Dear all
Today we took the ferry via Bluff to Stewart Island which is the most southerly inhabited Island of the New Zealand Islands. The Ferry only takes and hour and apparently is very pretty, but I had to glue my eyes on the horizon for most of the journey as its the second most rough strait in the world and trust me it was bad! (Andy, if your reading this - it was 10 times worse than Kaikoura!!). Once we were back on dry land I was fine and we checked into our little backpackers in Oban, which is the only town (village really but they are very sensitive!) on the Island. The population of the whole island is about 420 but there is still a pub, two churches, a shop, post office & a fish and chip van....... sorted!
We has a little walk around to familiarize ourselves & then walked over to the next bay and caught the ferry over to Ulva Island. The ferry was akin to something you would see an old couple cruising up and down the Thames during the summer and only had room for 7 passengers all squashed onto 2 benches. The journey was much smoother and only five minutes. Ulva is the main Island in the Paterson Inlet, is only 250 hectares, but is a tiny birdwatchers paradise. There are about 7km of track and the rest of the island is wooded and full of birds. We saw Stewart Island Weka's, Tomtits, Riflemen, Fantails, Kereru's, Oystercatchers, Brown Creepers, a couple of mating Kaka's & boy do t
hey get in a flap about that! The highlight for us were all the little Stewart Island Robins. Unlike British Robins these little birds are black and white, but they lack in colour they sure make up for in personality. Each one would come chirping up too us a we walk
ed the trap and entered their territory, They are quite opportunistic and are really looking for you to disturb the ground so they can grab a tasty insect! If you don't they start pecking at your shoes or in my case my toggles on my Keens! At one point a bit of a territorial battle broke out as we had obviously stopped at the junction of 4 birds and they were all fighting over the grubs we were racking up with our feet. All too soon our trip was over and it was time to get the little boast back to Stewart Island. All this walking gives you a hellish appetite so we scooted off to the Fish and Chip van and had some Blue cod and chips washed down with Lemon and Paeroa (a NZ stalwart). We then walked it off again by having a walk around the local area to see if we could catch a glance of the elusive Kiwi, there are around 10,000 on Stewart alone, but it was not to be. We did however see four little blue penguins swim in from their day's fishing. A few pints in the very busy pub was obligatory (well according to Dean!), purely medicinal - Honest
ed the trap and entered their territory, They are quite opportunistic and are really looking for you to disturb the ground so they can grab a tasty insect! If you don't they start pecking at your shoes or in my case my toggles on my Keens! At one point a bit of a territorial battle broke out as we had obviously stopped at the junction of 4 birds and they were all fighting over the grubs we were racking up with our feet. All too soon our trip was over and it was time to get the little boast back to Stewart Island. All this walking gives you a hellish appetite so we scooted off to the Fish and Chip van and had some Blue cod and chips washed down with Lemon and Paeroa (a NZ stalwart). We then walked it off again by having a walk around the local area to see if we could catch a glance of the elusive Kiwi, there are around 10,000 on Stewart alone, but it was not to be. We did however see four little blue penguins swim in from their day's fishing. A few pints in the very busy pub was obligatory (well according to Dean!), purely medicinal - HonestNight all
Sara
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