Talking Toilets At The End of South Island.

INVERCARGILL. 20 NOVEMBER 2024.

Heavy rain is forecast so Rosie tries to put a washing line up at the front of the chalet. Immediately, the owner races round on her golf cart. Coincidence or is she spying on a camera?

We drive down to Bluff and on to Sterling Point. It starts to rain heavily and we’re the only car in the car park. It stops and, almost miraculously, 3 minibuses of schoolchildren arrive. Bang goes our photo opportunity. But, one of the teachers offers to take a photo after the children started to reboard.

There’s a public toilet, of course. Usually, in places like this, it’s a hole in the ground but this time it’s different. It talks to you when you walk in and then plays soothing music. For Paul it was Mona Lisa! Envigorated he climbed to the top of the vowing point. Bad move because it starts to hail stone.

We have coffee in the general store in Bluff. It has many roles as well as a coffee shop. Bizarrely, it’s also an estate agent.

We call in at Queen’s Park. There’s an aviary, a hot house of plants and an animal enclosure. There are reptiles who are directly descended from the dinosaur age. One of them is called Mildred and is believed to be over 76 years old.

We drive across the bridge to the peninsula. We park up and take a 40 minute walk to Daffodil Bay, no sign of any daffodils when we arrived. Obviously, it was another 40 minutes back to the car.

Finally, we drive back to the campsite and enjoy dinner in the chalet.