Stewart Island to Dunedin and Kerry's home

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Stewart Island to Bluff to Dunedin, at Kerry’s
Feb 27th, 2009
Last night we almost booked a 4 hour walk to see KIWI birds(flightless and without defense from the stoats). Thank God we chose the 2 hr or I would still be there trying to get home. We booked a tour and were the only 2 guests, guide Matt happens to be the BOSS of the NZ touring organization in these parts, we learned a lot about everything including the fauna and flora.
But first after booking into the best room on the island, with a view of the harbor, we headed to the local fish and chip trailer and 2 lovely ladies fed us wonderful greasy fish, musse3ls in batter and chips. We met Matt who drove us to Lee Bay and walked up and down a National Park type of botanical garden. We saw giant ferns and orchids but no Kiwis; I was too tired to wait for them. We headed home and were asleep by 10! Again.
On the boat by 8 am, after coffee in our room looking out at sunrise on the harbor, we arrived back in Bluff by 9 and started driving up the east coast. We stopped in Curio Bay to see a petrified forest, sea lions and Hector’s Dolphins which apparently are quite plentiful, still have not seen them, I am jinxed when it comes to dolphins.
We arrived at Kerry’s at 3, she came home at 5; I thank God again for letting me sleep on her trampoline for an hour and a half, it is exhausting trying to see it all and do it all.
The whole family greeted us warmly from the Patriarch Des to little baby Thalia who is 4 weeks old. All are well enough: Kerry and Dan, Jake and Zoe, Nicola and Marc, Fin and Thalia, Karen and Meagan and some assorted neighbors. Everybody just keeps roaming around from sister to sister; they all live within a few blocks from each other in Sawyers Bay, north of Dunedin, near port Chalmers( where the Volendam makes frequent stops).

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