Stewart Island Is For The Birds (June 28 – 30)

After leaving the Milford Sound, we continued our southward march to Stewart Island. Stewart Island remained uncharted territory for us, as we had scrapped an earlier trip when a southerly storm made the prospect of traveling across the Fovreaux Strait highly unappealing. The weather continued to be surprisingly cooperative this time around, as evidence of the “big snow” never materialized, and the snow chains we had purchased in Te Anau becoming increasingly irrelevant.

We drove into Invercargill for the night to prepare for our crossing the next day. Invercargill was probably the first “real” city Marie and Alex had seen since leaving Christchurch, and they were pretty nonplussed (which isn’t really surprising). As Lonely Planet might put it, it’s best to think of it more as a service town in which one can stock up on food and petrol, as opposed to a destination in and of itself.

A gorge day on Stewart Island

Prior to this trip, I had read how the ferry crossing to Stewart Island is notoriously rough, and with my reliable motion sickness I was concerned that it could turn into a brutal morning. Luckily though, there were flat seas and half of a Dramamine was enough to knock me out for the majority of the ferry ride. This was good as it allowed me to miss the nonstop chatter of a group of teenage girls also onboard. Marie was pretty adamant about not wanting to stay at the same backpackers as the group of schoolgirls, but we weren’t that lucky. On our first night we endured hours of constant high-pitched cackling and their screaming match with some locals (how they met them and managed to have such a loud row so quickly is beyond us). Happily, the next morning they were gone on the early ferry, most likely shipped back by their majorly pissed chaperone.

Parrots abound on Stewart Island - Taking hundreds of pictures, you're bound to get a few good ones

As for the island itself, Stewart Island is pretty remote even as far as New Zealand standards. And traveling there in the off-season only jacks up the remoteness quotient, as many shops and restaurants have closed up for the winter. Perhaps it was because it was the slow season, or maybe we’re really looking like grungy backpackers these days, but we stopped by one small restaurant, knocked on the door, and asked the owner if we could see a menu, to which he responded “What for?” We regret that we did not have a suitably snappy comeback, for shame.

We get up close and personal with a weka, these birds know no fear

One of the nice things about Stewart Island is that even though it’s farther south than the rest of the country (the sun rose at a ridiculously late 8:30 AM while we were here!), the ocean keeps the temperatures slightly warmer than on the mainland, so that for a few days we were once again able to shed our thermal layers and feel our jeans against our skin. It’s really the small things in life, isn’t it?

Marie attempts to disappear into the Stewart Island woods

We were interested in visiting Stewart Island (if only to satisfy any completist need to do everything worth doing in NZ), but Marie, and especially Alex, were really excited to get there. We hadn’t realized before they arrived, but Alex is a hugely keen nature photographer, and he seems to like birds most of all. As Stewart Island is famous largely for its birdlife, this was a match made in heaven.

Most of our stay consisted of hiking on the numerous trails around the only town on the island, Oban. The trails lived up to their muddy reputation, and I’m not sure that my footwear has recovered yet. We saw very few birds in the forest, but came back to town and saw heaps of parrots and other small birds carrying on around peoples’ homes. The bird noise was absolutely tremendous, with squawks, screeches, and whistles the dominant sounds.

We should really be able to say what kind of bird this is

We also spent a lovely afternoon on Ulva Island, a nature reserve where the good folks at DoC have removed all the introduced predators (opossum, rats, stoats, etc.) that threaten the natural birdlife and plants. As a result, Ulva is a birdwatcher’s dream, and we spent several hours slowly meandering along the paths on the island in hunt of another bird sighting. We managed to see wekas, kakas, wood pigeons, and Stewart Island robins, but sadly had no luck trying to spy the elusive kiwi, even on Stewart Island where they are quite numerous.

As Dennis Miller would say, Alex the Birder is definitely in his milieu, babe!

And so, after a few days of getting our birdwatching on, we woke up the next day for the early ferry at 7:30 am, and made our way back to the mainland. Where to next? Well, Alex and Marie are keen to see the Catlins, the remote stretch where Andrew and I spent a desultory, rainy week in April. Guess we’ll be giving it a second try, wish us luck…