Monday, February 14, 2011

Recreation

We have been here for a week now and have had a chance to explore a little of this lovely city. Invercargill is a city of friendly helpful people. The streets are wide, there is very little traffic, probably because of few people living here and there are parks throughout the city which are very well presented. There are walking and cycling tracks throughout and the shops are inviting.
We have managed a few cycle tracks over the last few days, not rreally mountain biking as the city is flat but really nice tracks amongst pine forest and along the lagoon adjoining the city. There is so much to do but have work for the next 3 days so maybe next weekend....

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Summer??

Is it still summer in the north? 
We have had to pull out layers of clothes that we only use in the winter in the north, not February!  Slippers, jerseys, the electric blanket has been used and we haven't used one of those for years...  Apparently we should have arrived 2 days earlier as Peter tells us they had summer here for the 2 days previous to our arrival.  

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Looks like we made it!


Today we arrived in Invercargill, well to Edel and Peter’s place where we have parked up for now. We have had a thoroughly enjoyable trip down with the South Island section beginning with a few days at Westport with Bruce, Megan and Porsha. 
We came down the West coast road and became fascinated with the bridges. All for a good reason, many of them were narrow (one way) and some were only marginally taller than our roof!  The west coast journey challenged us with tight corners; one 15km corner was almost too tight to get around. Warren feeling that the right front tyre was very close to the gutter on the wrong side of the road. Thanks goodness there is much less traffic down here and nothing coming the other way!  The west coast roads were narrower, windier and slower. Our gear shifting was at times challenging for both of us with many changes through windy and hilly roads. Sometimes the road was sealed only as wide as the width of our motorhome and with no shoulder to save any steering mistakes it made for intense concentration.  The scenery has been spectacular as always and enjoyed mostly by the passenger.
We stopped a night beside Lake Moeraki before going over the Hasst Pass to Arrowtown. We stayed there for 3 nights in a holiday park which proved very convenient for us to be able to spend time with Pauline, Gabby, Hannah and Robyn (Pauline’s mother in law) as well as with Rob, Tetli, Nic and Oscar.  We have seen managed to see all our family on our way down apart from Whitey, Warren’s son in law, who is away skiing in India for a month.
The two weeks has been very social, relaxed, we have had lovely weather but is fast drawing to an end. It is raining here today, although still warm.  Tomorrow we plan to explore our new surroundings before work starts on Tuesday…