Further south than we have ever been

Stewart Island / Rakiura

Travel conversations can be dangerous, especially with beer and wine or perhaps, in this case, gin. An evening discussing desirable destinations with Barry and Ngaire has led to a flight from Auckland to Invercargill followed by a 20 minute hop in a very small plane to get to Oban on Stewart Island.

In the words of Robert Burns “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” In this case COVID reared its ugly head, with both of us still testing positive just a few days before we were due to fly, putting the whole trip in jeopardy. Fortunately we cleared in time, although the effects of the virus caused Sue a few issues on the Stewart Island tracks.

Stewart Island / Rakiura is New Zealand’s third-largest island, located 30 kilometres south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. A variety of commitments from each of us has meant that we are visiting late in the season so definitely no endless summer evenings and a real chill in the air once the sun sets.

Sunday 23 April

Barry is not keen on flying so the plan was to fly Auckland/Invercargill on a reasonably large Airbus A320 and then get the ferry from Bluff to Stewart Island. Unfortunately, once the Air New Zealand flight had been booked, Nigel discovered that there were no ferry crossings on the day we were travelling. Possibly the only day in the whole year (apart from weather cancellations) when the ferry did not operate. So Barry had to clamber aboard a nine seater Britten Norman Islander for a very lively flight and an interesting landing.

Our flight was brought forward by an hour and we discovered later that the remaining flights this day were cancelled due to high winds!

Home for the week was a two bedroom house near Horseshoe Bay. It was several kilometres out of Oban but close to the start of several walks and it came with a car, so that getting around the island was never an issue.

https://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/listing/13194

After provisioning from the island’s only supermarket – a 4 Square in Oban – and settling in to our new home, we headed back to the city lights. Most of the island’s 400 permanent residents live in the great metropolis of Oban. The ferry from Bluff docks here, the shop is here and, most importantly, the pub is here and Sunday night is quiz night.

Nigel and Barry found cans of Kilkenny at the same price as the local beer, Sue was happy with the selection of Sauvignon Blanc and Ngaire got the short straw as sober driver – she later reported that she perhaps overindulged on the house tap water.

We celebrated a respectable middle of the field finishing position in the quiz with delicious beer battered blue cod, chips and salad and left for home along with most of the locals at about 8.30pm! We may not have won any prizes in the pub quiz but we certainly felt as though we were given a consolation prize on the way home when a Southern Brown Kiwi casually wondered across the road illuminated beautifully by our car headlights. Day one and kiwi spotting is already ticked off our bucket list.

Monday 24 April

Our house was on Lee Bay Road and our first walk was from Lee Bay to Maori Beach. Google Maps said 58 minutes walking time so we set off confidently and never made it. Several hours after setting off we turned back. The DoC (Department of Conservation) trail markers gave very different times to Google and COVID induced fatigue had slowed Sue down. We were all concerned about getting back before dark and so prudence prevailed. As we discovered a few days later we were only about 20 minutes away from our planned destination.

Stewart Island / Rakiura has been accredited as a Dark Sky Sanctuary since 2019. The Maori name Rakiura is usually translated as “Glowing Skies”, a reference to the Aurora Australis. This was something that we were all very keen to see. Nigel also wanted to photograph the night sky. Sue kept stepping outside and claiming that there was a ‘glow’ in the south. Nigel didn’t really believe her until he took a photo and found it to be true. He was off!

Nigel and Ngaire braved the night time chill to try a capture some of the aurora activity. Despite a little too much cloud on the horizon, they returned with some reasonable images. Sue opted for some taken from the deck with an iPhone – not bad but Nigel’s were much better! The next day the news (even the international news) was full of the stunning aurora that had lit up the skies of southern New Zealand – such a pity it had been a bit overcast on Stewart Island but a treat none-the-less.

Nigel headed out again a few days later to add to the collection with images of the Milky Way set into another aurora.

On each occasion, the evening’s star gazing ended with more visits from kiwi. They seem totally unconcerned by human presence and happy go about their foraging business within touching distance of us.

Tuesday 25 April

Today was cold, bleak and windy. So the fishing trip that we had hoped for could not happen (lots of circumstances conspired against us during the week so we never managed a fishing excursion) instead we were entertained by the kakariki feeding from the berries in the cotoneaster bush next to the house before braving the elements for a short (but elevated) walk to a viewpoint above Oban.

Wednesday 26 April

The day began with a pretty sunrise that had Nigel taking photos before anyone else was out of bed. Then bellbirds and silvereyes in the bushes around the house provided a further distraction before we all headed out for the days main event – a walking tour of Ulva Island.

Ulva Island is a short ferry ride across the Paterson Inlet. It holds a, somewhat precarious, rat-free status and so is a sanctuary for both birds and plants. Most of the island is part of the Rakiura National Park with just a small section near the ferry landing in private ownership.

We managed to walk just about all of the public walkways and were rewarded with close encounters with many rare and endangered birds including the South Island saddleback (tieke), yellowhead (mohua) and Stewart Island robin the red-fronted parakeet (kakariki), and South Island kaka or forest parrot.

The Stewart Island weka lived up to their reputation for curiosity, fussing around our ankles waiting for us to turn over rocks on the beach so that they could grab the tiny crabs. Look for the wonderful image of a weka peering into the long lens on Nigel’s camera – a lens that was clearly overkill when trying to photograph weka.

Even the 20 minute ferry ride brought bird encounters with a pair of white-capped mollymawks (a type of albatross – don’t you know anything?) soaring close to the boat.

Thursday 27 April

Day 5 brought glorious weather and we made the most of it by arranging for a water taxi pickup from the beach in Horseshoe Bay and a drop-off at the Port William hut. This would allow us to take in some new scenery before retracing our steps from where we hadn’t quite made it to Maori Beach on our first day’s walk.

The bush was stunning. The area was logged up until the 1930’s but still contains magnificent rimu, kahikatea, miro, tōtara areas of dense southern beech. We opted to take a 40 minute detour to view the abandoned machinery and an old logging camp. How they managed to get that heavy machinery up there in the first place speaks to determination and ingenuity of the times (as well as a few bullocks).

Friday 28 April

Today called for something a little less strenuous after yesterday’s epic tramp. We opted to do a short walk around the southern end of Horseshoe Bay. Barry and Ngaire had already walked part of it so Barry opted to go on a mussel and paua hunt while Ngaire, Sue and Nigel walked the track.

More delightful scenery which was made better by Barry driving to the end of the walk to pick us all up rather than walking back along the road.

Barry had no luck on his paua hunt but after collecting a few small mussels he met a local who told him of a few small rocks on the beach in the middle of Horseshoe Bay that were laden with good size mussels. We had walked past the spot several times without noticing but now the tide was almost low enough for us to stop on the way home to see what we could find.

The tide was almost low enough! Barry found a shallow rock and stayed relatively dry. Nigel collected from a deeper rock and was not so dry. Ngaire might as well have gone swimming. Sue managed to time her arrival for the end of the harvesting and didn’t even take her boots off. Definitely mussels for dinner tonight.

Saturday 28 April

Day 6 began with yet another stunning sunrise. The best part of being here at the end of April is that sunrise is not until 7.30. Very civilised. Nigel was on the beach to capture it and then couldn’t resist photographing the mobs of silvereyes that fed in the flax bushes by the beach. He finally captured some half decent images of the tuis that we could hear all the time but seemed reluctant to present themselves for a decent photograph.

The first planned walk was to Ackers Point. This involved a drive into Oban and then a walk through the bays on the southern side of Halfmoon Bay before following a track to the end of the headland – Ackers Point. All very pretty and the sunniest day yet.

And, in case you can’t read it, Lewis Acker had his wife and nine children in that tiny cottage!

The walk was only supposed to be the first activity of the day but a late lunch marked the end of anything strenuous for Sue and Barry. So it was left to Nigel and Ngaire to explore the second planned walk of the day – a very sedate stroll to Bathing Beach and the estuary leading up to it. They had no intention of swimming but were amused to see a small group of hardy (read that as foolhardy) individuals who had clearly intended to swim but got to about thigh deep before finding something better to do. Another pretty walk and the view from the cemetery above the bay was absolutely to die for (sorry).

Sunday 30 April

Last day already. Andrea, the daughter of the owners of the house, is our designated taxi driver. She collected us from Oban on Day 1 and today is dropping us at the ferry terminal for the 8am crossing to Bluff. A glorious sunrise means a brief stop at Bathing Beach so that phones can be pointed out of the car window to capture the scene. The sky is then even more picturesque as we wait to board. A beautiful end to a truly magical week.

We had a relatively calm crossing and then expected our shuttle bus to drive us straight to Invercargill Airport where we would have a three hour wait for our flight to Auckland. Fortunately our bus driver and his dog had other ideas. Clearly he had time on his hands and took us on a tiki tour of Bluff complete with a photo stop at Stirling Point before travelling into the centre of Invercargill for breakfast followed by a tour of the town centre. The whole trip was complete with a running commentary on the history, personalities, political and economic situation, life the universe and everything. It was an amazing way to spend the morning and we were more than happy to buy his breakfast for him.

As we sat outside the cafe eating the Southland Special – cheese rolls – a group of guys came out from the backpackers next door. They had just returned from a hunting trip on Stewart Island. The taxi company had sent a standard size cab for four guys and all their gear. They were never going to fit. They were on the same flight as us so our driver got them into the bus and took them to the airport with us. When we got there they offered to pay and he told them that he couldn’t possibly take any more money since he had just ripped us off for breakfast. Total comedian.