Since Klaus, Mark and I spent an extra two days in Te Anau we had to join a new Stray group to go to Invercargill. This group was travelling in a van with Catherine as their driver. The new companions were; an Irish / British couple, a British middle aged man and a German i-don’t-know-what-to-call-her in her mid-thirties. The couple were nice and friendly, the British man was too quiet to form an opinion about, and the German was funny in a stupid way. The German, Heidi, reminded me of one of my acquaintances in Dublin who happens to have a fixation with the Germans. The mannerisms and character of Heidi so closely resembled my friend's that I could predict her actions.

The only two landmarks I remember in Invercargill are the Tuatara Backpackers sign and the statue of whoever acting as a roundabout in the main street. Despite having a humungous reminder of the Tuatara I managed to forget to go and see this ancient reptile housed in the Invercargill museum.

On the first of September we travelled from Invercargill to Dunedin. In the morning I woke up early to say goodbye to Mark and Klaus who were leaving our group to catch the ferry to Steward Island. These were the two best buddies I made on the trip and the only people I spent more than a few hours with.

After a quick breakfast and a morning stroll around the city we left to Dunedin. The day was quite bland and uneventful. We stopped to explore a small cave, saw a petrified forest and tried our luck at a yellow eyed penguin hide, but there were no penguins. I spent the trip alternating between looking out of the window and reading Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, the new book I got from the Invercargill's bookshop whose anorexic attendant didn't know what a copybook was.

We arrived in Dunedin at about 6pm, just in time for the Speight's brewery tour. The tour was ok, although nothing special. You see the usual brewery stuff so if you've been on a beer tour before this isn't very different. The best part of these tours is always the beer sampling at the end. Unfortunately we were only left with an effective quarter of an hour from the planned half hour to sample 7 different brews. Of course, I tried to make the best out of it and reclaim the entry cost in beer but even drinking very fast 15 minutes is a short time. At least I tasted all 7 and went half way through the second round.

The hostel we were going to stay at didn't have any rooms available so instead they offered us a twin room in their hotel. I ended up with Heidi in the twin room, and after I returned from the brewery tour I find a bottle of wine and some fancy wrapped nachos on the sideboard table. She got these for us to divide, so after a long shower I hopped in bed and we spent the rest of the night watching Oceans 12, drinking wine and eating nachos. My initial impression of her changed just enough to drink half the bottle of wine before falling asleep.

View the complete Invercargill to Dunedin Gallery here

Coming next: Dunedin Penguin City