A friend came down to visit me here in sunny Invercargill. We decided to explore all the parks and forests in the area, that we could in a day – and it turns out Invercargill has the most amazing range. We didn’t get around them all, but it did make me think about how cool it was that there were so many.
We started out with a patch of forest that I know well as it is close to home: Seaward Bush. It is a remnant forest on Mason Road (off Rockdale Road), which has some amazing tree ferns in it. Next we went to Queens Park (which everyone knows about). It’s perfect for the lunchtime picnics and wanderings during a working week - complete with an awesome native area, an animal park, and the best hot chocolates at the Cheeky Lama Cafe. From here we headed down to Bluff and Omaui (and got side-tracked looking at cool old houses). Bluff Hill walkway curls along the coast from Sterling Point and is great in any weather (so long as you have a good jacket), and at Omaui there is a great reserve and bush walk overlooking the bay.
That was as far as we got in one day. But up the north end of town Andersons Park was the site of a friend’s kid’s birthday party and there is a gallery in a grand homestead that is a good place to take mother-in-laws. Thomsons Bush is also in that general direction and is the one park in Invercargill where you can actually feel a bit lost with many paths and not many signs! There is also a great playground (the numerous playgrounds are surely one reason Invercargill was mooted to become Invergiggle – the Child Friendly City).
Otepuni Gardens is on my cycle route home and is a nice place to get away from town for 30 minutes. It is amazing to see it in flood as the park forms the flood banks for the Otepuni stream and sometimes the entire area is underwater. Also on the way back home we pass Turnbull Thompson Park – which while not exactly a forest or garden walk, it is great for running around with a ball or a puppy!
Looking online there are a good 10 or so other recreational parks for sport, and a few reserves I haven’t visited like Greenpoint reserve. Has anyone ever been there? I’ve obviously still got some exploring to do. But from what I’ve seen we are pretty lucky here in Invercargill to have such good green spaces and so many of them!
About Anna Star
Anna is a Community Development Planner at Venture Southland. She has spent several of the last few years overseas, volunteering with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) in Cambodia, studying in Sweden, and long distance cycling in Europe and Asia. She enjoys tramping and gardening, often spending weekends with her partner in the hills around Southland or planting in the garden.
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