Southern scenic route

On Monday morning we woke to torrential rain. It was ironic that this was the forecast rain we’d been trying to avoid for the weekend and now that we had no time left in the room, the rain was pouring down. Our first thought was to Laura and Martin on the trail. They’d be drenched on their walk to the next hut. And on their next day, snow was forecast. We know that Andy and Ryan from Zephyrus are on also the trail. You never know, perhaps it was a little different where they were.

We had to move on so after vacating the room and having a late breakfast we headed into town and watched the impressive Shadowlands movie. It was filmed over 10 years inspired by a local helicopter pilot and filmed in a cinema he’d built in town. It’s the only place the movie is shown and was a great experience.

After the movie we had to dash back to the car to minimize the drenching. We decided to head down the southern scenic route and see what would happen. Perhaps away from the mountains things would be better.

As we approach Tuatapere the weather did clear. We stopped to see the limestone caves/tunnel in the area. It was a self guide/crawl through a 300m underground limestone tunnel. It was a little harder to navigate than we were prepared for so we only made it as far as the second entrance. The way onward was down a very tight squeeze which we passed on and headed back.

Nearby was the Clifden suspension bridge (British engineers will appreciate the pun) which we stopped by to look at and take a few photos. It is now fallen into disuse but at one point it was the longest suspension bridge in the country.

The rain caught up with us here so we pressed on to Tuatapere to see if it was worth staying. The accommodation was basic but cheap. While visiting one place in town someone in the kitchen gave us the warning that a sheep shearing party was staying there and were extremely rowdy at night. Inquiring further it was confirmed this was due to drink and partying not their bringing their work home with them.

The town highlight was the store labeled the ‘sausage capital of NZ’. It won a national sausage competition three years in a row a while back. It’s changed owners since but the recipe is still in use. We used up whole minutes visiting the shop and buying some sausages. We were done with Tuatapere.

With the rain having fully overtaken us we pressed on along the scenic route. We stopped off at a couple of view points along the way. Helen remained in the car while I ran out to take a picture and ran back wet.

We stopped off at Riverton which may have been a quaint seaside village but in the torrential rain it just felt grim. We kept going.

We decided to stop outside Invercargill. It offered the possibility of doing things inside. We found a place to stay and settled in. Having skipped lunch we decided to eat out followed by the cinema. After our early dinner the rain found a way to fall down with greater density. The curb was a small stream which we had to leap over to get in the car. We abandoned the thought of the movie and headed back to our room for the evening.

This morning it’s still raining but not as bad. Off to breakfast and to decide what to do today.