Although we left even hotter weather here it was a very nice 27 degrees in Invercargill and it's surroundings for the whole time we were there, great for exploring, paddling and enjoying the beautiful countryside that Southland has to offer. It's so nice to see a place you like in more detail and the people down here are pretty nice too.
We checked in to the Ascot motel around 2pm so made good time. We haven't stayed in the motel section before and were impressed by our budget choice with a big room, kitchen and bathroom, not bad for 40 GBP a night. We drove straight down to Oreti Beach which was busier than we had ever seen it before and had a long walk in the water for a mile or so.
After a few hours we drove over to Queens Park as Derek had never been in there before; when he comes here for work he never gets to look around like I do so it's nice that I can show him some of my favourite places too. The aviary was shut as we got there too late but we could still go around the exhibits and the greenhouses were just closing as we got there but the man let us in for a peek!
Christmas Day arrived very sunny and bright and after we opened our presents (thank you very much for all our lovely things for those of you that sent xx) we headed west. We decided to drive to the furthest point we were going that day and head back so out on the Tuatapere road (pronounced Tu a tap er ree).
And as you will see, this beach is not the typical beautiful beach, the sand is black and it is very wild but I think it is beautiful and there was no one on it until we left.
We didn't stay here long, just stopped for a quick paddle and bumped in to an old customer from Queenstown who was taking his very young son for his first dip in the ocean.
We stopped off in the little hamlet of Fortrose first (lots of Scottish names down here) which is a charming little place at the head of the estuary, full of wading birds and there are a lot of whitebait huts along the river. They have had a good year for whitebait this year, they love the stuff round here. It's Derek's idea of an eating nightmare, lots of tiny fish cooked up in an omelette - two of the things he hates most.
Then on to Curio and Porpoise Bay which was our main stop for the day. | |
So the next day was time for some retail therapy at the sales so a trip out to Spotlight for some material, cotton and essential sewing things for me, Derek got a stand to put his phone in in the car (those iPhone 6's, the larger ones, are a little tricky to buy accessories for) and I got a new T-shirt to go with my new skirts that Julie and Mum bought for me.
We left around 2 as it was raining, not in Cromwell though!!
The roads were quite busy, lots of people heading home after the Christmas holidays I suppose. We are not used to seeing that much traffic around but there are a lot of holiday makers about too at this time of year.
It's been a year of mixed emotions this year, happy and sad.
We've been to some wonderful places and seen some beautiful things - we count ourselves very lucky in many ways. And we have managed to see all our closest family too which is wonderful x
And Daniel and Helen got engaged at Christmas too so many Congratulations to them and we are looking forward to the birth of Jess and Ben's baby in June 2015.