Stewart Island

Caught the 11 o'clock ferry from Invercargil over to Stewart island; a small 1 level catamaran. It's was pretty windy out, which lead to some pretty big waves, combined with my choice of sitting at the front of the boat I was in for a rough old ride. The boat was constantly rising above the waves only to slam back down again, a bout of sea sickness seemed like it was on the cards. Somehow my I was saved by my amazing ability to fall asleep just about anywhere. No giant waves were going to stop me! I was happily sleeping within 5 minutes and didn't wake again until we docked at Stewart island!

According to Maori legend Stewart Island was the anchor stone used by the ancient Maori fisherman to pull the giant fish (south and north island) out of the seas.

Stewart Island itself has a community of a couple of hundred and is a very quiet laid back sort of place. Very few roads and no real sense of rush about the place, locals seemingly plodding along with their day to day lives.

We only had a day on Stewart island before, so made the most of it by hiring a car out to explore some of the 27km of roads on the island. The majority of the island is uninhabited national park great for walking, but only if you have a week or so. We decided to take in as much of the islands as we could. So hiring out a somewhat ancient honda, we trundled around exploring beaches and coves, completing a number of short walks along the way. We even managed to find a symbolic anchor chain as mentioned in the Maori legends.

Spent the evening down the local (and only) pub.

8 Mar 2007