Blah Blah Bliss: Day 17 Thursday (18/08/2011)

Such a bad nights sleep. I'm sick of the back dining area bed. So uncomfortable, full of bumps and ridges where all the bits of cushions join. Back to the bed over the cab tonight Ian!

Toast and tea for breaky, a quick shampoo for me, organise ourselves and check out of the park just before 10am. Heading to Invercargill today having no idea what to expect. The first part of our trip was white snow everywhere, mountains, fields, blue lakes, blue sky, so stark and spectacularly beautiful. We stopped several times for photos, and passed through several small towns (some of them just dots on the map) until we arrived at Five Rivers Station Cafe. This was the turn-off to Milford Sound and we had stopped here on our last trip. It hadn't changed a bit in that time. It was 11:40am, close enough to lunch time for us to get a pie each, about the cheapest thing on the menu for $NZ5. If you added gravy and mashed potato to your pie, it pushed the price up to a whopping $NZ14! No thanks. Or you could get a Five Rivers Station burger for a measly $NZ25. What the? Do people regularly pay these prices? Anyway, back to the pies. Ian tried the Venison which he said he liked, and I had the Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom. Not a good choice. What was the meat I was eating? Not chicken, but maybe big chunks of bacon? So much bacon it should have been called the Old Pig Pie. Yuk! The top of the pie pastry was its ONLY redeeming feature as it was nice and flaky with grilled cheese on top, and for that the total score was 2 1/2 out of 10!!! We got take-away coffee and left the snow behind us. The countryside became less and less snow-covered until it was once again green grassy pastures filled with pregnant ewes or ewes with their newborn lambies.

We arrived at Invercargill at about 2:30pm and we spotted a Countdown store straight away. We bought milk, chicken, mixed nuts, onions and juice. We drove through Invercargills main streets from one side to the other. Big wide streets that seemed to be struggling to come to terms with life in the present. A lot of the buildings looked like they were in a time warp from about fifty years ago. On the other side of town we spotted a Pak-n-Save so we pulled in to get yoghurt and red wine. We couldn't get the Clearwater yoghurt here either and it also seemed strange that in both these large supermarkets there was no wine section as had been available in every other town. It was weird, but this town was giving me a creepy feeling, spiritually, and before I said anything Ian also remarked that he felt something odd about the town too. Let's get outta here and go straight to Bluff!

Bluff; the furthest southern point of New Zealand's south island (excluding Stewart Island); 22kms away and famous for its oysters. But not for us. Oyster season was over! Boo hoo! So we booked into the towns small camper park operated by the honesty system at $NZ38 per night with power and free washing machines. A little expensive for a place like this I thought, but it was well equipped with showers, toilets and kitchen facilities. We did our washing and hung it in the wind, then off to try the chips and blue cod (which is also supposed to be the 'best in the world'?) It was okay. Maybe I have nothing to compare it with or maybe I'm not a fish connoisseur. I sure wouldn't come back to Bluff just for the fish n' chips or the scenery! Interesting, but I'll feel happier back on the road again tomorrow. This place is depressing! I forgot to mention the extremely large Masonic Hall at Invercargill!!!