A Quieter Day

 

We had a more restful day planned for this fourth day of our road trip, using our time to explore Invercargill and Bluff and generally have a rest.

I love the old buildings around Invercargill (I have been here a few times before) but the Water Tower would have to be a favourite. 

Originally built in 1889 to provide water to help fight fires, it was refurbished in 1989 and now acts as a partial back-up to the city’s water system.  The 300,000 bricks cleverly disguise a 300,000 Litre steel tank, thus silencing critics of the era who did not want an ugly tower sitting in the middle of their fledgling town.

We spent quite a bit of time in Bluff as my companion had not been there before.  

Bluff is the closest port to Invercargill and well-known for the oysters that arrive here after being harvested wild in Foveaux Strait.

Stirling Point has a Pilot Station and we stood and watched from here as a ship left from the Tiwai Point aluminium plant across the harbour.

We had to make the obligatory trip to the famous signpost at the bottom of the South Island and were fortunate enough to find someone to photograph us both beneath it.

What was sad was that vandals had been at work here and deliberately broken almost every glass panel that formed the safety barrier fence around the signpost.  They must have worked hard because the glass was very thick and specially toughened, but not many panels were left intact.

We made two trips up Bluff Hill to the lookout point.  Our first trip hadn’t offered any views except cloud so we spent some time wandering around the port area and looking at some of the old buildings.

Our second trip was more successful as the clouds had begun lifting so we could at least see Something!  An extensive 360 degree view can be had from here on a fine day.

After lunch back at our motel, I had a short rest while my more active younger companion went for a walk. 

Then it was off to wander through some of the Queens Park gardens.  On our travels we had been seeing many rhododendrons and azaleas in glorious colour, and wanted to see if there were any in the gardens.

We did find a few but they were a little disappointing as it had obviously been decided to give a prolonged display of flowers rather than a short breathtaking one (there were shrubs that were in flower, others in bud, and some that had finished flowering).

We continued wandering around some of the other walkways in the garden for a while, enjoying the weak sunshine and the peace, and thinking our own thoughts.

It was quite restful and restorative.

Early in the evening we visited Oreti Beach, where all the locals seemed to go after finishing work.  The beach was dotted all along its entire length with vehicles and people walking and running (too cold for swimming) and some were fishing. 

This long beach has firm sand, so non-4WD vehicles also drive down here.  Normal road rules are meant to apply on the beach, which I find a bit ridiculous because there are people wandering around (and often dogs as well) which is not what you find on a normal road.

We never took the car onto the beach but parked instead at a nearby carpark and walked down.  We almost got run over by one car whose driver decided if he didn’t put his foot down and speed through the loose sand at the on-ramp he would never get off the beach.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had been able to keep his car going in a straight line instead of sliding off in all directions.

With that excitement completing our day, we returned to our motel and a sandwich for dinner.

The previous night the motel had been fully booked but this night there was only us and one other couple.  The no-vacancy sign was still out though.  The lady manager wanted to have a day off – they, like so many others in this post-covid era, are short staffed and it is difficult to get time off work for the ones who remain.

We went to sleep early, ready for the next day’s adventures to begin.

Margaret 😊