Stewart Island

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January 21, 2009

Our second day on Stewart Island started out clear and calm. Our first stop was at a local bakery (and health spa) run by an expatriate American by the name of Britt. She came to Stewart Island 10 years ago to do her PhD thesis in geology and never left. Now she works 10 hours/day (every day) for six months and travels for the rest of the time. She makes really good scones and soups in her tiny one person bake shop. My advice would be to have the cranberry scone but ask her to skip the pound of butter on top. She also offers cheap wireless access and is very nice.

Today’s trip is to Ulva Island, which is a protected reserve inside of Paterson Inlet. Before people showed up in New Zealand, it was populated almost completely by birds. They filled all the niches normally filled by mammals elsewhere. (The only native mammals in New Zealand were the bats). They are still worried about rats coming back. See the sign.

Ulva Island is only about 250 hectares (roughly 500 acres) in size with a really nice series of paths from one end to the other. The interior is very jungle like and it echoes with lots of birdcalls. We did see some of the species on the island. One, a weka, kept trying to get into our packs at one of the beach stops. Another, a NZ parakeet, wasn’t to be seen on the walkways but turned out to have a nest right over the hut on the wharf.

The only way to get there is by a water taxi ride. This being the “roaring 40’s” the water taxis are all capable of riding out three metre (10 ft) waves. (That is in the protected waters of the inlet – you don’t want to even think about the ocean side). While we were waiting for the taxi to take us to the island we watched some of the park staff and a couple of locals take a stretcher out of a boat with an older woman on it. Turns out that she broke a leg “up a creek” as one of them put it.

After four hours on the island we walked, in the rain (because it rains almost every day), back up and over the hill (because there are always hills on the island) to the pub. After the pub, we had some fish and chips with the local specialty blue cod at the (only) fish and chips stand.

That night it rained – all night. What a surprise! If you are thinking of going to Stewart Island you should, as it really is a magic place. Just be prepared for 17C maximum (62F) and take lots of quick dry clothes. Oh and the ferry is $60/person each way but that does include as many of the little paper (vomit) bags as you can use.