Te Anau to Invercargill

 The chain link is the Maori symbol of the link between Invercargill and Stewart Island (furthest point south of NZ)

Ay the Bluff the signpost to the rest of the world

The sign for Lands End NZ style

View from the Bluff and below Enry gets in everywhere!

We had a lovely drive from Te Anau to Invercargill taking the scenic road.  The landscape is totally different now that we are in the plains.  The area is vast and flat, with lots of sheep and cattle and deer, mainly sheep though.  The roads are very straight and make a pleasant change to the twisty roads we have been on.  It also makes travelling much faster.  We did not have a long journey today and so we stopped off at a town called Riverton which was as the name says on a big river.  The towns in the south are very Victorian, from the times when all the tourists were English (and Scottish).  We found a lovely cafe which was in the old post office, even had the big safe door.  We find the people here so helpful and friendly and wanting us to tell all the folks at home that NZ is a great place to visit.  They have been very down on visitors this year because of the economic climate and of course the Christchurch earthquakes.  

We then set off for Invercargill, a very Scottish part of the south.  All the place names are Scottish.  We found the campsite and then went off into Invercargill city centre and took the road to the Bluff, a peninsular which is the farthest south.  It looks over to Stewart Island, a nature reserve.  We found the inevitable sign at the end of the Bluff and had our picture taken by a very kind lady (local) who had the job of taking photos for all the visitors.  She said that she would have to start charging 5 dollars for each photo if any more people came up! We had a cream tea in the Lands End Hotel and then left for Bluffs Hill, which is the highest point in the area overlooking the South Pacific.  The views were amazing and David was able to take a good video showing all the islands in the area.  The weather was really clear (unusual for this end of NZ).  The hill was really steep and poor Enry really suffered going up, but we made it and it was a lot quicker going down..

We are now back at the site relaxing before our journey to Dunedin (yet another Scottish town).  One thing though, there is a touch of the Irish here too.  We came upon a Boyne Street.  (we get everywhere).