the work I've got. Not sure how I'm going to fill in the next three weeks. Probably do a fair bit of internet surfing and solitaire playing, waste some more rate payers money, you know how it is. Christmas was a pretty standard affair this year. The day here in Invers was pretty overcast but warm and included the usual family get togethers and over indulgences. Emma spent the day in Christchurch with extended ... read more
Counting down to departure
Published: December 4th 2006Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » InvercargillDecember 3rd 2006
Hi there Welcome to the first installment of our travel blog where we will be recording all our adventures, experiences and musings during our pending trip to Canada. We aim to keep you all (well those who are interested) up to date on where we are and what we are up to through regular journal entries and gallery updates. For those of you we have not seen for a while, and there are quite a few of you, we should probably fill you in on what we've got brewing. We had always planned on spending the two years after uni/t-col working in NZ so that Emma could get her teachers registration. As soon she had obtained that the plan was to blow this joint and bugger off overseas for a bit. As it turned out we ... read more
Arsehole of the world
Published: October 27th 2006Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
October 27th 2006
One of the Rolling Stones described Invergargill as the Arsehole of the World a bit unfairly in my opinion. We literally did a flying visit today due to certain time constraints. However, got to see the orginial Indian from the World's Fastest Indian! You wouldn't believe that this was actually a motorbike never mind that you could go faster than a moped on it. No wonder they thought he was crazy! Was great to see though. We also got a photo at a sign of Invergargill and that completed our sightseeing in New Zealand's most southerly point.... read more
![The World\](http://photos.travelblog.org/Photos/15416/98266/s/652729-The-World-0.jpg "The World\")
Out of queenstown and to Invercargill
Published: September 11th 2006Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
August 24th 2006
After getting through the sheep we headed farther south to Invercargill. Most people I have talked to say this town is shitty but I didn't think it was that bad. As we drove into town we were thinking of going to Stewart Island the next day but ended up not because of the weather. But while we were driving into town about lunch time we heard that Subway was giving away Rugby tickets to the Otogo vs. Southland game that was going to be the next night. So we headed to Subway for lunch and at the front of the line I asked lady working what the deal was with the deal was with the Rugby tickets and she told me that every 10th person got 2 tickets. So I asked how close we were to ... read more
Invercargill and the Catlins
Published: August 29th 2006Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland » Invercargill
July 20th 2006
When we left Milford Sound we had to get a wriggle on in order to make it all the way south to Invercargill. After a quick stop in Te Auna for some amazing fish and chips, I love the blue cod they serve in the very south as the standard for fish and chips, we ventured on to the very south. We got to see many fields full of animals and a few random fruit stalls along the way. At roughly 8 pm we managed to find our chosen camp site and were just in time to check in and have a chat with the really nice woman who runs the place. Turns out she has been to England many times and had visited more places there than me and Thommo put together. It made me ... read more
