Stewart Island

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Stewart Island
November 19, 2008

We left Invercargill at 8 to drive the 30 minutes to the southernmost point of the South Island to the town of Bluff where we were to board the fast catamaran ferry to Stewart Island. We were early so we hung out in a café owned by a lady from Buffalo, NY. She ended up in NZ after a divorce. She had quite a story to tell and we were good listeners.

The ferry ride was an hour, but seemed like much longer. It was a rough sea today. The waves rolled up over the boat and we had quite a ride. It was a little scary to me. The boat attendant said, “This is typical for this trip, welcome to the roaring 40’s.” She was referring to the unabated wind and waves at this latitude. There were 34 people on the ferry and the honest truth is that at least 10 of them barfed. Joe was fine and I didn’t feel as bad as I should have. I hadn’t bothered with a patch or pill because I thought I could take anything for an hour. The only time I ever began to feel sick was when I would see the attendants collecting the little white bags from other passengers, so I focused my attention on the GPS screen. The male attendant must have some sort of sadistic streak because in the midst of all the sickness he announced, “On the left you can see a small island that is a muttonbird colony. Many people like to eat muttonbird, but it is an acquired taste because it tastes like a cross between duck and anchovies. Naturally, after that little informational tidbit we heard more puking sounds. Joe couldn’t believe I didn’t get sick.

We did finally make it to the only town on Stewart Island, Half Moon Bay or Oban, population, 450. We were met at the ferry terminal by a young man holding a sign that had our name on it. In our conversation during our short ride to our “hotel” we learned that this guy didn’t work for the hotel. He is the town policeman and was hanging around the hotel and because he was bored he offered to pick us up. He gave us the grand tour of the town…the school, the rugby field, the bar, the supermarket, the two cafes, and the park visitor center.

85% of Stewart Island is Rikiura NP and we hiked about five miles today on various trails through rainforests and along cliffs with bay and ocean views. Joe added a few birds to his list including the kaka which is a large parrot. We fed apple slices to several kakas on our porch balcony. It’s ok, we aren’t staying in the park.

We ARE staying in a palace, or so it seems after a week in the campervan. We are in a house that has about 1000 sq. ft. We don’t know what to do with all the room. Tonight we walked around in big circles in our stocking feet just because we could. Funny how we appreciate things that were taken for granted before.

Stewart Island is known for its blue cod and crayfish (rock lobster) so we tried both today for lunch and dinner…great! About 8 tonight, the owner of this house brought us food for breakfast (fruits, yogurt, jams, cereal, toast) and put it all in the fridge.




Stewart Island and Ulva Island
November 20, 2008


It was nice waking up in this “big” house and retrieving our breakfast from the fridge. We drank our coffee while watching the tuis and kakas flying around the area. I turned on CNN, but it just didn’t fit in with the serene vibe so shut it off after about ten minutes of the usual unsettling depressing world news.

We tramped (in NZ hiking is called tramping) about 15 minutes up hill and down hill to Golden Bay where we met our tiny water taxi that motored us the ten minutes to Ulva Island. Ulva Island is also part of Rikiura NP. It is an open bird sanctuary where all exotic predators (rats, possums, feral cats, etc.) have been successfully removed. Now there are many wonderful bird species there and after tramping every single trail for five hours we were able to see 13 of the 16 birds that are usually there. Unfortunately, the kiwi was not one of the ones we saw. It looks like the only kiwis we will see here will be the human variety. But, we loved Ulva Island and it was a lovely day. As in England, so much is “lovely” here. (I think it sounds strange to hear a burly fisherman telling us that we can have a “lovely” lunch at some café.)

After being “taxied” back to Stewart Island we were very hungry and filled our stomachs with more blue cod. We did some more nosing around the island shops and took a little walk up to the church and along the pier and decided that we would go back on the 3:30 instead of the 6:30 ferry. We made a special trip back to where we were staying to let them know this so that they would transport our two bags to the ferry earlier.

When we boarded the ferry, our bags still hadn’t arrived and the ticket guy called our friends and they said they had loaded our luggage into the bins at the ferry dock. All this stuff had already been tied up in waterproof bins so there was no way to see our things. As you may have already guessed, when we got back to Bluff (a smooth ride this time) our bags didn’t come with us. They had put other people’s stuff on the 3:30 ferry and the message that we were leaving early never got to the right person. So, we had to wait until 7:30 PM to get our luggage. At least we had no place we had to be, only the caravan park 30 minutes away in Invercargill. We made the best of it and explored Bluff a little more and used the time to plan the next day.

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Photos

Checking for Rats
Must check before going to Ulva Island.