Invercargill

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We have been having some internet issues along wiith keyboard issues, so these posts might be a little bit abbreviated.

We left Oamaru and headed south down the eastern coast of the South Island. Our first stop was to stop and see the Moeraki Boulders which are listed as the 101 things you should see in New Zealand. We strolled along the beach and sure enough there were all these large spherical boulders along the coastline. We spent a short time walking on the beach and enjoying the Pacific Ocean.

Our next stop was Dunedin where we had a light lunch and then visited Larnach Castle. We didn't go inside, but wandered around the grounds enjoying the gardens. The castle was situated high above the city.

We had one more stop before heading for our final destination and that was at Baldwin Street which was the steepest street in the world and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

We arrived in Invercargill at our motel which was quite comfortable, freshened up a bit and then headed out to do our tourist things. We visited the Southland Museum where we were hopeful of seeing Henry, an over 100-year-old tuatara, said to be a direct descendend of the dinosaur. Well Henry and Mildred (who is 80) started having little tuataras. Henry was less than amorous until he had surgery done to his vital parts and he got his mojo back in 2002. One of the staff came ouut and coaxed Henry out of his log. We only saw his snout but saw many of his offspring.

Next stop was at a local hardware store where we saw the Indian Scout motorbike modified by Burt Munro to break land and speed records. He goes down in history as one of Invercargill's most iconic sporting legendss with his original bike on display. The movie about Burt's life staring Sir Anthony Hopkins "The World's Fastest Indian" became a box office hit in 2005.

Our last stop was at Bluff, the 1st European settlement in New Zealand and it is the departure point for Stewart Island which we couldn't see because of the clouds. We saw the famed international signpost at Stirling Point marking the start of the country's main state highway. The point also features a walk to the Blluff lighthouse and chain link sculpture. With a matching sculpture on Stewart Island, the chain links create a symbolic linking between the 2 islands.

Now that we had seen all that we wanted, we went to dinner at a restaurant in the neighborhood, the Saucy Chef, which featured lamb shanks which I was told were excellent. Deb, Greg and John had these while I decided on lamb pillaf. We went back to our motel with plans to meet in the morning at 8:30 for our drive to Queenstown.

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Comments

[pete]

hooray!
Way to go Henry and Mildred!!!