Going To NZ part thirteen (Going to Invercargill)

Hmm.

Milford sound over, we decided to head for the City of Invercargill (apparently the 'lowest' city in the world; I couldn't wait to get dizzy) via Manapouri. The drive would take us back past Te Anau Downs, Te Anau and finally Manapouri, settled next to Lake Manapouri. Unfortunately, there was a disagreement between my mum and dad when we reached Manapouri, and I was forced to sit and tolerate the noise (my brother was sleeping as usual) while both of them rambled on at each other.

We went on past Manapouri to Blackmount, Clifden, Tuatapere, Pahia, Riverton and finally Invercargill. I remember we reached Invers (as per one curious NZlander who asked us about our travels) at about 3 in the afternoon and we didn't really go around town, just the areas near the New World supermart. We also decided to visit the lowest point of the South Island mainland: Bluff.

Bluff was a bit of land which was really a hill stuck atop a spit (land formation sticking out into the sea), and the view of the sun setting from there was spectacular. The journey involved driving for half an hour, and meeting some crazy people (yeah, this lady who had a twitching head and troublesome teenager who literally stuck his head into our car). And 'attractions' signboards leading to cemeteries. Spooky.

Dinner was supposed to be an interesting, 'home'-cooked affair.

We settled down at the hotel, and to my mother's utter delight, there were some glass bowls and cookware to stir up some dinner. With the lamb meat and potatoes, carrots, spices and 'special sauce' from the supermart, we had dinner ready and the table was laden.

As we sat down to eat, (I'm not making this up) the glass bowl holding our stew just crumbled before our eyes, leaving a mess on the table. Shrieking once more about the incompetence about the things and people around her, we cleaned up and managed to salvage most of the stew, after trying to ignore my mother's rantings.

Sigh. Invers, what a low, crazy city that night.

Cheers,

Crawldaddy