Stewart Island to Dunedin

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Sunday 15th March - Drove down to Invercargill - went up the Water Tower - only open on Sunday afternoons - Lyn overcame her fear of heights by looking through the cracks in the floor!!!!! Onwards to Bluff - the oldest European settlement in NZ ready to catch the morning catamaran to Stewart Island.

Monday 16th March - Weather very foggy so couldn’t see much on the 1 hour trip over to the island across the Forveaux Straits, fortunately when we arrived it had started to lift. Took a bus trip round the Island - all 15Km - no roads on threequarters of the Island the rest being a National Park. Bus driver full of Kiwi wit, knew everybody (only 350 people live on the Island) everybody waved at us and we waved back including the policeman Dale in his “office”. Apparently no more room at the backpackers hostel the other day so Dale put 2 Ozzies up in the cell!

The Island is spectacular with small sandy bays, aquamarine sea, abundant forest and bird life - also lots of hills. We didn’t hire a mountain bike as planned but walked. The birds appeared to have no fear of humans and we saw many of the native species close up. On our walk saw a beautiful blue penguin swimming in the water below us.
For the golfers amongst you they had a golf course - only 6 holes - so they play off with 3 different colour balls, one after another, to give them the 18 holes! They couldn’t get a grant for a club house but could for a tractor. So, they built a clubhouse, bought a cheap tractor and stuck it behind the bar to get the grant!

Finished our day by having the best fish and chips from a fish & chip shop/shed before boarding the catamaran for the return to Bluff. Back in the campervan and headed north along side roads towards Dunedin. Stopped for the night by a nature reserve/bird sanctuary in the Wetlands - only us and 4000 waders and seabirds.

Tuesday 17th March - The joy of freedom camping is that you just get up and go when you’re ready. We were on the road by 9.00am and heading for the Sea Lions near Curio Bay. Stopped by a lighthouse down yet another gravel track, got out and nearly fell over 2 huge sea lions, one in the sand dunes and one on the beach - they are huge with huge teeth to match. Absolutely empty beach with just us and these magnificent creatures - quite humbling. On the other side of the Point was ‘Porpoise Bay’, bit like Studland only longer and horseshoe shaped. Saw a pod of Dolphins and one lucky surfer swimming alongside them.
Onwards stopped the night at Owaka - tiny campsite on the beach.

Wednesday 18th March - Up early (just after sunrise) for a walk on the beach before leaving. Saw flipper marks in the sand and guess what - more sea lions. On this stretch of the coast so many wonderful deserted beaches - so just had to go and leave our footprints like Robinson Crusoe. Arrived at Dunedin quite early so headed for the Otago Albatross Colony on Tairea Point. Weather quite foggy but we were still able to see the chicks on the nests - the only place in the world where they nest on the mainland. When we came out the fog was lifting so we stood on the cliff and watched the adult Albatross wheeling above our heads, sometimes only a metre above us! Awesome. (We took hundreds of photos but have only included one or two here! Stunning sunset tonight over the peninsula. Got back to the campsite in the dark and Tony had to reverse our campervan through a forest of others.

Thursday 19th March - Up early again!! This time to catch the Tairea Gorge Scenic Railway - an ancient narrow guage train pulled by a modern diesel electric through the Gorge up to the high country. This is a half day return trip (4 hrs) along a route which was built for the remote sheep stations. Yet again stunning scenery over some precarious viaducts.
Spending the afternoon in Dunedin to catch up with this Blog (!) before looking for somewhere to pull up for the night as we make our way up towards Omarua (not sure about the spelling).

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Photos

Deserted beach
One of many!

Just liked the photo
Otago Peninsula