Invercargill is the southernmost city in New Zealand and one of the most southern settlements in the world. It is the commercial center of the Southlandregion.
In 1856 a petition was put forward to Thomas Gore Browne, the Governor of New Zealand, for a port at Bluff. Browne agreed to the petition and gave the name Invercargill to the settlement near the port. Inver comes from Gaelic meaning at the mouth of river and Cargill was named after Captain William Cargill, who was at the time the Superintendent of Otago.
Invercargill is home to the Southern Institute of Technology which has introduced a fees-free scheme. There is a large park, Queens Park, just north of the main city centre. This park has botanical gardens, an aviary, sports grounds, and is also home to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.
Many large supermarkets and other shops are present, but there is no large mall.
A temperate oceanic climate, similar to that of the British Isles, prevails in Invercargill, where the mean daily temperature ranges from 5.2°C in July to 13.8°C in January. Precipitation averages 1,064 mm annually, and measurable snowfall is occasionally seen during the winter months, which are June through September due to the Southern Hemisphere location.
The average high temperature ranges from 18.4 °C in January to 11.1 °C in August. Due to the relatively high latitude (46° 42'), the city enjoys nearly 16 hours of daylight at the summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere, which occurs in late December.
