Clucking Hell

Minus 6 my @rse. It wasn’t even cold at all, not by our standards. I still reached out to stick the heater on though. We had arrived late in the afternoon to Invercargill so had not had chance to explore the town the day before, so Fridays task was drive into town and have a mooch around.

We parked up outside the Museum and Art Gallery, as it was free parking and pretty central. As we searched for the public toilets (of which there are many in New Zealand, and all of pretty good standard) we happened across a map of the Museum and Art Gallery area, which indicated there was much, much more to see. First up (after the toilets, which had automatically locked the door and then started playing Burt Bacharach whilst you paid your visit) was the bird sanctuary. Everything seemed free so we thought we would fill our boots. However, before that we tried filming a You’ve Been Framed where I fell off a piece of childrens playground equipment. I don’t think it will make it on the show.

After the bird sanctuary we saw a small Japanese garden and then made our way to the animal park. We weren’t sure of exactly where it was but we realised that if we followed the cockerel sounds we would surely find it. They had the usual farmyard animals there: sheep, goats, chickens, etc. A couple of peacocks were hanging around with some of the other birds, no doubt showing off how amazing they were and gloating to the mallard ducks that they looked so plain. Some deer and a few pigs completed the parade and then we thought it best to get a bit of culture in, so we made for the Museum and Art Gallery.

They were OK. I only say that because the main exhibition in the Art Gallery was of pictures of various natural geological features and fauna from around New Zealand, and I knew that I could (and have) take better shots than the majority of them. I didn’t really “get” the collection of hand-stitched quilts in the other room, so made my way up to the museum part which laid out much of the history of the local area. Good in parts, but we were on a bit of a time budget so we had to leave pretty soon after entering. We wandered the streets of Invercargill after that, and saw a few remnants of the previous days parade (it was for the returning Olympic athletes) but very little Scottish heritage, as the Scots settled in the area.

The next stop was Bluff, a very southern part of the island, although not the exact Southernmost Point, which lay a fair few miles to the east. It was a jutting peninsula with lots of industry and a lighthouse at the tip. Not a huge amount else to see, so we settled in for lunch before driving off towards Dunedin.

Bluff

At least, that was the plan. To get to Dunedin and camp out somewhere in the local area. However, after deciding to take the Southern Scenic Route (as it had been so nice on the previous day) we got very behind schedule. We realised that we wouldn’t reach Dunedin by nightfall, and spotted something on the map that we really wanted to check out, which would also impede our progress. Nugget Point. It was another peninsula, some way outside of Dunedin, but if the map were correct (and it very rarely was) we would have the opportunity to see penguins, sea lions, fur seals and elephant seals. Well we just had to have a shufty. Going out of our way and down ANOTHER gravelly road we arrived at a small area that had a lookout hut down on the cliffs. It was late and we still hadn’t identified our Plan B campsite so thought that we wouldn’t even see any penguins and also that we should get a move on. We entered the hut to find 4 other “twitchers” in there. One bounded up to me and pointed out that a penguin had just clambered out of the sea and was waddling up the beach. Both me and James got out cameras/camcorder out and snapped away as this could be our only chance to see them in the wild. A great little detour, and well worth the trip down the gravelly road. 

Nugget Point

Then we carried on up the trail to find Nugget Point. Again, there was a lighthouse marking the point we needed to get to (900meters from the car park) and we chucked on a couple of layers and fast-walked up there to see what was there. A lighthouse was there. Obviously. Also, a lot of seagulls way down below. But no seals. Disappointed we took some snaps and then turned to head back to the campervan. I just thought I would have one last look on the rocks down below and out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. Brownish in colour and waaaaaaay down below, but it looked like……could it be? YES! It was a seal! James managed to confirm this with the x76 zoom on the camcorder, and I think we found another one too, but light was fading so we needed to get off and find our spot to camp.