Stewart Island, New Zealand

3rd - 4th Feb

Stewart Island was another of my ‘must see’ destinations in New Zealand and one of the reasons why I opted for a car rather than a bus pass.

I drove from Queenstown to Invercargill in time for lunch and after much flapping around eventually managed to find the local Information office where I was able to book the ferry, accommodation and an evening guided tour on the island all for later on that day.

I actually had a whole afternoon to kill in Invercargill which from what was available is a lot of time!

I found the obligatory Irish pub and had my obligatory bangers and mash. In my time of travelling around Australia and New Zealand I was starting to become an expert on Irish pubs and their bangers and mash (I have never found proper champ). This was by far the worst I had ever tasted. The sausages tasted awful – I wasn’t sure if they were actually supposed to taste like that and was pretty sure they were off. Being a true softy I did not complain and tried to stomach as much as I could before leaving half of it (had to finish the pint however!)

I was at a lose for something to do in the afternoon then I remembered that the Information centre was actually part of a museum complex so I went back and asked how much it cost to go in. Nothing was the reply – you can leave a donation at the end of your visit.. Exactly what a backpacker wants to hear.


As well as being a museum and art gallery they also house a rather impressive tuatara exhibit.

Featured Animal: Tuatara

The tuatara is a reptile which has been around for over 150m years. It may look like a lizard but the two species are in fact the only remaining members of a very old line of reptiles and they only exist in New Zealand. The Invercargill museum has been successfully breeding the commoner species Sphenodon punctatus (don’t ask me how to pronounce it!) and have over 50 specimens. It has also been trying to breed the much rarer Sphenodon guntheri which only exists on one off shore island. All remaining wild tuatara from both species are confined to off shore islands due to introduced pests killing off all the mainland animals.

Heres more info from Wikipedia.

As well as the tuataras the museum houses an art exhibitions (mostly modern art and not really my cup of tea) and a rather good exhibition on Maori culture. There were also ones on local history including one about the ‘Worlds Fastest Indian’ which at the time I skipped over but now wish I hadn’t. Two weeks later I happened to watch a movie staring Anthony Hopkins which was called the same name. Its about Burt Munro who successfully set the world speed record for motorcycles (under 1000cc) in the 60’s using a vey old make of motor bike called Indian.

Again more info from wikipedia (hey I’m lazy!)

For the entrance fee of nothing (I did pop $2 into the donation box) it’s a very good museum and deceptively large as I ran out of time walking round it and had to motor down to the Stewart Island Ferry.

The trip over to stewart island took about an hour and was pretty choppy. It also has the distinction of being one of the most expensive foot passenger ferries I have ever been on - $120 return which is scandalous! Once on the island I quickly made my way to the backpackers and booked into a rather small 3 bed cabin – which luckily I had all to myself.

So whats so special about Stewart island? 26,000 Kiwis that’s what (The bird not the people) Stewart island does not have any stoats (it does, however, have rats and possum) this has meant that kiwis do rather well on the island. In fact it is only place in New Zealand where it is possible to see them during the day.

I thought all I had to do was arrive on the island, go on the evening tour and I would see loads of the wee critters. As per usual I had not done my homework. When I went on the evening tour (with an Irish couple from Cork/Kerry and an old American couple) I quickly realised that we were not going to see any kiwis and in fact in order to have a good chance of seeing them you had to go to the other side of the island which takes two days hiking!

Because of that I was slightly disappointed with the evening tour as our guide only managed to show us 1 possum! In fairness the tour does not claim that you will see kiwis or any other wildlife and is more geared towards history and flora – I should have looked more closely before I booked it.

The next morning I had to make the decision to either stay longer on the island or get the ferry back that day. After the disappointment of the previous night I decided to get off the island that afternoon but before going I booked a return boat trip to Ulva island which the Irish couple recommended – and I am so glad I did.

Ulva island is a small island in one of the bays of Stewart island and has been irradicated of all intoduced pests including rats and possums. This means that only birds exist on the island.

The ferry over was actually just a small boat which a local guy charged $20 return for the 5-10 minute trip to the island (again a bit of a rip off but I didn’t care) It went from a bay just over the hill from Oban, the main (only!) settlement . Once on the island you can walk around marked trails searching for the elusive wildlife.

The 3 hours I spent on Ulva made the trip to Stewart Island all worthwhile. It was full of birds which seemed to have no fear of humans at all. I seen loads of Tuis but also some birds I had not encountered before such as the saddleback which does not exist on the mainland and red and yellow crowned parakeets. The Stewart island robins were especially easy to get close to – one hopped right next to my leg at one point.

The only down side to the trip was that as well as the other people who came on the ferry with me there was also another boat with a guided tour and three further lots of middle aged american tourists from a cruise ship anchored in the bay. I kept bumping into at least one of these groups – complete with their state of the art headsets so that everyone could hear their guide. As well as the headsets they all seemed to wear brightly coloured raincoats, walking poles and stupid leggings. I just thought that it would be a nightmare to be on that cruise ship surrounded by such people!

Once back from Ulva I made my way back to the hostel via a marked track around the coast and then headed back on the 3pm ferry to the mainland.

3 hours later I was in my next hostel up the east coast in the heart of the catlins area of New Zealand..

Animals I have seen:
Saddleback
Stewart Island Robin (subspecies of New Zealand Robin)
Yellow crowed Parekeet
Red crowned Parakeet
Kaka (smaller relative of the kea)

Animals I HAVE NOT seen
Kiwi – any species!

facebook photos

Millford Sound, New Zealand

2nd Feb

Milford sound was one of the ‘Must do’ items on my list and one of the reasons for hiring a car because I thought it was off the bus routes. So I had to justify to myself why I ended up getting a bus tour there rather then driving. The justification was easy. It was a 4 hour trip there from Queenstown and a 4 hour trip back. I just would not enjoy doing such a trip in a day and I did not think I would have enough time to do it over 2 days. In the end it was a very god decision.

We all boarded the bus at just after 8am and our very Kiwi bus driver took us on our way while giving us information about various lakes, mountains and towns.

We passed by lake wakitipu and its dramatic mountain backdrop (used in lord of the rings) and on through farmland (a good time to catch some shuteye) until we reached Lake Te Anau and had a stop at the town of the same name for some much needed breakfast.

Then it was onwards to the sound up into the spectacular mountains which seemed to get higher and steeper as we went.

Eventually we came to to the homer tunnel set into the mountainside and only wide enough for one set of traffic at a time. We had to wait for our turn to go through which meant that everyone could climb out of the bus and take in the massive cliffs that surrounded the valley. There was even the obigitory kea trying to scrounge some food off the tourists.

Going through the tunnel was quite spooky as there was only a few feet left on all sides for the bus then we burst out into the other side and could see the long windy road down to the fiord beyond (used in several sportscar ads).

We arrived at the ferry at about 1:30 and immediately boarded and started getting our large free bufet lunch (part of the package). I ate mine as quick as possible (which for anyone who knows means VERY quick) as I did not want to miss a minute of the scenary outside.

We steamed out of the harbour and spent the next 2 hours cruising in some of the best scenary I have seen in my life. The cliffs and mountains rising straight out of the sea were just breathtaking. We even managed to see some dolphins (though I did not get a got photo of them)

Towards the end of the trip we went close to one of the waterfalls and anyone at the front of the boat got a real soaking.

The final part of the trip was to a specially constructed underwater viewing platform. Because of the amount of fresh water that enters the sound there is a layer of fresh water on top of the saltwater with the result that the waters become very dark very quick. The platform was built to show off the black coral and fish that wopuld normally be down at least 50m but could be seen at 10m.

It was quite good but after 15 minutes looking out from the cramped, floating platform I started to feel very queasy and wanted to get back on the boat and back to the pier.

The bus ride back was uneventful and everybody just tried to sleep.

After a quick shower I went across to the Ferg bar with some of the Kiwi Experience crowd and had possibly the largest messiest burger I have ever had in my life - accompanied by the largest chip - I could not even eat half of them. Then it was on to my last nights drinking with the Kiwi bus crowd.

As per usual we started in the base backpackers bar but quickly moved onto the world bar where I decided to indulge in some of their cocktails which came in teapots! you drank the concoction through the spout.

I also seen on the list of shots a thing called an Irish car bomb which was made up of a jameson and bailey shot in a glass of dark ale. You dropped the shot into the beer glass in the same way as a jagger bomb and then drank the nasty result. I thought it was funny at first to see something called an Irish car bomb but then In my drunken haze I started thinking about all the people down the years that have been blown to pieces back home by them and I startd to feel really angry at the use of the name. How would a yank feel if they called a cocktail the 911 aircrash? How would a Spaniard feel about a shot called the madrid trainbomb - its just not right!

I went to bed very drunk and quite angry vowing to give them a piece of my mind the next time I went to the bar - which obviously didn't happen as I left the next day to go to Stewart island.

Here are my photos of the milford sound trip



Glossary update

S
Sweet (as) Kiwi term used in just about every sentence to describe that things are good and ok. Our bus driver used it ALL the time as did every other tour and bus operator. It was actually quite quant.

Things I have lost/broken
Nothing - I actually found a nokia mobile phone charger in my room which had been left there by some other forgetful person so I nicked it for my own use - sweet!

Apology

Another quick post to apologise for not updating the blog for over a week. This is due to circumstances beyond my control.

I am now currently in Mendoza which is in Argentina.