Today on the plan was a little compromised by P!nk. I was supposed to have had two nights in Dunedin under my original plan, but as P!nk was playing a concert there last night a room was impossible to get, hence my staying at Curio Bay yesterday (which was an inspired choice by whoever found it). It left a day with very little in the plan, and subsequently there's not a lot to cover today.
After sitting by the French windows and watching the surf until it was too dark to see anything last night, I was awake at 06:00, and sat at the window watching it get slowly brighter with a cup of tea until I was again watching the surf. The wind had died down overnight, and the scale wasn't quite as great as yesterday, but it was still hypnotic. I could have sat there for hours.
All packed in the car by 08:30, I did sit an watch for a while longer before leaving at 09:30. There wasn't much distance to cover to Invercargill, and I didn't have much on my plan, so I made my leisurely way along the coast. A stop at Fortrose for a coffee, and then onto Bluff.
Bluff is the bottom end of State Highway 1, and it barely seems possible that I was at the top end of the same route at Cape Reigna forty days ago on day 22. Cape Reigna to Bluff is the Kiwi equivalent to Lands End to John O'Groats, and the mandatory signpost was there.
The difference between the two ends couldn't be more marked; Cape Reigna was glorious in it's isolation, with not a sign of habitation on the way up to the top of the Northland. In contrast, Bluff is an industrial town with all of the heavy trucks and hubbub you'd expect of that. I found my way to Stirling Point first, where the sign lives and there is a symbolic chain anchoring New Zealand in place. Then up to Bluff Hill Lookout for a panoramic view which was spoiled a bit by the industry.
As I'd been driving along this morning I'd been getting tantalising glimpses of snow covered mountains away to my right. As I drove back up SH1 (it felt all kinds of wrong to be heading in that direction!) to Invercargill they became a little closer, and I'm looking forward to heading that way tomorrow.
Into Invercargill very early, and I was able to check in. I then decided to have a walk into the city centre and an explore. The city centre is about a mile away from my accommodation, and I'm not a huge fan of cities and this one didn't have a lot going for it, so I found an Irish pub and had a couple of Guinnesses and an early dinner before returning to my accommodation at around 17:00.
Nothing else of note to report. The motel I'm staying is is my least favourite of the trip so far, but I'm only here for one night ...... I think I may have the first change that I'd make in hindsight to this trip where maybe I could have missed Invercargill and gone straight to Te Anau for an extra night in the mountains. But hey, I'm here and mountains are calling tomorrow.
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