Distance travelled 169 Kms. I don’t think either of us was too sure what today would bring. Information was scarce. The weather was chilly and overcast with a few showers. We were not inspired. Today would be a day of finding roads less travelled and see what came. We knew we wanted to go to Bluff for Debbie has not been. I have been a few times on motorcycle trips and also into the harbour on ships way back in the 80’s to load meat from the freezer works for Black Sea Russia. I wanted to go and see Burt Munros speed record bike. It is on display in a hardware store in Invercargill. Yes, a hardware store. Our route took us through the town of Tuatapere reputed to be the home of the New Zealand Sausage. Sausages were particularly scarce here it would seem. The road picks its way along the coast, undulating through farmlands but rather non descript. Until we came to a brown sign pointing down to Gemstone Beach near a small settlement called Orepuki. Well what a little gem of a find this was. The beach was littered with highly polished stones of all shapes and sizes and colours. Debbie simply had to start combing the beach for little stones, some not so little to take home. The road meanders east through the town of Riverton which seemed deserted as we passed through. This is a place of some repute for its history for the indigenous Maori is one of some importance. The time was passing so we decided to motor to Bluff to view the famous landmark sign, get the obligatory photo and head to Invercargill to find the hardware store of E.Hayes, home of some rare motorcycling history. As last nights camp was out in the boondocks we decided to find a holiday camp for the night to get a shower, empty our rubbish and plug the van in to the power socket to recharge the batteries. Today had some rather good surprises. For me the motorcycling memorabilia in the hardware store was simply magic. For there was not just Bert Munro’s famous land speed motorcycle made famous in the movie with Anthony Hopkins. There are other machines of note. Just sat in a hardware store. You need to visit it. Here are todays photos.
Woodend Wanderer 