Day 32 Ferry & Regrouping

Today hasn’t been super interesting, we got up early, checked out. Or at least attempted to. Jacqui got the job she wanted up by Mt Cook and her boyfriend meaning she’s leaving Bunker’s for good tomorrow, and Albert and John are leaving on our ferry today so it was a weird sort of parting. Anyway John carried Albert’s bags for him down to the ferry and we all hugged and said our goodbyes – very strange to think we’ve only known each other a day or so! Bunker’s was the friendliest hostel by far where we all felt right at home, in part because of the amazing people but also the hostel itself which was relaxed and inviting.

  

The ferry was, once again, interesting. This time I just plugged my music in, sat outside and tried to not think about the great whites swimming beneath me, the salty spray drenching everyone on board and the feeling that the ship was hopelessly failing at it’s attempt to deliver us to dry land. A guy lost his hat, several people got completely and utterly drenched (Cara included), the luggage came loose from it’s ties as the sea was so rough we were all being thrown in the air, I nearly lost my backpack to the waves, George hit his head and looked green throughout the trip, Albert nearly fell over board... I think interesting is a good word to describe the trip.

An adorable little lamb at the farm

Once back in Bluff we had a minor problem getting the car, in that we lost the ticket we needed to pay and get the car out… After Cara had a few cross words with the woman we got it sorted though and headed back to Invercargill. We found Axel who had finally made it out of Queenstown (Queenstown in a black hole, you have to escape before it gets your claws into you! Half the people we met there had only planned to spend a night yet had been there for months) and he’d brought down three hitchhikers for good measure. We decided to go back to the farm we’d stayed at previously as a lot of the hostels were still booked up and we knew it was lovely there. After another BBQ we had a bit of an early night in our old 8bed room to ourselves and planned tomorrow’s adventure.

Tomorrow is another early start off to the Catlins!

Day 31 Ackers Point

Our lie in was foiled by people getting up at 5, 6, and 7, so after a frightfully early breakfast George and Cara set off on their walk to Maori beach while I lingered in the lounge meeting some absolutely lovely people who have all made Bunker’s their home, the friendliness was amplified by a lovely Italian gentleman called Albert and the Welsh manager, Jacqui. After spending longer than intended chatting I set off on my own walk.

 I'm never going to get over these kiwi road signs!

  One of the hundreds of different types of ferns on the Island which are special for the Maori

 This bird was actually really, really big, and looks like a giant colourful pigeon?

 This pretty much summarises alot of my walks here - stairs, stairs and more stairs!

Spot the Parrot! One of the parrots hiding behind a tree, then peeking it's head around making a loud noise and then hiding it's head again!

 Beautiful Watercress Beach

After doing such a mixture of walks yesterday there was no particular track I wanted to follow as I’d already walked sections of them all, so instead I opted to do a couple of the hour long walks, reveling in the vast differences between the landscape of Queenstown, which was almost entirely native scrub or introduced species and as such was strangely familiar, the drier and harsher countryside of Able Tasman and the incredibly lush walks around Marlborough. Stewart Island foliage just feels tropical, that’s the best word I can come up with. It was also everything I was promised in terms of wildlife. I’d barely been in the forest for 10 minutes before encountering all sorts of birds, most of which I’m at a loss for names. Included one black bird that hopped in front me along the whole path for over half an hour and only left because I’d gotten to the end of my walk!

 I'm not entirely sure what's on the rocks but in the bright midday sun they glistened and looked as though they had been liberally splashed with liquid gold. Strange and beautiful

 This pair made me smile. After walking over the island and seeing so many rare, quirky, endangered and exotic birds I stumble across some mallards - just goes to show they really get around!

 Spot the little bird!

I couldn't resist more photos of the endless stairs on all the walks!

One of my favorite walks was the Acker’s Point one which took me past Harold’s Bay, fisherman point and finishes at Acker’s Point with the lighthouse. This was the highlight of the day as it was a really beautiful walk, although it was, entirely up hill.

 Harrold Bay and Acker's Stone House

 Fisherman's Point

 I certainly noticed the smell!

On my way back into Oban I stopped off at their tiny, but jammed pack museum on the area.

This was the star of the show as there's only three in the world, a necklace made of dolphin teeth

Today has mostly been spent walking and enjoying the wildlife finished off with dinner at the kiwi-french (weird combination I know) crepery where I had a savory crepe which was strange, but delicious after walking all day.

Tomorrow is the ferry back to the mainland and none of us our really looking forward to it now we know what we’ve let ourselves in for!

P.S Pictures are coming, internet has just become a rare commodity 

Day 30 Stewart Island

Today's early start was well worth it as once we dragged ourselves out of bed we got to feed the animals on the farm! We each got a bottle to feed a lamb, who were adorable, then we got to feed the alpacas, the huge waddling hens, two super cute calves and finally George, the naughty goat! After that fun start to the day we said goodbye to the farm, it’s really friendly owners, the bikers we’d befriended as well as Invercargill and set off on the road to Bluff.

After a minor detour to a farmers market we got the miniscule town of Bluff which is situated on the very edge of the coast, it was here we parked the car, grabbed our backpacks and, which a rather large degree of hesitation, boarded the dreaded ferry.

I have to say the ferry wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. I think this is predominantly down to the fact even he guidebook bemoaned it’s horribleness. Don’t get me wrong it was pretty awful, possibly one of the worst trips I’ve ever been on as there were parts we were jumping up in the air constantly while waves went right over the top of the ferry. But I wasn’t sick and it was only an hour of the awful open sea before we managed to get in between some island and found some calmer waters.

After getting a little lost, which is an impressive feat considering the entire island has less than 400 people and the town is as big as a shoe box, we found our adorable hostel which makes you feel right at home with the addition of a no shoes inside policy, roaring log fire, free wine, internet, and a lovely atmosphere where everyone chats about their plans in the lounge

Once recovered from the ferry I set off on a walk hoping to get in some scenery and bird watching before the day was up. And once again I got completely lost. I should be used to tracks not being labled by now but I got about half way along my journey, the beginning big of which was perfectly sign posted, and then the path suddenly stopped at a road. After walking up and down this hill looking for some sort of sign for the continuing path I gave up and set off on a different track, which I'd been planning to do tomorrow. Long story short I walked for about 6hours doing every detour imaginable and now I need to figure our what to walk tomorrow since I was planning to do most of the tracks tomorrow!

I had a smudge on my camera lense that I didn't notice until I got back - so annoying

The beginning of my lovely well sign posted walk...

cheeky little parrot

Already Stewart island is living up to it’s reputation for me as the bird watching capital, as already I’ve seen two penguins, some mutton birds, diving pigeons, albatrosses (I can’t contain my excitement on this one) as well as some parrots, parakeets and several other robins and little birds that I don’t know the names of. 

a random golf course I stumbled across while looking for my path

The walk was really enjoyable but the vast majority was through the bush, which I do enjoy but I prefer walks where you're rewarded with some sort of view at the top of each hill instead of more tress laid out ahead. I did manage to catch a couple of glimpses of the shore every now and again though

This single picture seems to summarise my walk perfectly. I'm pretty sure I walked up the equivelent of ten years worth of stair climbing. I think I prefer painfully steep slopes. 

Just as I was on the homeward stretch I saw a signpost for yet another detour and so, obviously, I couldn't resist. Another half and hours walk saw me to the top of observation rock and I got some pretty beautiful views!

This little bird just sat there while I walked around the rock

This is one of my favourite pictures from today, I took it on my way back down to Oban after my walk

Tomorrow’s plans are dependent on the weather as it’s technically still spring so the weather is c.o.l.d. Or at least, it’s cold compared to what we’re used to now, it’s still a lot warmer than it is in the UK. I think I’m going to die of cold at Christmas!!

P.S Jackie, the lovely hostel manager, told us that if we go at dusk we could see little blue penguins climbing ashore and making the arduous journey through the rocky cliffs to their nests. So once it became dark we headed down and saw the incredibly funny and adorable penguins jump about on rocks!