Tuesday 26 January - Australia - was the day we officially finished out tour. So after breaky we said goodbye to all our tour friends & jumped on the motel shuttle bus to take us to the pick up our hire car.
We were on our way to Dunedin by 10.15. we stopped at Timaru for lunch and Omaru for an ice cream for afternoon tea. We got into Dunedin at 4.45 but our Nav man led us on a wild goose chase and we eventually arrived at our motel at 5.30. After settling in to our lovely studio room with a massive spa bath. we wandered up to Dunedin garden shops for tea at a lovely Italian restaurant called Filadelfias - had a very nice pizza.
Here a re a few of the sights of Dunedin we visited during our time there. Dunedin Railway station - the 2nd most photographed building int he Southern Hemisphere. We had to tour The cadbury chocolate factory. And we were excited to find a lone piper outside the Scottish shop.
Just down from our motel was a Church of Christ building, but someone had removed the last letter so it became the Church of Chris.
One of the reason we chose to do extra days on our own in NZ was to visit some of the places that were part of my fathers life. Dad born in Bluff but grew up in Port Chalmers with the Flynn family. I always thought that Bobby Flynn was dads cousin. This was the Flynn's family home.
We had a good wander around the Otago Harbour at Port Chalmers. we even saw a cruise ship that had docked for the day. I spent a bit of time talking to a local wharfie who was fishing on his day off just up form where the anchor in our photos was. He told me a bit about the original refrigerated containers.
We visited the Port Chalmers Museum to see if they had any more info on dad than what we knew but they didn't really. I did however update their computer records of dad's life and I am now listed as a contact person.
We did a bit of sight seeing in Dunedin when we got back from Port Chalmers. After dinner Haylee ran a bath in the spa bath but didn't' tell me she has put bubble bath in it, so when I got in the bath and turned on the spa the bubbles were enormous, you can barely see me lying on the bath. I rally had to coax Haylee into coming in an taking a piccy. It was a very relaxing end to a great day.
We left our motel at 10am after a bit of a sleep in. And headed to the Dunedin Chinese garden b4 the next part of our journey.
The Chinese gardens in Dunedin are really lovely. Not too big and you can see most of the garden from every point.
We drove to Invercargill after we left the gardens with a couple of stops on the way. Including lunch at Milton (Subway) and Gore. We arrived mid afternoon at Invercargil and easily found our way to Marje & Roy's home. Marje has been a craft forum friend and great support & encouragement to me for about 5 years but we have never met.Marje gave us a very quick tour around town. Including a trip to the museum to see if they could help with a photo that I had bought over with me, Roy had recognised it as the Old Bluff School, they had no record of the photo & suggested I checked with Rhonda at the Bluff Museum (we were heading there the next day).
Another place Marje took us to was Queens gardens. Was a lovely garden with all sorts of different areas for different purposes. It has the most amazing playground. Here we found a wheelchair swing , we had never seen one of these b4 but how fabulous is it.
These two bronze statues greeted us when we entered Queens park.
We were told by Phil on our tour that we had to visit the fastest Indian while we were in Invercargil - so these last 2 pics are for you Phil
Bluff was another important part of our trip as dad was born in Bluff. We went to the museum with a photo of the old Bluff school reunion that grandma was in, but as they were a maritime museum she was unable to help. She did however have a book with the same photo in it but it had no names.
The links at sterling Point, Bluff, in white and the other side of the links in Brown at Stewart. These link Stewart island to the main land.
Sign post at sterling Point.
Sterling Point, Bluff, the most southern point of NZ.
Beautiful Stewart Island. This is where dads family originate from, so was another important part of our trip. (Blogger just ate two of my photos so I will have to post them on a new post).
While we were on Stewart Island we went on the underwater cruise, this was quite amazing. We were in a glass sided boat and could see all the fish, seaweed and marine life. Part way through our cruise a pod of dolphins decided to join us. Haylee & I went up stair to get better pictures of them. Just love the way they play with the boat, racing it and darting in & out.
Marje & Roy Bremer and their doggy buddy. we stayed with at their home at Invercargill for two nights. They were great host and I am sopleased I finally got to meet them.
We left Invercargill to fly to Christchurch at 11.30 Saturday 30th January. From Christchurch home to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney around 4.20 and were home in Nowra at 7.35.
I loved our holiday and would go back in a heart beat BUT really there is no place like home. And our puppy was very happy to see us, this made it all the worth while coming home so did the home cooked roast lamb dinner Royce has waiting for us when we arrived home.
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