Well, one end of New Zealand anyway. Today I made a foray to Bluff, the southernmost town in New Zealand. I visited Stirling Point, where State Highway 1, the main road that goes the full length of New Zealand (except for Cook Strait, naturally) starts or ends, depending on your viewpoint.
You can read more about Bluff
here. It was settled by Europeans in 1824, making it one of the country's oldest permanent towns.
The coastline here is quite rugged, with lots of rocks and kelp.
A key feature of Stirling Point is a new chain link sculpture which illustrates the mythological link between the canoe of Maui, Te Waka a Maui (the South Island) and its anchor Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui (Stewart Island). An identical chain link is attached to Stewart Island.
Bluff is about 30km from Invercargill. The surrounding landscape is all flat, apart from Bluff Hill which is an extinct volcano, 265 metres (870 ft) high. There is logging on the hill, which makes this view over the town and port look particularly unattractive.
This is the start of the spiral walkway leading up to the lookout.
Looking back at the peninsula and towards Invercargill. That's my little red VW Golf in the parking lot. The road up here is steep, 2nd gear to come up and go down.
2 comments:
I've got a pic of that same sign - I'm guessing it's very well photographed!
Please email me at mlemo@xtra.co.nz. I have two quilts to send you.
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