Invercargill was next on our trip itinerary. We had a couple of things on our must do list for here – one was to get some more LPG and the other was the visit the Richardsons Transport Museum.
Invercargill is one of the least motor home friendly towns we have come across and I am tempted to write to Mayor Tim Shadbolt about it. There are no places to freedom camp around the city and the NZMCA does not have a park here so we had no intention of staying – it was to be a fleeting visit.
We had a drive through of the town centre. It had some old buildings that looked a bit interesting, and it might have been nice to have a walk around, but we were on a mission to look at old cars, tractors and trucks! We found the museum without a problem and spent the morning there.
I enjoyed seeing the old cars, but was not much interested in all the trucks, so I left Bruce to it while I went upstairs and looked at the wearable art section. I have always wanted to go to a wearable arts show, so I enjoyed just sitting for a while and looking at a video of one of the shows. Some of the garments from that show were on display and while some were very impressive, others were not so much so.
I caught up with Bruce again to find that he had been just as fascinated with the workshop full of vehicles still to be restored as he was with those that had been restored. He could have easily spent a few hours more there, but decided we had better keep moving. So after a coffee and scone, we headed back to the motor home for some more kms.
We continued to follow the scenic coastal route, taking us through Riverton. Apparently Riverton is the oldest town in the South Island. I am not sure how that came to pass because it does not seem to be a logical landing point for settlers, but we were surprised at how big Riverton was. Again, it was full of old buildings, but not a great deal of care was going in to preserving them. It had a nice sheltered little port though.
We followed the road out to the beach, which was a surf beach, and there appeared to be lots of kids there learning how to surf. I admired them because the wind was quite strong and rather chilly, so wetsuits were a necessity.
We carried on down the coast to Colac Bay and again it was quite a nice beach but the wind, and the fact that the tide was quite high, meant it was not really conducive to a beach walk. Even the seagulls were hunkering down.
We were impressed with the bus stop at Colac Bay though.
Gemstone Bay was supposed to be next, and we love fossicking for stones, but due to the windy weather and late afternoon, we decided to stop and overnight at Monkey Island. This is a freedom camping spot, and due to the nature of the beach with high sandhills and flax bushes we decided that it would be a reasonable place to stay as it offered a bit of shelter.
The first sight that greeted us here was a farmhouse like no other. It looked more like a miniature French Castle with its three turrets.
Apparently it was built in the early 1900’s by a farmer who liked the good things in life and who desperately wanted to keep his lady happy. Apparently it is 5 bedrooms and still has the original woodwork inside, but is preserved well.
Monkey Island is not an island at low tide – you can walk to it. Apparently boats would land supplies for the area at Monkey Island before the roads were built.We had been told you could get mussels off the rocks, and that the fishing from the rocks was also good. For us though, the tides were all at the wrong times, and the wind made it a bit forbidding.
After we parked up we took the dogs down on the beach and managed to avoid being blown away.
We had hoped that the sunset would be something to behold, but the cloud cover made it less amazing than it could have been. Still pleasant though.
It was a pretty windy evening, so no barbecuing tonight, but we snuggled up for the night with a dinner of hot chicken and gravy and veges.
Away From Home NZ 