Stewart Island

It’s been a few days since I posted.  Last place we were was Invercargill.  On Monday morning, we got up early and headed to the ferry at Bluff, which is about 20 minutes away.  The day was threatening rain, but the winds were calm.  We had a nice trip over to Stewart Island – easy we thought!  After taking care of a few items before we caught our water taxi, John got a short nap between raindrops. 

The water taxi was smooth sailing and he dropped us off in what seemed the middle of nowhere.  We hiked for a little over 3 hours and made it to Mason Bay Hut.  My main goal in going here was to possibly spot the illusive kiwi.  At the hut, we walked to the beach and saw a bunch of oyster catchers (birds).  The weather was definitely turning bad and windy.  It rained a lot on our hike in, but the wind wasn’t too bad.  That night, we stayed out until 11:30 looking for the kiwi.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see one, but we did hear them calling which was good enough for us!  I planned on getting up early and looking, but the weather was really bad.  Very windy and rainy until about 7:00.  We did look in the morning, but again didn’t see any.  There were about 10 people at the hut that night finishing or doing other treks.  Four others were heading out our way that morning to catch the water taxi home.  This time, getting from Freshwater Landing Hut to Golden Bay by the water taxi was very windy and big waves.  We checked into our hostel and enjoyed the rest of the day. 

The next morning, Wednesday, we checked out and headed for our trip to Ulva Island for hiking and bird watching.  This island is one island in New Zealand where all the rats, stoats, weasels, etc. have been eradicated.  There were 4 other people crazy enough to want to go over because today, the winds were HOWLING!!!  Our driver got us over there, we spent 3 hours walking around looking at plants and birds between hail, and came back.   We found out later that all other trips to Ulva Island were cancelled for the day.  It’s funny because we were told they always go to the island – no matter the weather.

Upon arriving at the place we ate lunch, we found out that all the ferry trips from Oban to Bluff were cancelled!  We were told they NEVER cancelled the ferry unless it was REALLY bad.  I think it was REALLY bad.  I heard the winds were over 125 kms per hour out on the water.  I believe it.  The squalls kept coming through as they had the last few days, but the weather was definitely colder and windier.  We went to the ferry to collect our backpacks which we left that morning at the ferry terminal, found a hostel for the night, cancelled our hostel in Invercargill, and just enjoyed the time.  There wasn’t much else to do.  I do have to say, it was COLD!  I packed just the opposite.  On our first hut hike, I took all my cold weather gear since we were heading near glaciers.  It was hot.  This time, I left my cold weather gear because everyone said it wouldn’t be cold, and it was!  No heat in the hostel and this morning it was 42° with 100% humidity!  Cold!

Anyway, we finally got on the ferry this morning at 8:00 and had a VERY bumpy ride back to Bluff.  It’s about an hour ride, and if it would have been even a few minutes more, I’m not sure any of us would have kept anything down.  We were all laughing at first going over the big waves and crashing down, but the closer we got to Bluff, the bigger the waves and there were about 3 times that we actually came all the way out of our seats.  No one was laughing now…

We drove to Dunedin via the scenic route, but didn’t stop because it was pouring.  We visited the campus to find out about John's housing key, but will be leaving his bag at the Uni Flat Office instead of his flat.  So we found our hostel for the next few days, Hogwartz, and it’s a great place.  We will go sightseeing around town tomorrow, out to see the penguins and albatross on Saturday, and packing bags for John’s flight out on Sunday. 

Dunedin is a beautiful town, but very large.  There are so many neat buildings and hopefully I’ll post some pictures in the coming days.  It’s very hilly here as well.   All’s good and I’m glad we are in Dunedin.  I think John is excited!  Oh – and the hostel has a guitar so guess what he’s doing?