Remember to enjoy the free stuff
- Watch the sun rise and set
- Take a walk through the Queens Park and Otepuni Gardens (allow some time for this one)
- Lie on the grass watch the clouds roll by
- Visit Sandy Point
- Walk Invercargill Heritage Trail
- Visit Southland Museum & catch up with Henry (the other Tuatara)
Invest a little
- Horse trekking at Sandy Point
- Hire a bike from Cycle Surgery 21 Tay Street
- Visit Motorcycle Mecca
- Visit Transport World
- Drive a Digger
- Go to Oreti Beach and walk, drive, bike on the sand
- Eat and Drink
- Tour Blue River Dairy and try a sheep milk latte
- Seriously Good Chocolate Shop
Sport
Southland is famous for sports participation – in 2012 Invercargill held a tickertape parade to welcome back its Olympians. All seven of them from a city of 50,000 people. So as you get out and about keep your eyes peeled … you might be surprised who you might meet.
- Play Golf (there’s four 18 hole courses in and around Invercargill)
- Ride the indoor Velodrome
- Play bowls
- Play tennis or squash at Stadium Southland
Shop Southland
In a days of global markets there are still some gems to be had from local manufacturers.
- Visit Knight Taylors factory shop for luxury lambskin at backpacker prices 21 Leven Street
- Glowing Sky 150 Spey Street for designer merino, designed for Southland conditions.
- Buy something from E Hayes – the old fashioned family owned hardware store that sells that thing you have been looking for, for, well years (then tell us what it was).
- Go second hand shopping
- Buy local art tour – creativity comes from the fringes – many brilliant creatives have made their home in the South
History
- What New Zealand may lack in human history, we more than make up for in natural history. The South Island is believed to be the world’s oldest landmass continously above water – and you get a sense of that age when you look past the last couple of hundred years.
- Our human history is kind of unique too – hardworking Scottish and Irish Farmers bought age old celtic traditions and superstitions to a new land then wedded it to Maori culture they found here as they intermarried.
- Podacarp forests that hark back the dinosours (Tuatara which do indeed hark back to the dinosaurs) and an array of native birds, all handily accessible.
Near Invercargill
- Bluff
- Riverton
- Gore
- The Catlins
- Stewart Island
- Fiordland National Park