Pining for the Fiords?

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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 to do to ensure that we saw the Glaciers and Sounds in good weather. The water is still lapping at the banks of rivers and lakes, but luckily the rain has held off for us, so we haven’t been adversely affected by heavy rain stopping play or by flooding. We can now take it easier and today started with a leisurely breakfast (and warm-up) before taking off into the sunshine.

We went down south into an area that we’d been warned wouldn’t be too wonderful - admittedly it was sad to see the back of the magnificent scenery - the snow capped mountains and awesome lakes, but we were driving along the southern coast ... next stop Antartica!

I’ve got to be honest, when I saw ‘Windswept Trees’ on the map, I did think they were scraping the barrel - but the trees along one part of the coast are almost bent double and look really other worldly! We also visited Colac Beach with its fibreglass surfer, pretty neat bus-stop and wonderful weaving studio where we stopped for ages to chat to Isobel Barnes. We then went on to Riverton, one of NZ’s oldest towns ... although we were more interested in finding the dump point for our waste!!

And then into Invercargill - well, almost. On the outskirts, we stopped at Anderson’s Park Art Gallery and that is literally where we stopped for ages! I’d been particularly keen to visit as it specialises in NZ artists - it is also based in the most wonderful house. A copy of a Georgian house that was built by Sir Robert Anderson in 1921 and handed over to the people of Invercargill in 1951 by his 4 children as this was his declared wish before he died. It was a wonderful building, with fantastic views and beautiful gardens. The art gallery itself utilises most of what would have been the family rooms, and although it doesn’t charge entrance, it still provides free refreshments in the drawing room. We spent ages looking at the wonderful pictures and chatting to the artist in residence, John Husband. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at the wonderful pictures - NZ does have some considerable talent amongst its 4 million odd people - they keep telling me that this is because of the Kiwi ‘can do’ attitude, but I do believe artistic talent has to be there in the first place!

We suddenly realised what the time was and that we needed to find a supermarket as we’d eaten all the ‘emergency’ foods. We decided to stay on a ‘proper’ site for the night, but have to say that its probably the worst we’ve seen ... but the advantage is that we’ve managed to get on-line ... and we’re able to switch the heater on ... BLISS!

And another advantage - I was able to give John a haircut - it’ll save all that time in the mornings putting it into a ponytail ... only joking, but we were almost there!!

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Comments

[Eric]

I enjoyed your NZ post. It made me want to go there. My blog is looking for travel photos. If you have any time, email us some at [e-mail] or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric

[Monkey Boy]

Watties, Watties everywhere....
Hey you two. I've been trying to catch up on your blog and have been really enjoying all the NZ posts. Some great piccies and it's all brought some great memories back for me. Glad you're into the birdlife. That's (NZ) where the obsession started for me and there's no going back. Hopefully you've seen some South Island Robin's. Friendly little chaps. Enjoy your rest of the time in the great country and I look forward to speaking to you when you return. Jason.