Browns & Invercargill

Catch-up

From the Matangi Station Rally in Little Valley near Alexandra, we headed south, out of Central and into Southland via Raes Junction for a change. We had an appointment the next day with a company in Browns, Harper Engineering, who specialize in building very flash horse floats. They also do RV work and repairs, especially RVs with slide-outs. We needed a little bit of maintenance done on our slide-out. 

Sunset- New River Estuary, Invercargill

I wonder how many know where Browns is, or even know that there is a place called Browns? It's a tiny wee village on SH96 between Mataura/Gore & Winton. We know it well because it's just eight kilometres from Winton where our Southland family live and we pass through it regularly if we are coming from the east to visit them. 

But this time our family are away in Christchurch, where they'd been since before Christmas and where we'd caught up with them over the holiday period. Not that we needed to stay with them this time because we had a much closer contact where we could stay. At the former Browns Hotel. Which is just across the road from Harpers. 

The old Browns Hotel has been purchased by a couple that many NZMCA members will know well. Fay & Murray Simpson were custodians of the NZMCA Weedons Park in Christchurch for many years. They have now shifted to Browns after purchasing the hotel which they are renovating and turning into their home and a POP (park over property). 

And what a great POP it will be too, there's a large area at the back to park and they are turning the old public bar into an comfortable area for campers to meet & enjoy Happy Hour. The bar is being left with many of the original features & furniture and will be a welcome retreat from the cooler climate of Southland. 

Murray & Fay have done a magic job of renovating and reconfiguring the inside of the old hotel and I'm sure, once they are open, this will be a very popular POP to stay at in Southland. Good luck guys and we look forward to checking back in when we're next down south. 

In true Southland summer style, the weather turned to custard the day after we arrived at Browns, and it didn't get much better for the next two weeks! With the job finished at Harpers & with the family still away, we decided to head into Invercargill and stay at the newly opened NZMCA Park on Bond Street.

It's a large park with hard stand & grassed areas out in the open and in under the trees. Once the plantings around the outside mature and the grass grows it'll be a welcome retreat for members. It's also very central with the city centre close by, Sandy Point Domain, the Bluff highway and Oreti Beach not too far away either. 

The park's  'piece de resistance' has to be the information & sign in shed. It's a flybridge from an old Sanfords fishing trawler surrounded by the shells of the locally harvested delicacy; the Bluff oyster. I think there's a bit of competition going on between some of the NZMCA Branches as to who can supply the whackiest or most unusual park shed, we've seen a few beauties on our travels.

The park also backs on to the New River Estuary. How spoilt are we with this view of the estuary and sunset over the back fence.

With appalling weather (gale force winds & rain) and not much else to do but sit it out, we, along with several dozen other members, spent the next week parked up waiting for a break in the weather. Although a few of our neighbours came & went, travellers on a tighter time schedule than those of us that have no plans from one day to the next. The only good thing the weather gave us were some amazing sunrises and some spectacular sunsets.

Just through the gate in the back fence is the historic Stead Street Wharf. The first jetty was built in 1860 to serve the newly established township. A replica of Lady Barkly, New Zealand's first steam powered locomotive & the Southern Light fishing cutter, both part of the old working wharf, are on display in the reserve.

Access to the Invercargill Estuary Walkway/Boardwalk & Cycle Track is from the Stead Street Wharf or further down Bond Street, both very convenient for members staying in the park. 

The bird life in and around the estuary is fantastic too. A flock of Royal Spoonbills were feeding in the tidal stream right below the wharf, herons, godwits & oystercatchers just a little further on. 

And if you're in the park when an aurora is forecast, you couldn't be in a better place to see and photograph the Southern Lights. The Stead Street road bridge is one of the top spots to shoot the aurora from and especially if the tide is in. The water provides the perfect reflection of the Aurora Australis which would be playing directly down the harbour on the horizon.

Of course you have to have a clear night & a forecast aurora to strike it lucky. All I got was heavy cloud with lots of opportunities to shoot the sunset. I'm not complaining but heck, I would have given my eye teeth....

The old wharf pilings made perfect foreground subjects to shoot the sunsets.

The family came home to Winton but we'd gotten used to our new parking space & they were coming and going, catching up on everything themselves after being away from home for over four weeks so we left them to it, visited for dinner a couple of times and also saw them when they came into the city on errands. 

This one looks like a lightening bolt but it's the edge of the cloud

The weather slowly came right, right in that it rained every second day instead of every day but it was still very cold with a brisk southerly wind blowing much of the time. I don't think we've had our diesel heater on so many times during January then we did this year. 

I recall answering a query on Facebook before Christmas from some North Island visitors regarding what to wear during summer in Southland. I answered, tongue in cheek but truthfully, "One January in Southland I wore summer clothes for 3 days only" 

Make that two Januaries now!