And then it rained!

And then it rained!

In fact it rained all night and it was still raining in the morning.  We didn’t feel like walking along the beach in the rain, so we decided to head for Gore instead.  The only bright spot of the day was when we stopped off at a 4Square and they gave us a scratch card; Diane won a beach bag!

Despite the rain, we really liked the campsite in Gore and would probably have stayed an extra night if it hadn’t still been raining.  It was in walking distance from the town centre, with big pitches well separated from each other.  The facilities looked like they’d been installed in the 1950’s by someone using the Reader’s Digest DIY Manual, but they were clean and functional.

We chose Gore because there were several indoor things to see – but by the morning the rain had stopped!  We visited the Gore Historical Museum – which looked like the pickings from several house clearances – and the Eastern Southland Gallery before driving north to Mandeville.  This is the home of the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre, which houses the largest collection of de Havilland aircraft in the southern hemisphere.  A lot of these aircraft are still in service, and they do offer flights.  Fortunately, it was too windy for them to fly today.

From there we made our way to Invercargill, the southernmost and westernmost city in NZ.  Once again, our campsite was in the city centre, and as the sun managed an appearance we set off to explore.  One of our best finds this afternoon was a real fishmongers; we dined on baked King salmon this evening.  It’s still very windy, and Ermintrude is swaying like the cross channel ferry, but tomorrow we hope to be able to get to the tip of South Island.