position S035 19.100 E174 07.200

Ocean Rival Journey Log
Adam Power Diana Power
Sun 17 Mar 2019 23:34








Tuesday 16th Nov. 

We were heading south and felt a duty to stop in Invercargill even though 1st impressions were decidedly dour. Even the most run down scottish town (I'm recalling Inverness on a similar grey day) would seem quite jolly after Invercargill and it didn't improve on a walk round tour. Was it by english design that the scottish settlers were sent to the cold south and proceeded to turn it into a copy of their homeland or was it in their nature to look for the coldest, gloomiest part of the country to colonise.

We pushed on to Bluff at the very bottom and had an interesting  tour of the maritime museum which we had to ourselves. The ferry to Stewart Island was stuck in port due to the high wind so we drove out to Stirling point and fought the wind along the coast path.
We reached a point where a memorial marked loss of a plane that ditched in the sea in 1998.
It seemed an apropriate point for a selfie.
We walked back over the hill which was steeper and higher than I had imagined. We felt underdressed for but fully deserving of the smart restaurant back near the car park and I had a plate of oysters as they seemed to be the local speciality.
Back through Invercargill, this time wihout a second glance, we detoured west to Riverton where I had booked the bnb.
This converted garden shed had its own very nice garden complete with outdoor bath. It was a bit cold for bathing but I see that the sun did come out again despite my  earlier claims 
that we had none after Hokitika.