Invercargill is an hour and a half drive from the town of Balclutha where I live. When I first moved here, I was quite wondering why people here like to drive to Invercargill for shopping when it only takes them about 1 hour to get to Dunedin city. And last week I went to Invercargill to buy some groceries that are rarely sold in my town and to understand why Invercargill is so loved by the people here.
As soon as we headed to south on our way, I realized that a longer distance meant we had more time on the road to see the natural beauty around us. On the way we passed a few small towns and most of the way we passed through green grass hills and sometimes saw a herd of sheep grazing leisurely. The further south I go, the more flatter I feel here, so that the grasslands seem to stretch endlessly and the horizon is further away.
Upon reaching Invercargill, I understood why people like to come here, compared to the crowded city of Dunedin and the somewhat dangerous steep roads, the roads in Invercargill are quite open and flat. The important thing is that you won't have to worry too much about finding a parking space, which is something that annoyed me quite a bit when I got to Dunedin. One thing that I did not expect is that the population in Invercargill is also quite large (about 57,000 in June 2021).
Invercargill also has a lot of impressive architecture. The Heritage Trail is an open tour recommended by Invercargill City Council that will take you through many beautiful architecture and parks in this city in just half a day. One thing I quite like about this city is that there are many parks in the city and they are all very well planned. You can easily find a place to walk and enjoy the fresh atmosphere of nature.
And since my purpose in visiting Invercargill is to do some shopping, I'm quite pleased to find quite a bit of what I want to buy here. There are quite a few Asian shops here and the prices are quite reasonable. It can be said that I had a pretty successful shopping day.
Invercargill is a beautiful city and has many interesting things, maybe next time I come back here I will spend more time to explore this place.
Thank you for reading my post!