Invercargill

So after a quick lunch stop at Niagara Falls (a tongue-in-cheek reference to a local stream, but actually a nice organic-food restaurant), it was on to Invercargill, a town than is often the butt of New Zealander jokes (a bit like Kerryman jokes back home I suppose). It was a small, quite town for sure, but I still quite liked it.

We stayed at the lovely Southern Cross hostel (after a bit of haggling about staying in our van). I was looking forward to a nice Indian in a local recommended restaurant that night, but it had closed down, so we just had a nice dinner in the neighbouring Speights (one of New Zealand's brewery chains).

The next day we hired bikes and rode about 10km outside the town to a nearby biking area that had a number of dedicated cycle trails through a native forest. Having negotiated most of the trails there we popped into the nearby fancy Cabbage Tree restaurant, and we had a great lunch there before heading back to the town and following a heritage trail all over the town centre (which was made much easier and quicker by having the bikes). When we got back to the tourist information place that we'd rented the bikes from, it was closed.

We'd already booked ferry tickets for Stewart Island the next morning, but luckily the tourist office opened early in the morning, and when I dropped back the bikes they appologised for telling me the wrong closing time. We still had plenty of time to drive to the ferry departure town of Bluff and catch our ferry.

So next stop, Stewart Island.