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…

Invercargill: Not That Bad! (Apr. 11-12)

As described before, the deterioration of our sleeping conditions necessitated a quick departure from the Dolphin Lodge. Well, that and Becky was looking dangerously close to having an aneurysm over cleaning the hostel. When we wrote that we wouldn’t have minded more work, that was before we simultaneously started having more to do and our sleeping arrangements took a turn for the worse. Combine those factors with the fact that there wasn’t much to do in the area, that Becky had exhausted the supply of celebrity gossip magazines, and that I caught a bad cold, and you had a perfect storm for a wwoofing evacuation. So we up and left for Invercargill.

When we drove to Invercargill, we found out we were mistaken as to how out in the sticks we were at Porpoise Bay. Apparently it’s not nearly as remote when you approach it from Invercargill, less than an hour in fact. Just trying to do my best to keep the blog as accurate as possible these days… Oh well, it’s not like finding that out meant there was retroactively more to do in the area.

Depending on the literature you may read, Invercargill gets somewhat of a bad rap. Maybe it’s just that we were so glad to stores and other signs of civilization when we rolled into town, but we found Invercargill to be just fine. Perhaps trying a bit too hard to be regarded as a greater city than it is, but just fine all the same.

We were hoping to use Invercargill as a base to visit Stewart Island, the largely unpopulated and unspoiled island an hour south by ferry, but the weather wasn’t cooperating with our plans. The last few days have featured heaps of wind, grey skies, and intermittent rain, conditions which would be even more unpleasant on Stewart Island, especially when you consider the choppy hour-long ferry ride both ways. So it was an easy decision: spend upwards of NZ$350 to go to Stewart Island for the weekend in cold and crappy weather, or punt and drive north to Queenstown, closer to our next wwoofing spot?

The World's Fastest Indian museum exhibit. This is one of our contraband photos.

With a day or two to spend in Invercargill, we drove around and saw the sights. I’m not sure what it is about Invercargill, but the city sure seems keen on large structures: a war obelisk, a big water tower, a modern-art looking wall sculpture, a pyramid-shaped museum, and prominent churches are all found in this medium-sized town of about 50,000. It’s almost like they’re trying to provide photo opportunities and reasons for people to come visit, which is what seemed a bit forced about the town.

The fabulous Invercargill water tower

The museum in particular was funny. Why was it a pyramid constructed out of unattractive plastic-looking material? Who knows, there were no related exhibits or references inside. When the Louvre put in a pyramid, that was an interesting juxtaposition at least, but this just seemed like a misguided attempt to create a tourist-worthy destination.

The fabulously pyramidal shaped Invercargill Museum

Two of its more memorable exhibits, to us at least, were a room featuring a variety of bird eggs, and a collection of skeleton keys. We were a bit peeved to have to pay NZ$5 each to see the exhibit on Burt Munro, the Invercargill native of World’s Fastest Indian fame. And then they had the nerve to specify that no pictures be taken of the exhibit, it’s not like it was a sensitive work of art or something! See below for my thoughts on that restriction.

Becky has a need for speed, of the imaginary variety

In a development that will surely shock most Green With NZ readers, the top attraction on my list was the Invercargill Brewery, NZ’s southernmost (a popular local business advertising slogan) brewery. They make a nice stout, as well as a few other beers, and we had a nice tasting and tour with the owner on Thursday afternoon. I couldn’t really taste much with my cold, but all the beers seemed to be well-crafted, particularly the stout.

The fabulous Invercargill Brewery. We liked their test beer, the smoked manuka bock.

We also drove down to Bluff, just south of town, and where the ferries depart for Stewart Island. The guidebooks are even harsher on Bluff, saying “If you can’t make it back to Invercargill for the night, try harder.” Which I’d guess we’d agree with, as the town seems to consist largely of one extended industrial area, with a huge aluminum smelter looming across the waterway.

But we did have to visit Bluff, if for no other reason than getting our obligatory photos at the Stirling Point’s guidepost, marking the end of NZ’s main road, State Highway 1. From Cape Reinga to the Bluff, it is cool to realize we’ve made it the length of the country in the last 3 months, and to think about how far we’ve come since then, both literally as well as figuratively. We also intended to go to the famous Paua Shell House, where a couple had meticulously been attaching shiny paua shell pieces to just all the surfaces in the interior of their house over the last several decades. However, we were apparently a little too late, as the house was being advertised for sale by auction in a few weeks. I knew the couple was old, but hadn’t heard in the news that anything had happened to them. Unfortunately that probably marks the end of the Paua Shell House.

Bluff signpost, still sponsered by AA (the Automobile Association, not what you were thinking)

Well Invercargill, we’ve given you a fair shot and found you’re not so bad at all. You’ll never be an Auckland, or even a Dunedin, but that’s no reason to get down on yourself. There can never be too many nice, small cities with an active downtown and plenty of parks like you have. To quote Ben Stiller said in Starsky & Hutch, “Be yourself, that’s what’s cool.”