The south end of the South Island is about as far away from the rest of the world as you can get, and nature is always close by.
At the very bottom of the country is remote wild Stewart Island. The forests here are primeval, the bird life extraordinary.
Moving up the eastern coast, you will find the homes of penguins, seals and dolphins.
The city is of Dunedin has a history going back 150 years. Originally it was a Scottish colony, then a Gold Rush Boom town. Now, it's a charming University city with the best preserved Edwardian and Victorian buildings in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Otago peninsula is home to rare and unusual coastal wild life. You can also discover the world's only mainland albatross colony. And in the north of the region are the 60 million year old Moeraki boulders, these marvellously huge marbles that lie scattered all over the beach.
Coastal Otago Southland – Wildlife, people and places, at the edge of the world.
Southland has a natural unspoilt beauty that travellers find hard to leave. The character of the region is found in the landscape – the endless beaches pounded by the Pacific Ocean, rolling green, fertile plains, meandering rivers and rugged mountains.
Southland’s scenery is forever changing. You can stand in a forest and feel you’re the only person on earth, fish on long clear uncrowded rivers or sit on a yellow sand beach that reaches as far as the eye can see. Cafes and craft shops are dotted throughout the countryside and there is an abundance of bird and sealife.
One of the most spectacular roads in Southland is the Southern Scenic Route, which forms a link from the world-renowned Milford Sound in Fiordland, through New Zealand’s southernmost city, Invercargill, to the Edinburgh of the south, Dunedin. Southlanders welcome visitors with open arms, showing them the hidden secrets of the region and sharing their homes, their lives and their spirit – that’s why Southland is home to Spirit of the Nation.
Quick Facts
| Category |
Details |
| Population: |
Invercargill City – 50,500
Gore District – 12,050
Southland District – 32,00
Southland total – 94,550 |
| Climate: |
Southland has a cool temperate climate. In the populated and intensively farmed parts of the region mean daily temperatures range from around 5ºC in July to 14ºC in January. There can be around 80 days of ground frost in the winter months and 1000mm of rainfall fairly evenly spread throughout the year. Wind
speed averages 15–20km/hr and there are about 1600 hours of sunshine annually. |
| Famous For: |
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| The people: |
Artists
Nigel Brown – Internationally acclaimed expressionist artist.
Mark Winter – animated film maker, print media cartoonist and characateur artist.
John Husband – prominent Southland artist and nationally recognised artist.
Musicians
Suzanne Prentice - singer
Dave Kennedy – former lead singer for national chart-topping groups Chapta and LINK, which recorded 1971 number 1 “Only Time Could Let Us Know.”
Neil Chilton – former BMG artist based in Australia and now solo artist still performing throughout Southland and NZ.
Jason Schmidt and Shannon Cooper-Garland – nationally and internationally recognised singers, who have regularly featured on television showcases.
Deborah Wai Kapohe – Internationally acclaimed opera singer and contemporary recording artist.
Jackie Bristow – chart-topping recording artist with single “Silly Girl” in 2004
Writers
Lynley Miller – poet and historian
David Eggleton – poet
(The Late) Dan Davin – acclaimed academic publisher
(The Late) Ruth Dallas – acclaimed author of “The Oxford Companion of NZ Literature” and children’s author.
Chefs
Graham Hawkes (Flanagans Seafood Restaurant) – NZ Beef & Lamb award-winning icon, columnist
Scott Richardson (Southland Boys Chef School & Cafe) – Chef and Sky Digital cooking show host
Mark Elder (The Rocks) – Award-winning chef and restaurateur, featured on TVNZ series “Hell’s Kitchen”
Tony Chilton (Ziffs Café) – Award-winning chef |