Invercargill

When people ask where you are going, and you say Invercargill, they usually ask “what is in Invercargill?” The honest answer is not much. However that ended up being part of its charm, and making it the perfect place to stop over after a week in the massively touristy Queenstown.

Invercargill is the southernmost city in New Zealand, and just happens to be home to the World’s Fastest Indian. (Well, Burt Munro is from about 20k north of here) The bike was purchased by E. Hayes and is now housed with a nice collection of other antique motorcycles and cars in a hardware store… not a display room owned and neighboring a hardware store… IN the hardware store. You walk in the door and wonder if this place is really where you are supposed to be, but it is! Sprinkled throughout the store are bikes and display cases with antiques all related to mechanics and metal machining. (One of the antique Chevys they have was actually purchased in Washington!)

Invercargill is also home to a pretty nice FREE art and history museum. They have a couple of halls with changing exhibits as well as Maori art, housewares and clothing from the Victorian period, and a tuatara breeding program! Henry (their oldest) is 115 years old!

There was also a history trail that you could walk or drive around town and the surrounding area. I did the town parts of it and it was cool to see the historical architecture and parks. It was actually more what I had imagined Christchurch would be…

Invercargill is definitely not a place you need to spend a lot of time visiting but I am glad I made a stop over here.

Next stop Dunedin!