Invercargill

We are in Invercargill, the home of my birthplace. It has been fantastic catching up with all the family and we are having a great time, so much so I have neglected my blog. We are staying at Shona's house. Her husband, Richard has bought the local pub and is trying to resurrect it together with their daughter. Shona has a huge Christmas Shop which is at the back of their property. It is all go and really exciting. I am at Mavis' at the moment and am using her computer to write this blog. A great laptop and excellent internet service so I am very appreciative. We are also catching up with all the new pets, a puppy and two kittens so far - very cute.
Invercargill is still very much the same but the area looks so much better in the sunshine. The last two trips were made during winter time.
On the way from Catlins we visited Slope Point which is actually the most southerly point in the South Island. It was a glorious day, thank goodness because by the shape of all the trees there is often a very fierce gale blowing there.
We had lunch at Queen's Park where we saw the largest and most colourful rhododendrons I have ever seen. Today we went to look at Haye's Hardware Store, which has an amazing array of tools and reportedly has the longest wall of tools on display. Also at the store are Burt Monro's two Indian motorcycles. He won the World's Fastest Indian race in 1967 in America with an average speed of 183.586 mph and his record has never been beaten. He was in his sixties and had a heart condition when he competed in this race. A film, called The World's Fastest Indian, staring Sir Anthony Hopkins, was made a couple of years ago. We then went out to Oreti Beach to see the place where he used to compete in local races.
During the next few days as well as spending lots of lovely time with the family, we are also going to visit all the local places so hopefully I will have some photos of the place soon.