Arriving in Invercargill

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I'M NOW at Wellington Airport, having arrived a little after midnight. I've had a little bit of sleep. Anyway the sun's soon to rise here over Wellington Airport. This is my very brief stop on the North Island, extremely brief in fact. Now I'm heading towards the South Island to the far end down in Invercargill. I'm taking one of these planes. So I'll see you in Invercargill.

I've finally made it down to Invercargill. It was quite an expedition going across the Tasman this time, but I'm here now. Amazingly the weather's pretty good. It's a good 22 to 23 degrees which for where I live is not bad for the middle of winter, but for here this is pretty amazing weather by any standards, just about a heatwave. I'm walking through Queens Park at the moment. I've never been here before. I did live here in Invercargill briefly when I had a job down here in my uni years. But for some reason I never visited this park. It is 80 hectares of absolutely amazing and stunning botanical gardens. I'm starting this trip by exploring this beautiful area and having a look around the city as well. Not much has changed here in 25 years since I left here but it's a very nice little spot.

One thing I don't get back home in Brisbane is deciduous trees. The winters there are too mild for them to grow, so for me it is really amazing being in a park like this where everything is deciduous. I imagine in the middle of winter when it will be very cold, this would all just be a stand of dead sticks pretty much. But we're well into spring and as you can see the foliage is really amazing. Some of the locals I have been talking to tell me there has been a lot of rain here lately and this sunshine is a very nice break from it. They think I brought the weather with me. All the rain has made everything incredibly green. This is a nice change because back at home there hasn't been any rain for a very long time and everything is so brown there. Look at the green grass here. It's pretty amazing.

When you're photographing unfamiliar environments away from home its always good to look for things you wouldn't normally see. I don't know how it would come out on this gopro, but the sun is shining right through the leaves here. I'm getting some pretty good pictures on this. I'll be very keen to see how they turn out. I don't get this sort of foliage back home. I'm only here this afternoon. I've got an early start tomorrow, so I've got to make the most of it here.

Well I've found the Burt Munro memorial sculpture. Burt was from here in Invercargill and lived here all his life. He was quite an eccentric fellow. I don't know much about motorbikes but apparently this type, the Indian, this is the fastest one that has ever been. Back in the 1960s he broke the world record which remains to this day. So they built this little memorial sculpture for him. He was certainly one of the cultural characters here. Another colourful character here is the current mayor, Tim Shadbolt. He's a former comedian, he's apparently been mayor here for the longest ever in New Zealand history. He must be doing a pretty good job as he's just been re-elected. He's a little bit eccentric too, he apparently goes riding to work on a little kid's scooter. That's quite amusing. Anyway, this is the Bert Munro sculpture.

Well I've now reached the end of Queens Park and just about to have a look around a bit more of the city centre. As you can see there isn't much to see. It's been a very nice walk through the gardens, and a very nice way to start this trip. I will be seeing a huge amount of native vegetation and birds over the next few days. This has been a lot of exotic deciduous trees and nice environment which has been a nice break from the long journey over.