Showing posts with label Invercargill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Invercargill. Show all posts

Thursday, 8 December 2022

Invercargill and Bluff..a full day!

 We were up bright and early and at the velodrome just after 9.

Breakfast had been a little sketchy as I had placed the milk and yoghurt in the wrong side of  the fridge freezer.....still, a huge banana and mixed fruit and nuts was a good start!!

Pirate had a good hour on the boards, with the track and a coach all to himself, and a hire bike..all for 40NZD...it would have been a hundred more on Cambridge!!

He was a little rusty, having not been on his bike for nearly a month....but really enjoyed it.





A trip into the city to top up his phone...and us!

Unfortunately our favourite café is no longer..The Zookeepers...the building is being redeveloped...but the new building owners have bought the rights to the name, so who knows.  

It was full of memorabilia, photographs and murals linked to the Tour of the Southland cycle road race. I think I took photos when we visited, so I will try and find that blogpost and link to it. Zookeepers only a couple of photos but you get the idea!

Then we headed further South ..as far as you can without getting your feet wet...to Motopōhue or Stirling Point.

You can see the small ferries going past on the rough crossing to Rakiura/Stewart Island.

No way were we doing that!

Pirate had a good long nap in the back of the camper car, then we had a short walk on the coastal path.


Well you have to have that one!!
















Back to the Velodrome then, with some nifty navigation by pirate, including a gravel road, avoiding the busy main roads!  We watched a training session and caught up with a friend who was part of it during a break, before getting a Chinese takeaway and heading back to Riverton/Aparimu 

Wednesday, 7 December 2022

Getting to Invercargill


 Just 2k out of Waikouaiti!!....


There are some big trucks on the roads!! Some of them look like Tonka toys.. especially the Mack ones!!

We passed through Dunedin, following SH 1, past the now mostly demolished Cadbury's factory ...a crying shame that it could not be utilised, not even just the façade.

Mosgiel for fuel and a snack, as we knew where the fuel station was, having been to Mosgiel for the NZ Masters Games in 2020.

Onwards again, a quick food shop in Balclutha, which has a concrete river bridge like the one in Kirkcudbright! We didn't go on the coastal Caitlin's route as that is slower..and we went that way last time!  Instead we followed the 1 to Clinton, and then the 93 across to Mataura to rejoin the 1, bypassing Gore. A bit of a twisty up and downy road, but we enjoyed it, before the very flat and straight run in to Invercargill.

We found the velodrome..after a little hunting around and then approaching from the side we remembered!! Shall we say one small street sign hiding behind greenery is not ideal!!

Pirate arranged to go on the velodrome the next morning...then we went to our campsite in Riverton...20 minutes up the road they said ..... It was 40 km away!!!

The weather continued mostly to be like a good West of Scotland summer....showers and a chilly breeze... but it was still good.



And then the clouds lifted...