Invercargill

Our bus left Queenstown fairly early the next morning and we were up and excited to be moving on. We had a WWOOFing host lined up in Invercargill and were optimistic even though we had been warned Invercargill was a bit of a dud. Well, we thought, almost anyplace is going to be a bit boring compared to Queenstown! But, as we were about to get on the bus I checked my email and to my dismay found an email from our WWOOFing host that the wife was feeling unwell so they might not be able to host us. Having already paid for the bus and loaded our luggage, we went ahead and headed to Invercargill hoping for the best. Sadly though, the screwing of the scrum by our host was only a prelude to the myriad of disappointments that characterized Invercargill.

We arrived in Invercargill and confirmed our host-less-ness at the iSite (the NZ tourism center located in most towns of a size). We headed towards the Kackling Kea Backpackers per recommendation and a desire to get away from large backpackers such as Nomads in QT had been. After hauling our luggage for a solid mile and discovering one of my wheels on my main suitcase was trying valiantly to surrender, I was inclined to be in a sour mood. The weather wasn’t helping either with 80kph wind gusts, grey skies, and the occasional drizzle nor the fact that we discovered our backpackers to be in an ‘insalubrious area’ (how the guidebook described it and I must concur). However, Jessie cleverly volunteered to the woman checking us in that we would be glad to exchange work for accommodation... which is how we found ourselves trying to wrestle a garden that had been wild for several years back into resembling disciplined and sleeping in the garage (rhymes with carriage!) room. We weeded, cut deadheads, gave grass plants a haircut, turned 1 bush into 2 bushes several times, turned several bushes into the trees they should have been, and pulled out more weeds then there were real plants remaining. Seeing our effort make such a difference was actually extremely rewarding and turned out to be one of my two favorite things about Invercargill. Aside from gardening that first day, we went grocery shopping and I discovered the magic of Hokey Pokey candy. I’m even sure how to describe its deliciousness…it’s a confection of golden syrup and chocolate coating and rivaled Tim Tams in addicatability. For this shopping trip I donned my thermal long sleeved shirt, red fuzzy jacket, rain jacket/wind breaker, gloves, scarf, and beanie and was still uncomfortable with the wind and temperature.

The next day we attempted to amuse ourselves by following the Invercargill Heritage Trail. What a bust…if my town’s heritage was so insipid I wouldn’t try to pony it up to anyone, much less tourists. There were 2 pretty churches though to be fair. We distracted ourselves by indulging in the $9.99/kilo Confectionary at CountDown grocery store (MORE hokey pokey!), and meandered towards the iSite center in the guise of checking out the ‘historic’ water tower. The iSite center turned out to be a pleasant surprise with an art gallery, natural history museum and Tuataras tucked away. I spent a good portion of my afternoon being swept off my feet by the romance of Henry and Mildred the Tuatara’s. Henry was a mean ole bastard until they noticed that he had anal cancer and removed the tumor and BAM! He apologized to Mildred for biting off the tip of her tail by impregnating her so Henry became a Daddy for the very first time at the ripe old age of 111 (Mildred was 81). I watched the 15 minute movie on this about 3 times I was so enthralled…it was possibly the most entertaining thing in Invercargill. A close runner up was the paraphernalia all throughout the city about how part of “The World’s Fastest Indian” was filmed nearby….including the world famous “Bizarre Bar” courtesy of some crazy American in Montana of course.

Man…that’s about it for Invercargill. It’s truly the one place I visited in New Zealand that I have no desire to return to and would never live there. We caught a ride from a fellow American to Dunedin the next day after FINALLY getting a WWOOFing place lined up. Because it is edging into Fall/winter, most farms are slimming down on the extra help.