Leanne, a good friend of mine, (and ex-travel agent and fellow obsessive traveller) often assists me with holiday concepts and planning. When we decided a short while ago to take advantage of time off over Christmas, I asked her advice with the following requests:
- Passport use
- Not too long a flight
- Not too hot
- Somewhere we hadn’t been before
- A country starting with a letter not yet covered on Dave’s destination list
This was not easy! (Especially No. 5, as there are only a two letters left, ha ha)
‘Why don’t you go to New Zealand,’ was Leanne’s response.
While we have been to NZ before, we have never been to the South Island. So it covered requests 1 to 4.
Request 5 was simply too difficult – nothing starting with either the the letter O or Y was close or not too hot!
New Year’s Eve started wet and cool. Most people would see that as being a bad thing, but I don’t agree. This B&B is lovely. Apart from the huge spa bath, it has a decent kitchen, soft and comfortable bed, great views over an amazing garden, and a wood fire. Today’s temperature range is 9-14 C, so you guessed it, we have the fire going. It’s so lovely to lie on the lounge reading and watching the fire burn and the rain fall outside. ?
We eventually got ourselves organised (after enjoying simple Weetbix and a cup of tea for breakfast) and headed into Invercargill town to visit Hayes Hardware, where the worlds fastest Indian (Bert Munro) motorbikes are displayed. I’ve never spent so long in a country hardware store before!
We then visited Bill Richardson’s Transport World. This museum is well-known for its truck displays.
As I mentioned on Facebook, I got a real surprise when the cafe was VERY good. I waited (patiently!) for Dave to look around the museum while enjoying a lovely pot of tea and a serve of Cauliflower soup garnished with salty beetroot crisps. Really delicious with the crispy salty crisps giving texture to the smooth and rich soup. I’m not adverse to visiting vehicle museums, but once i saw the cafe looked good I decided to let Dave enjoy the trucks by himself 😉
Dave arrived back after about an hour and we had lunch together, me a chicken tortilla salad and Dave scrambled eggs with a hot chocolate, just for a change!
The Cafe was decorated 60s style with lots of truck references, like petrol browsers and oil pumps (which pumped drinking water). Dave enjoyed taking my pic in the 60’s themed kitchen 😉
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After lunch we drove to Bluff, around 30km to the southernmost town on the South Island.
The rain had eased to a cloudy, but windy, day and we got so see the south point of the country, while being blown about a bit.
On the way back to Invercargill for our afternoon nap, we stopped at the cemetery and found Bert Munro’s grave.
Holidays should definitely include afternoon naps don’t you agree?
Last night we returned to Bluff for dinner at the ‘Oyster Cove’ Restaurant. By now the clouds had dissipated and the sun was shining brightly. What a lovely spot to enjoy New Year’s Eve. The food wasn’t wonderful, though not bad either, but the view was simply amazing. The chowder was average, seemed to be cheesy and way too rich! (Cover photo)
We took some more photos in the same spot we had earlier, but this time with sunshine. Then we headed back to Invercargill to buy some great NZ ice cream from the supermarket for dessert and were back at the B&B by 10 pm, I didn’t even stay awake for midnight!
Today we head off to Queenstown, Dave is already ready and I’m not even showered, so best go – have a great New Year everyone 🙂
Also missed Bluff Oysters – will definitely have to return to NZ. Your fellow obsessive traveller is enjoying planning 2018 travel…I am sure you will have some ideas for me. Love the 60’s kitchen shot Sara.