Balmoral Lodge Motel Invercargill

... swop the van.<br><br>14/8<br>We awoke just south of Christchurch in a side street of a quiet town on the main highway leading all the way south on the east coast plain to the southern most town of Invercargill.<br>The staff at the rental firm were very helpful and had swopped ours for another Fiat Ducato, but a later model with an effective internal heater that could be used at night. We were quite happy with this improvement for nights out of camp sites were more likely in ...

... different at 5.30 in the morning in the dark. Luckily most are dry from June to August, which is, of course, winter here.<br><br> Last week was the Bluff Oyster Festival - a day for sampling local fare in particular the famed Bluff Oyster. There was much more on offer than just oysters, all local of course - huge scallops, fish chowder, venison or lamb burgers etc.. etc.. One local 'delicacy' is Muttonbird, which I ...

... round to try and cruise again once the weather system had passed. Though it is winter and the bad weather is no surprise to any of the locals or meteorologists, we were at least fairly comfortable that there wasn't much chance of the weather being any worse when we made it back across to try again. Our new plan was to loop around and take in the south coast of the South Island, on the 'Southern Scenic Route' to Dunedin via Invercargill as an overnight stop ...

... keeping the bottle shops closed is just the australian community's way of stopping the aboriginals drinking too much, too early. it's a very delicate subject and i'm likely to have offended so many people already, so i'll stop now. after driving through tennants creek, our next planned stop was at the threeways roadhouse to have a tuna sandwich lunch and to check the camper over before making our way east into queensland. but, with the roadhouse only metres into the distance ...

... Feb, booked a Milford Sound Cruise and topped up with fuel as there is no garage between Te Anau and Milford Sound, 120 km away. We spent a very quiet night at Cascade Creek DOC hut, a great spot. We hoped to have the following day dry, before the low pressure and heavy rain came through. 20 Feb - The rain woke us at 0300 - so much for a dry day. We wanted an early start as we planned to walk up to 'Key Summit' and Howden Hut from 'The Divide'.

We arrived a bit late into Invercargill when most of the hostels and motels were already closing, and lots of NO VACANCY signs were slightly troubling things were looking a bit desperate like we would have to sleep in the car somewhere.. we finally found a motel at a reasonable enough price that could sleep us all.

... all waiting for some tasty flies to land. There are no rivers which feel this marsh, so it lacks nourishment - hence the plants needing to eat flies to survive. We spent the rest of the day driving along the South coast of NZ. B2 ventured 100 feet into a limestone cave and got to see some more glowworms; A2 stayed behind because of her foot issue and took ...

... from the photos. After lunch the sun came out and so we came out for coffee. Then it was off to the beach, along with about a dozen or so other cars ispread over the 27Km of beach. We had to have a swim, albeit in a somewhat chilly Pacific Ocean, along with about 4 others although they were wimps and wore wetsuits. Then a glass of NZ sparkling and a bit of sunbathing whilst doing a Kiwi Trivia quiz. The evening, as usual, was spent ...

... when shared. " I'd kinda felt this briefly earlier in the trip - think I even mentioned it in an earlier blog entry - experiencing so many wonderful moments that will only really ever mean anything to me and no one else, which in a strange way seemed a bit of a waste. Sure, people all over the world travel solo all the time and for much longer periods that me, and yes, being solo can be life affirming but....I dunno. Having company for a few days in Queenstown made me realise how ...

... the cabin in our atmospheric hillside hostel, and onboard the Adventurer 1 for a cruise across the lake. We then got on a minibus for the 22km ride across the road which crosses the Wilmot Pass, built at about $4 an inch and now maintained (just) by the tour companies that use it. After a quick change (sandflies do that to you) it was on to Adventurer 2 and out into Deep Cove. They gave us smart superlight kayaks, with a warning that we should not both ...