Stewart Island( Rakiura....its Maori meaning glowing skies)

On the way to the ferry, had a couple of amazing sights from the bus!!!! First one being a farmers wire fence covered with pairs of shoes!!!.. very random...apparently one day the farmer had tied a pairs of boots to the fence, then lots of others decided to follow suit. ( i couldn't quite get my head around it, did they take them off there feet and carry on or did they deliberetaly go there with there old shoes...never-the-less very funny). Passing through the township(thats what they call towns over here...think it sounds sooo American) of Gore, the driver pointed out a large Brown Trout statue; wonderful!!, a Guitar Statue(as its the counrty and western capital of NZ) and ofcourse there had to be a statue of a sheep( i had noticed the further south i was getting the more and more sheep there was). Got the feeling that putting up statues of stuff was probably the highlight of the town!! Well less of the sarcasm, the countryside on the drive down was very picturesque; green rolling farmland.

At Invercargill where i got my connection to the ferry, there was also a statue outside the i site of a 'Tuaturu' an endangered New Zealand reptile, which prefers cooler weather unlike other reptiles, most are only found in captivity i.e at the Invercargill museum. Shuttle bus to Bluff then aboard the ferry, a smallish quite nippy boat, seating only 65 people. The staff were very friendly and seemed very happy in there job, there was lots of jokes and laughter. Especially due to the fact that there was extreme thick fog so, we couldn't really see much at all, so commenterary was pretty pointless, and the skipper made stupid jokes that he didn't know where he was!!! It was a very relaxing hour crossing...though a shame it wasn't more scenic. One of the members of staff (an enthuasiastic young Maori women) pointed out penguins alongside the boat, though i couldn't make them out.

As we stepped on land luckily the fog was just over the water, and the sun was shining on the island. As i walked to the backpackers, it felt a little like i had gone home, the town/village(Oban) was very much like Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly. The whole Island only has a population of 400. The Island isn't tiny though, at its widest point 40km and 65km long. It only has 25 k of road. To explore the majority of it you would have to use the 400 odd kms of walking tracks. It also has the newest Naional Park of NZ, covering 85% of the Island, the most part stunning lush green rainforest.

After a little wait to get into the hostel (whereabouts an uptight young english lad couldn't stop moaning cos they were late back from the lunch break to open up the hostel!!! what a pain in the arse, the english are definetely far to uptight sometimes!!), i dumped my stuff and set out for the afternoon. Not really knowing where/what i was gonna do, but it was a beautiful day and i didn't have much time to explore the Island. i just walked in the general direction of some beaches. Only a few hundred yards up the road and a sign for a beach already...perfect!( i can never get enough of beaches and the sea). I walked down a little track through some woods, onto a stunning beach (bathing beach the one in the picture) with only one person on it (me), my own little paradise. Avoiding the water coming in i strolled around to the otherside( still only me). I could see a few gorgeous little bays and the sea mist rolling in on the otherside of the bay, though the sun was blazing where i was. I walked up the beach to te stream (later found out it was an old mill, for logging and the water was the deep brown colour due to the tannen). I could cross it to carry on up the coastline without getting wet and muddy but i foud a way through the woods back to the road...no problem. I walked along the road maybe just a couple more km's to yet more beautful beaches, butterfield and horseshoe bay. Along the way i noticed an old wind up telephone attached to a tree with a little shelter over it and a yellow pages strung to the tree aswell. I thought it was a little odd, but just thought maybe it was some sort of sos phone as lots of people on the Island went for long walks alone, and the Island is very isolated with no mobile signal (later found out on a bus tour of the Island that it was a joke by the locals on the tourists, it was only connected to the neighbouring house, though many tourists did thinnk it was a real phone and tried calling taxis and all sorts from it). i strolled back after taking many pictures, and got an early night. 

The next day i had bit of a lie in then went to find out bout the bus tour, there was one going soon at 11, so decided on that. Thought i could see a bit more on the tour learn bit bout the island then take another walk in the afternoon.

The tour guide/driver was a very lively talkative maori women, very nice. She told us all about the Island including  about her live and the local gossip, was very funny. Everybody knows everybody cos its such a small island. The school only has 17 pupils. We visited Lees bay which was very beautiful, it also had a large chain statue, because in Maori legend(as i may have said before..i think i'm losing my marbles) Stewart Island is said to be the Anchor of new Zealand. Along the way Terri told us of the fairly big cray fish industry( though the fishing industry is nothing ilke it used to be), also the paua industry is pretty big for jewellery and they can collect them at a smaller size than usual. As well they have a farm as such growing paua pearls on the Island, that are pretty expensive.

Next we headed back through the town and upto the rock observatory, where we had a stunning view of patterson inlet(a very large inlet) with some quaint little bays and fishing areas. Whilst there we were also bombarded by the fantail bird who are very pretty little birds and very curious of people.We then drove along the clifftop looking down on lease bay where an old post office building( shed!!!) was situated now on the beach. There was many oppurtunies along the way for some great pictures and although it was a fairly short trip due to there only being 25km of road i felt i had learnt alot about the Island especially the socail side of it!!! sounds like they have a lot of fun, though it must get a little annoying everybody knowing you're business.

Took a walk for the rest of the afternoon in different direction than day before, though where i ended up we had just been looking down on . It was even more picturesque up close. I walked to deep water bay which was desserted, very still and peacefull with yachts moored. i walked through the woods folowing the coast, glimpsing the tranquil bay below. I was at golden bay and thrule bay, where there was a few bulidings and little fishing boats...oh and an old foam seat thing on the beach!!!! looking out into the harbour. I strolled around the headland along the road now to view the islands terri had spoke about; hope charity and faith, small lush green islands. To get back to halfmoon bay, i took a track through the woods cutting down to the town, it was so quiet and quiet dark almost a little scary, though maybe thats just due to my overactive imagination!!!

Another early night as up early for the ferry. It was bit of a miserable day as i left the Island, it was a nice relaxing croosing with tea brought to my seat what more could i ask for!! And one of the slighlty annoying American ladies strangely paid me a compliment when we were waiting to get on the shuttle bus. I think she must either be slightly deluded, just too god darn it nice or maybe i looked miserable or summit not that i was at all. It did make me feel good though either way!! Waited for couple hours in Invercargill for another  bus, didn't see much of it though as caught up on some internet. All i really know about it is that it is a large flat spread out city and apparently the southernmost city in the worlda nd also has the southernmost YHA ion the world!!!!!