New Zealand February 22 -

Sigh.

Kevin kept a list of what we did each day and the list for Sunday the 22 is so long. Nothing to do but start.

We had spent the night in Invercargill and so in the morning we did Invercargill stuff. We sought out E. Hays & Sons Hammer & Hardware store because, obviously, this is the "home" of Burt Munroe's motorcycle - The World's Fastest Indian. (We hadn't watched the movie prior to our trip, but we did after. And, since I'm writing this more than 6 weeks later, and who knows how far in the future it is when you are reading this, with time compression - they pretty much happened at the same time.) Interestingly, something about that motorcycle makes one's hands itch.

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We hoofed it through town then to see the Southland Museum & Art Gallery. This was on our radar because it houses tuataras- very, very, very old species of lizard. So old, they look artificial- almost cute and cuddly.

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We were really impressed by one sculpture exhibition by Nic Moon. She had taken a collection of skulls from introduced animal species (stoats, rabbits, foxes, cows, cats, dogs - the culprits who are decimating the native populations - interestingly it did not include the most important criminal - but it is probably much more difficult to get human skulls) dressed them in grass capes with artifical, add-on ears (there are no ear-flap bones, you know), then suspended them from the ceiling in a circle, facing inward, with creepy lighting. It was a "no photos" place - and I already "stole" one of the tuatara, so I won't go further. You can see another of her works here.

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The rest of the day was spent driving through the beautiful hills and along the coastline of the Catlins with a number of short stops along the way. The juxtaposition of the yellowed grasses with the muted blue sky was magic and I tried to bring that home.

- Waipapa Point Lighthouse

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- Slope Point (southernmost point of South Island)

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- Niagara Falls of New Zealand (Yes, you are seeing "it all".)

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- Cathedral Caves - getting more cloudy now! I did not succeed in getting a photograph where you can both see the cave and see Kevin - so you don't see either. This cave was on the coast and only accessible at low tide - which we were very fortunate to be right on time for!

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- Lost Gypsy Gallery (great!) This is a collection of found art sculptures created by . For free you can tour his train car and marvel at all the cool-o wind up pieces and light up pieces and moving pieces and...

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And, for a couple of bucks you can see his collection of larger pieces "out back". Without a doubt, our favorite was the crank Cthulhu in the hedge. Go! Go! Go! (NOTE- I cannot import the video so if you want to see you will need to click on the blue Cthulhu link, there, just behind you. It will take you to the video. I'll wait, if you want to do it now.)

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Our last stop was at Nugget Point. We hiked up the hill to the lighthouse then joined the folks peering over the fence and wayyyy down to the shore where dozens of fur seals were wrestling and chasing and napping. (Note to self: I really must get my film processed to see if my zoom lens succeeded in capturing anything interesting.)

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- We ended our evening in Dunedin where we had the pleasure of staying with Marvin and Terisha and Blaze. A fabulous dinner followed by Kevin clobbering us all at Carcassonne.

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