Stewart Island is the southernmost island in New Zealand. It is mostly National Park, but has a small town called Half Moon Bay. Only 400 people live there, so we more than doubled the population of the island when we went ashore.
Mel and I were in the theater to get tender tickets just before 8 a.m. We were the only ones there! They told us we could head on down to the tender. There were only 6 of us on the thing. Guess no one else was as excited to see the island! Once on the pier we met a tour operator who was offering a shuttle tour around the town as well as ferry tickets to the smaller island in the harbor. They wanted 6 people for the van so we waited for a couple more tenders to come in before we left. There was another tour operator who was getting to people as they came off the tender before our tour operator, so I went on the pier to ask people I knew if they wanted to join us. Our operator asked if I know everyone, it was pretty funny. I was successful in getting 2 more couples though! We headed out at about 9.
The road in front of the pier went straight up, then straight down again to another harbor and the small town. We stopped at Lookout Peak first to see a view of our ship from the top of the hill. We then drove around the island a bit, seeing everything there was to see, which wasn't much! Stewart Island is a big backpackers place to go. They said there is a trail which goes all the way around the island which can be done in about 14 days. We went past a golf course (6 holes, but better than none?) and by some beautiful homes. Green fees are on an honor system, you put what you want to pay in a box. Some of the houses were holiday homes, others were used year round. We drove down by a different bay where they process the Stewart Island crayfish. Those things get as big if not bigger than Maine Lobster. They export them to China and Japan. The fisherman get $100NZ per kilo for them! Can't imagine what they have to pay for them in China! There was a mother duck walking along the road with about 10 babies. Very cute. I saw some strange bird in a field and made the driver back up so we could get a picture. He must have thought we were nuts. We asked to be dropped off in town so we could look around before taking the ferry and save from having to walk over the hill when we got back.
The ferry was a small boat which held 10 passengers. It took about 5 minutes to cross over to Ulva Island. That island was set up as a bird sanctuary, with no rodent predictors. (There were many traps on the island. They discovered some rodents there recently. They must have swam over from the main island.) They sold a brochure at the pier for $2 showing all the birds and a lot of the foliage we might see while there. It was set up with very good gravel trails and signs pointing to different locations on the island, including the time it would take to get there. We did the 25 minute walk to one beach. It took 12 minutes, so must have been round trip in 25 minutes? I guess it really depends on how fast you walk. There were a lot of shells on the beach so I spent some time looking. There were also 2 Stewart Island Wekas. They kind of look like brown chickens. The guide says they can be quite bold and might check out your bag. Mel had put his bag down to take some pictures. I took a picture of the weka's head in his bag. They lived up to their description.
We headed from there to another beach, stopping at a bench to eat our lunch. It was go green and peaceful there! We could hear a lot of birds but didn't see many. We saw a South Island Saddleback as well as a Timtit. We saw a Kaka flying around, but couldn't get a picture. That's a large parrot! We also saw Stewart Island Robins. Several wekas came to see us along the path also.
By this time, we'd been walking quite a distance. The trail was up and down, stairs and small bridges. They had even built stairs going up and over some roots of a tree. I had started with a sweat jacket and a rain type jacket. I ended up taking them both off, even though it was in the 50's. I think I got my exercise in for the day! We caught up with a tour group when we were almost back to the jetty. There were more birds right in that area than we'd seen before. We saw a Fantail, which had a beautiful tail, all white feathers with a couple of black ones in the middle. We made it back just in time for our 1:30 ferry.
Once back to the pier, we still had 2 hours before the last tender, so decided to walk back into town. Up and down the hill again! We'd missed seeing a couple of stores and the Visitor Center. We also had about $15 NZ to spend since it was our last NZ port. Some friends saw us heading back and asked if we'd forgotten to buy something. We have a reputation...... He emptied his pockets of all his $NZ, so now we had about $20NZ. I found a couple of cute things in one of the stores and had just enough cash. We also visited the Visitor's Center. They are set up with guides for backpackers and such. We ran into a lot of tourists who weren't from the ship. They have 3 flights daily from the South Island! The plane only holds 11 passengers, but still, that seems like a lot for such a small place. They also have a daily ferry. It's a beautiful island and far off the beaten track. Glad we were able to visit. On our way down the hill, we saw yet another Wood Pigeon. They are large birds, about the size of a large crow. And they are beautiful, unlike our usual pigeons. These have white stomachs, green throats and head, purple backs including the back of their head. Along with this they have bright red beaks and feet, very colorful. We saw quite a few, but our last one was in a tree right next to the road so we were able to get some good pictures.
We arrived back on the ship at 3, just in time for tea. We hadn't gone to it before on this cruise. Seems silly to have sandwiches and scones at 3 when we eat at 5:30, but figured we'd at least do it this once. After that I took a long, HOT bath. Hopefully I won't feel today's exercise tomorrow.
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