Day 22: 22/1/13
We were very lazy this morning as we didn't have a bus to catch! We still managed to drag ourselves out of bed to go and rent a car by 10am.
The main thing to do in Stewart island is hike but we had to get the ferry again at 3:30 so we didn't have time for any major hikes. So we decided to rent a car for 4 hours, drive around to see some bays and view points and do an odd short walk.
The lady at the car hire place wasn't too positive. The main information was roads you aren't allowed to drive on as they are too dangerous or are just for walking. If you were seen driving on these roads or if there was any damage done to the car there would be a charge of $500! There's only 20km of road so we didn't have too many choices!
The roads were really windy and often gravelly- mostly boreens really. We took turns driving and took it nice and slow, even though there were very few other cars on the road. Most road users were walkers!
We went to Ackers point first. We parked up and did a half hour walk to the point. There was an old lighthouse there and you could see other islands in the sea. There were a few viewpoints on the way back and an old house that is one of the oldest in New Zealand, built in like 1836 or something.
Then we drove to Observation rock. It was high enough so you could see out to the sea but there were lots of trees in the way!
We went to another viewpoint afterwards with native gardens. There was a lovely beach we were looking over. We stopped at a gorgeous beach down the road and had some lunch. The sand was lovely and white, the sea was really blue, the bush al around was a deep green- it was stunning!
We drove on to Lee bay then where there's a huge statue of a chain. According to Maori legend they pulled Stewart island out of the water to act as an anchor to the South Island so this was supposed to symbolise that.
We had a little bit of time to spare after that so we drove a little bit around the village which only took about five minutes. We brought the car back then and there was no $500 charge so that was good! We sat in the village then with an ice cream, looking out at the sea! It was a lovely relaxing day, apart from the sand flies which are killed biting us! I got bitten on my neck the other day which looks lovely now! Oh well!
We got the ferry back then at 3:30. This time it wasn't rocky at all and we both fell asleep for the hour! The bus was there to pick us up and we drove back to Queenstown. It was a long journey as it was roasting got! We were both overtired and giddy by the time we got back to Queenstown!
Some of the people from our bus were still in Queenstown so we met up with Hazel, Andrew, Ashley and Fabian. We went for a Fergburger first and had one between us as they are so huge! Then we bought some drink and went back to the room to get ready to go out- again. We had a few drinks in the room. Then we went to World bar where they serve cocktails in teapots and give you little shot glasses for them. We had some teapots between us and took lots of photos and did lots of dancing! Jenny, Andrew and I went to another pub afterwards but didn't stay too long.