Day 10. Invercargill

On the morning of February 10, I decided not to go to Milford Sound for a third time and instead headed for the southern coast of New Zealand's South Island, to Invercargill. About 70 km from Manapouri, the mountain scenery ended and open plains began. When I reached the ocean coast, I found unusual trees growing almost sideways. This is because strong winds often blow in from the ocean, bending them throughout their whole lives and giving them that shape.

And it was windy that day as well. In general, if you are going to New Zealand, buy yourself a good windproof jacket with a hood, and ideally one that is waterproof too. I was lucky on this trip: it rained only on one or two days, but there were three to five windy days.

I did not like the coast in this part of the island. It felt too dirty. The waves washed up coffee-colored foam, pieces of seaweed that looked rubbery, and chunks of driftwood.

In one place I found a beautiful shoreline, but it was actually a lagoon. There was less wind there, and the coast was arranged like a beach, though nobody was swimming at that time.

After that I drove to Bluff Peninsula. There is a viewpoint there where you can climb up and look around. After visiting it, I made a mistake: as I was leaving, I noticed a sign for a trail leading to another viewpoint with a walking time of 25 minutes. Without thinking, I followed it. Since the trail ran through tall bushes, I could not tell how far I still had to go, and after a while it even started descending, so I began to doubt whether it was worth continuing, especially since I would still have to come back and that would definitely be harder uphill. Anyway, after 25 minutes I ended up on a beautiful stretch of coast.

After taking photos, I headed back, and that was when I had to climb uphill for about 45 minutes. It was exhausting.

Overall, I liked the trip, especially considering that while I was on this coast, the weather back where I had come from, and where I returned in the evening, was bad.

There are benefits to not having an overly rigid travel plan: you can adjust for the weather and go where it is better. For that, you need a good weather forecast app. You can read about this and many other details of traveling in New Zealand and beyond in my first post about this trip.