Stewart Island Oct 10-15

Drive to Invercargill:The area between Clyde/Cromwell to Gore (Clutha River Valley?) was a maisma of fruit trees, patches of vegetable crops, fruit stands (mostly closed except for the occasional stand selling cold storage apples). I put it on the list of places to explore next time.

Invercargill to Stewart Island

Everywhere we stopped we traded tales of the ferry ride to Stewart Island across Foveaux Strait; we deduced that the likelihood of a rough ride was almost guaranteed (at least on the trip over, the trip back is generally a bit smoother) and the percentage of seasickness among the passengers ranged from 50-99% and swells up to 10 feet. Luckily it’s a quick hop from Bluff/Invercargill, only an hour, but it seems to take forever. We opted for the plane flight this time since we had the ferry experience in March 08 (seasickness=60%, swells=8 feet). And the plane takes just 20 minutes!

I have to say the plane option in exciting in its own way. The young fellow that checked us in (and was skeptical that our luggage would fit in the luggage/freight compartment), also called our flight, took the boarding passes, sardined us into the plane and then climbed into the cockpit and flew us to Stewart Island. He looked very much like our son-in-law Arthur. The plane had less room than a mini-van, so we were knee to head with our fellow 9 passengers (one passenger sat next to the pilot). The weather during our stay was generally wet (showers/rain) and two days it was quite windy prompting gale warnings in the forecast. I was somewhat comforted to see the Stewart Island Air planes soldiered on and braved all weathers.

That’s what makes Stewart Island so unique: everyone has to make a special effort to get here to explore wild the southern edge of civilization. The provisions in the store depend on what happens to make it over on the supply boat. The Kiwi birds here (Stewart Island Kiwi) are also seen in the daytime (so they say).

Oban, the one town on Stewart Island, reminds me of Inverness in West Marin. A one-store town, 3 or 4 restaurants, funky hotel/pub/restaurant overlooking Halfmoon Bay and other accommodations scattered about the hilly town. Our cottage is very much like a mini version of the Anderson Inverness cottage with a few exceptions: it is heated by a coal/wood burning stove (also used to heat the water, although when the stove is not in use the water is electrically heated),water is from a catchment system-totally dependent of rainfall (true for the whole island) and there are few roads. There are a surprising number of cars about considering that getting out of third gear would be something to celebrate. Only 20 km (13 miles) of paved roads.

A vast majority of the island is a National National Park: Rakiura National Park , famously known for the challenging multi-day hikes offered. Our 7 hour hike yesterday was rewarding in it’s beauty & isolation (we saw only 3 other people slogging along), we sighted a green New Zealand parakeet and stumbled upon a seal sleeping in some bush near Kaipipi Bay. About half-way though our hike I noticed the asterisk next to the description of our hike in my DOC “Day Walks” pamphlet, the asterisk designated the possibility of a particularly muddy hike. And it was. It seems most hikers just trudged (or mucked) straight thorough the muddy patches. Once again our trekking poles were mighty handy.

Kakapo Encounter: Ever since our last visit to Stewart Island I’ve been intrigued by the Kakapo: a very large endangered, flightless parrot. A few weeks each year one is brought to Ulva island bird sanctuary for the public to view. The rest of the Kakapo population lives on Codfish island, off Stewart Island (public not allowed). They take extra care that the new chicks imprint on Kakapo but Sirocco imprinted on humans (he likes to hump legs and heads). Very friendly and intelligent. So we boarded our boat at about 7:30 pm for a 30 ride out to Ulva Island-fortunately it was rather calm. Our group was smallish, only about 12 people, and we hiked about 20 minutes on paths and then through the bush to the secret Kakapo enclosure (he’s behind plexiglass). We had about 45 mintues with him and Karen, his cheerful handler who filled us in on all things Kakapo. An extra bonus: little blue penguin by the dock on our return trip.