Seeing as I have finally mastered the embedding of my own maps from google thought I would start this post with a map of the Milford Road we travelled 2 days ago. The road has lots of beech forest on both sides of the road, making seeing a trial – thankfully not too many tourists when we rode but have to imagine that this is not the norm for this road.
Woke on Wednesday morning to another foggy start. I think this is the norm for this time of year. We did a brief detour to Manapouri but as the power station is not open (hasn’t been in use for over 15 months – what’s going on there??) we decided not to spend the $460 to do a cruise around Doubtful Sound. Seen one Sound, seen them all? Probably not and I hope this isn’t something we come to regret later on. Anyway decided to head down the road and find the coast. Travelled through some very sorry little towns. Rural NZ is not in a good way. Tuatapere? Really? Derelict houses and businesses to the point where I was getting angry that there has been so little care to support rural communities over a long period of time.
Opekuri is a one street village and these are the main buildings on it. While it is photographic it also tells us a sad tale of neglect and of hope lost.
Headed a few kms down the road to Monkey Island – the place where the Takitimu is said to have beached and a popular campervan stop. The wind was freezing and while we had initially decided to stay there the cold breeze, straight of the southern ocean proved too much and we eventually headed to Riverton.
Told you I had it sorted but actually we went via Tuatapere, another desolate story although not as bad as Opekuri.
Above photos are of our brief stay at Monkey Island. You can walk out to it at low tide and gather mussels. Funnily enough, I was not inclined to climb into that water..
On to today. We rode to Bluff (yes I have to do another map!)
Easy road and fairly uneventful. Had a great lunch of blue cod and chips at Bluff beside the port, meandered around the Watchman’s Tower at Stirling Point, didn’t get the photo of us at the road signs because it was a bit further over the hill, and rode back to Invercargill to visit the Hammer Hardware to see the Burt Munro exhibition. What a surprise that was!
It was amazing. We must have spent nearly 2 hours there, talking to Neville Hayes and viewing his brilliant collection of classic motorbikes and cars. Saw the green car from ‘The Fastest Indian” movie as well as the real bikes and memorabilia. This is well worth a visit if you are down this way. Wanted to go out to Oreti Beach but we ran out of time. Thinking about coming back for the annual Burt Munro Challenge in November. The following photos tell their own story…
and now for the real thing…
hartsintheredgoldcirrus 