Dec. 27

Surat Bay to Invercargill

More stops at the end of graveled roads. We walked across sheep pastures situated right off a beach, ending up at a hole in the earth with sea water crashing below. We walked on a boardwalk into marshland, and estuary deserted except for one shorebird picking his way along the mud.

We finally arrive in Invercargill, the southern-most city in New Zealand (with a population of about 50,000; city being a relative term).
Invercargill is the least-attractive city I've seen in New Zealand, and if it wasn't for the proximity to the Catlins and the further south Stewart Island, I'd advise avoiding it at all costs.
It reminds me more of the American midwest than anywhere else in NZ, an industrial town on a flat plain. Wide, empty streets lined with businesses that long ago lost any veneer of newness. Lonely litter blowing in the wind. It could just as easily been in central Kansas or Nebraska as in New Zealand.
We met a pair of college-age locals, back in town on holiday break. We talked about the state of their town, and one of them offered, "It used to be worse."
I decided that should be up on billboards as people drive into town.
Invercargill. It used to be worse.