We set off bright and early this morning, in the now familiar wildly variable weather. One minute sunshine, next minute raining – and this continued pretty much all day.
The land heading south was mostly rural farmland with a mix of sheep, cattle and even deer in the fields. There were still snow covered peaks in the distance but these did drop away the further south we got. Our first stop was the Mararoa Weir Scenic Lookout , where the Mararoa and Waiau Rivers meet. It is designed to push the Mararoa waters back up to Lake Manapori to be used on the West Arm power scheme. We were also intrigued by two small islands in the river that were absolutely covered with flocks of screeching gulls – the food must be good there.
Not far down the road we stopped at Clifden Suspension Bridge . The weather was so cold, but at least at this point it wasnt raining. This historic suspension bridge was an important transport link in what was a relatively remote part of Southland; opening up of the area east of the Waiau River. It was built in 1898 to replace a punt which had operated since the early days of settlement. At that time the Waiau River was often swift and dangerous, but the flow has since been severely reduced by hydroelectric development on Lake Manapouri. A single lane, 111.5 metre long bridge, it was originally used by horse and cart traffic and later by vehicles. It remained in operation until 1978 when a new bridge was built 130 metres downstream to cater for traffic to and from the Manapouri power project.
Shortly afterwards we drove through Tuatapere, a tiny little nothing town with a BIG claim. When local Tuatapere sausage guru Leo Henderson came up with a new recipe in the 1980’s, little did he know he was creating what is now arguably the country’s best sausage. At the time of creation his friends and neighbours were so impressed that whispers quickly spread: the local ‘snarler’ produced by the well-known butcher from the high street was the best in the land. Thus, over time, word spread that the local delicacy from the countries most south-western town (with a population of approximately 560 people), was so good that Tuatapere became known as the “Sausage Capital of New Zealand”. The town was gifted witha “Big Sausage” by a NZ radio station and it now stands proudly out the front of the largest cafe in town.
From here it was only a short drive to the bottom of the mainland, and we finally caught sight of the Southern Ocean. The wind was howling along this stretch but we stopped to see the signpost at McCracken’s Rest, on Te Waewae Bay
From here we continued eastward across the coastline, with the car being battered by wind and rain showers. We were stopped at one point and had to pull aside to wait for a “wide-load” to pass by, in this case an entire house!! Not something you see every day. We also stopped at the little town of Riverton to see their “Big Paua Shell”, but Im afraid this one was a bit of a dud! I was expecting a pretty blue-green shell but its not what it used to be, according to reports.
It was only around midday when we arrived in Invercargill, so we decided to head on down through the town to the port of Bluff, and Stirling Point. Stirling Point is located at the beginning (or end??) of New Zealand’s State Highway 1.It is named after Captain William Stirling who established a Whaling Station nearby in 1836. The little town is famous for its signpost, which depicts directions and distances to major cities around the world. So naturally we had to go and take a pic of it!
Bluff was also interesting as, despite being a rather gritty looking port town, they had an array of large murals painted on buildings in the town – a nice pop of colour.
Finally we drove back up to Invercargill and decided to stop and see Bill Richardson’s Transport World. I’d read a little about this museum but had no idea of how outstanding it was. We were hungry so when we first arrived we stopped to have lunch in the cafe, The Grille. We were immediatly tickled with the place, it was decorated as an American diner, with lots of old transport memorabilia – bu we were both really impressed when we visited the toilets! The decor in the ladies was 1950’s cute! We both had a classic American hot dog for lunch, very tasty.
After lunch we went in to the museum and were absolutely blown away by the size and quality of the collection. The collection began in 1967 with Bill Richardson, a Southland businessman with a lifelong fascination for trucks. The first vehicle he acquired was his grandfather’s 1933 International truck. Over the decades, his collection grew to include over 150 trucks and 200 petrol pumps. After Bill’s death in 2005, his daughter and her family decided to carry on his legacy and opened the collection to the public in 2015. The huge hanger like spaces had rows of gorgeously restored vintage trucks and cars. The Vintage Ford collection has every car from the Model A to the Model T, except for the Model b and is the most complete collection of these cars in the southern hemisphere.
There were also huge collections of toy cars, and other vintage collections of things like old juke boxes and gas pumps.
One of the funnier things wa that many of the toilets in the complex were also themed, I’ve never taken so many photos of public toilets!
Finally we’d finished looking at the 15,000 square metre display and left to head into central Invercargil to checkin to the Langland, our hotel for the night. We went for a short walk around the downtown area, but it was still very windy and cold so we rapidly retreated back to the hotel.
It is very new and had a lovely rooftop bar where we enjoyed a couple of drinks looking out over Invercargill. For dinner we opted for the hotel restaurant, Meld, which had a tasty choice of Asian light plates and curries. We had the Beef wontons and followedu p with a couple of very good curries, Malay Chicken and Sweet and Sour Tempura Gurnard.
The hotel is really excellent, and our visit to the museum was a real surprise – Invercargill has turned out to offer rather more than I’d expected!
Tomorrow we’re hopeful for better weather as we continue along the south coast to Dunedin.
