Invercargill Travel Guide

TOP 10 Holiday Park is New Zealand's largest chain of holiday parks, with sites near most towns and attractions around the country, including Invercargill. A typical park offers powered campervan sites, tent sites and fully equipped cabins or motel-style units, with shared facilities that usually include a communal kitchen, bathrooms, laundry and a children's play area; some sites add a pool or barbecue area. For travellers driving a campervan or watching their accommodation budget, these parks are a common compromise between convenience and cost, and a way to share New Zealand's camping culture with local families.

Invercargill City Gallery occupies part of the public library building in the city centre and shows Southland and international contemporary art. Exhibitions rotate regularly and span painting, photography, printmaking and installation. The space is modest but well laid out, and most shows are free — an easy window onto the cultural life of New Zealand's southernmost city. It sits in the same part of town as the library and Southland Museum, making a half-day indoor cultural route, and works well as a wet-weather option.

Oreti Beach lies west of Invercargill and is one of Southland's most popular long beaches: firm, flat sand running roughly 10 kilometres to the river mouth and dunes. Because the sand is hard, vehicles are permitted on parts of the beach, and it has long been a local venue for driving and motorsport; it is equally good for walking, jogging, horse riding and surfing. Facing west, it opens onto wide sunsets. It is windy with almost no shade — an expansive, slightly wild stretch of coast that suits the far south.