Invercargill's not so bad

(30th Nov - 5th December)

After Oamaru we wanted to get to Invercargill quickly because we knew we'd be having vaccines, and wanted to be based in one place in case of any side effects. When we phoned the campsite in Lorneville, just outside Invercargill (I fully recommend it if you're ever near), we were taken aback when they seemed surprised that we'd want to stay 5 nights and they even offered us a discount. When we arrived, we were one of only a few vans and had our pick of spots. We have since discovered that Invercargill isn't really on the typical tourist route. Indeed, if it hadn't been for Rhys Darby we probably wouldn't have looked at it ourselves. Everyone else on site tended to stay or 1 night and then head off. Every Kiwi we've met since has said "Invercargill? Yeah, that place is  'eh?" in a 'Why did you do that?!' kind of tone. We actually quite liked it, but we didn't really spend that much time in Invercargill itself.

We camped next to a couple who were on their 3rd trip to NZ. They made us realise that we had missed out a whole patch of the coast on our way down from Oamaru. We had 5 days though, an afternoon of which would be taken up with getting injections and an evening of which would be taken up seeing Rhys Darby. The rest was ours to play with. We hadn't had the best weather between Oamaru and Invercargill, which was partly why we'd chosen to come pretty direct. But apparently the Catlins are an excellent source of scenery and wildlife. So we took our neighbours advice and headed up the coastal route. Our guide books warned us we would find little in the way of facilities so we filled up with fuel before we headed off. Little did we realise the roads wouldn't be so great either. We're supposed to stick to sealed roads with our rented vehicle, but unsealed roads aren't always well signposted and as a result, we ended up on a gravel track for about 3kms. It was worth it though as when we got to the lighthouse at the end (that bit was a little disappointing if we're honest), we saw seals on the beach (exciting & very worth it). They may even have been sealions as they were rather large. Homework for next time: Can someone please remind me of the difference between the two??

Apparently lighthouse keeping used to be very family orientated. A lighthouse keeper would usually have a wife (and kids), otherwise it would be a very lonely job. I was amused to read that some families would home-school their children. The reason? Schools were usually quite far away so people would need to walk or take a horse. It wasn't so much the distance that stopped them though, it was the fact that they couldn't be sure they wouldn't come across a seal on their route! I thought that was an excellent excuse not to go to school. Or imagine if you did but you forgot to do your homework, you could literally use the excuse "sorry it's late miss, the seal ate my homework!" Anyhow, we left the lighthouse and decided to drive a little further to a place called Curio Bay. We were back on sealed roads... or so we thought until, yet again, it turned into a gravel track with very little warning (e.g. it told us after we were on the only road that would take us there!). This time it was for about 14kms and it felt like forever. We eventually arrived at our interesting destination. It had petrified forests there. I'm about to show my ignorance, but I joked about what they'd been so scared of initially (Chris thought I knew what they were really). Chris soon realised I hadn't had the benefit of a geologist for a mother and explained the real meaning of petrified, then we headed down to the beach to see some fossilised trees. We were also really lucky to see some more yellow-eyed penguins, this time they looked to be chicks, or perhaps adolecents. Not very yellow-eyed yet, but definitely penguins. It was the middle of the afternoon so totally unexpected. We also saw an interesting black bird with red beak and red rims round its eyes. I nearly walked on its nest (oops), and only noticed when I heard it squaking at me and giving me the evil eye (quite easy to do when you have red around your eyes)! Extra-curricular homework: find out what kind of birds (possibly a sea bird) are jet black with red beaks and red eyes (and red legs, I think)... it's probably a bit bigger than a pigeon, or maybe around the same size.

We'd driven for so long that we thought we were really far away from the campsite so we decided to make our way back and were surprised to find a small cafe to grab a bite to eat at (I'd recommend it if you're ever near - it's called Niagra Falls Cafe). It was quite expensive but yummy scrummy. We then headed back, only to discover we weren't that far away after all! Still, it gave me a chance to feed the lambs back at the campsite.