wned it and when the parents died it was given to the people of Invercargill. The house has an art gallery. The rhododendrons and azaleas were in full bloom and were magnificent. The garden was beautiful and contained formal gardens as well as walks in native woods. The art gallery was free and there was also free tea and coffee in one of the back rooms. There was a wide range of paintings on display, mostly NZ artists. We were very impressed.
We made another trip to Bluff, the port from where we left to go to Stewart Island. Bluff is the oldest European town in NZ, having been settled continuously since 1824. Bluff is also the home of the signpost at Stirling Point which is known as the ‘lands end’ to Cape Reinga, but of course we now know that the most so
uthern point is Slope Point, i.e. if you exclude Stewart Island and the many island below that.
There is also a huge chain link sculpture which symbolises the Maori legend, where the SI is the canoe (waka) of Maui and Stewart Island is the anchor. Another chain link sculpture, which represents the end of the chain is on Stewart Island.
When the frozen meat industry in NZ was in full swing, the Bluff wharves contained sophisticated machinery to load the meat onto ships which then took the meat to the UK, that is, before the UK became part of the European Market during the early 1970’s. Now Bluff is a very forlorn looking port with many empty commercial buildings and shops and lots of houses for sales.
It does have two very good cafes at the Stirling Point and we enjoyed another meal of blue cod (three in 24 hours) and looked out over a very peaceful sea. Blue cod is the main fish that is caught here and it is certainly superior to most other fish I have tasted. It is also very fresh.
We then walked off our meal by going for a long walk, some of it straight uphill, through the bush. This is a podocarp forest, which I have learnt is a prehistoric forest and there is not much of it left due to the industrious efforts of settlers from the UK. Southland has most of the remaining podocarp forest.
Finally we drove up to the top of Bluff Hill (we could have walked up but felt lazy). There was a gale blowing but we managed to get a very good view in all directions – Stewart Island, all the other islands, the beaches, estuaries, and the mountains in the background. I am amazed at the flatness of the Southland plains – one small tidal wave and the lot will be gone! Bluff Hill is called Matupohue and is a sacred place because a chief is 
buried there. We travelled with Mavis to Colac Bay (Oraka) to look at the beach where we spent many holidays. The camping ground has been sub divided but the shop 
and tea rooms (now an upmarket restaurant) are still there. A picturesque toilet blocks stand where the camping ground used to be. The overgrown Maori cemetery has now been cleared and the old school is a Marae. I used to be very scared of the cemetery as I was told there were ghosts there. We had lunch in one of the few remaining pubs in Riverton. We also went to Tuatapere, the last outpost before the mountains, and Ohai and Nightcaps which are ghost towns now. They used to be thriving coal mines before the government decided that a clean air policy was needed in NZ. 
The views of the coast were spectacular and the rolling green hills very beautiful. The mountains were covered in cloud which was a pity. 
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