South Island

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Kiwi blog #3
Sorry I have been quiet but signal and wifi have been scarce and I have spent the last week ill with a horrible cough.
The illness put paid to any high adrenaline high jinks at Queenstown but we may get time later for jetboats and the Nevis swing if we go back
We finally got out of Queenstown with a replacement campervan and headed to Bluff to board the ferry for Stewart Island where we had 2 nights booked at the backpackers.
The ferry trip is about an hour and we arrived in Oban and walked up the road to check in. We made a quick dash for the pub, the South Seas hotel, for an early dinner as we had to be at the dock for 7:30 for our evening Kiwi Spotting trip.
The boat took us round to a corner of the island where we got off and walked through the rainforest down to a beach on the opposite side. We had to do this in silence with no rustling, no Velcro and definitely NO coughing! The walk was a bit up and down but when we got to the beach our guide soon spotted our first kiwi,a female. We saw 3 in total and then on the way back also saw a Morepork which is style of owl.
We had the whole of the next day to wander but Stewart Island is huge and mostly has no roads , if you have a week you can do a pretty good hike but we just walked out to Ackers point Evening Cove and horseshoe bay.
We saw fabulous scenery and many birds including the Kaka which is a rare parrot and the Tui which has a unique and bonkers song that sounds like R2D2, an old crystal radio and the BBC special effects department. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and I wanted to be in my kayak!
Retiring to the mainland South Island we have been exploring the Caitlin's and have visited Nugget point, jacks bay blowhole,McCleans waterfall, the Cathedral Seacaves and Lake Houroko, the deepest lake in NZ.
We stuopped at Curio Bay and waited at the beach for ages to see the Yellow Eyed penguins come in to their nests in the evening. We'll eventually 1 penguin appeared and it was very cute but apart from yellow eyes it also has a bit of a Donal Trump yellow toupee going on.the beach was also a petrified forest at low tide with tree stumps and even fossilised timber- the best example I have ever seen! Didn't see the Hector Dolphins but it was very rough weather. We have seen sealions and seen idiots who just do not respect wild animals by approaching them too close and making them react for a photo -grrrrr!
We are now in Te Anau waiting for a 3rd campervan (long story I will not dwell on the technical issues but there are several). We are also waiting for the road to Milford Sound to reopen as the weather has been very bad and the is a rockfall/Avalanche risk.

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