Stewart Island and the Catlins Coast

Clearly, I really loved Te Anau and Milford Sound. One down side though, is that it rains there 2 days out of 3. It’s still beautiful in the rain, and in fact the waterfalls in the sounds are much more beautiful for having the extra water (and temporary falls due to the rain and the melting snow from that which fell in the mountains this past week).

When I left Te Anau it was still very cold and raining. I hopped off the bus route that the tour bus I have been on takes, and circumvented their schedule, taking the national bus line to get myself to Invercargill. I had arranged to be picked up by a coach that runs with the ferry service to get to Bluff where I caught the ferry to Stewart Island. It was quite the trip. Because of the bad weather (high winds and rain), and road works the bus that I was transferring to in Gore was late; we were 35 minutes late for my pick-up in Invercargill. The driver of my late bus phoned ahead to the i-Site where I was to be picked up so they could let the coach driver know our eta. He rung me up on my mobile as we were entering Invercargill and said that even though we were as late as we were, they were waiting for me. Wow! Mind you, this is a great example of what people mean when they say that NZ is stuck in the 50’s. This is very small-town-NZ, so they aren’t fussed to wait for you for a few minutes. The coach was to get myself and the one other passenger that morning (another Canuck – we’re everywhere!!) to the ferry 30 mins before departure. Considering that I arrived at 11:05 in Invercargill, a mere 20 mins drive from Bluff, we were already beyond the check-in time for the 11:30 ferry. We arrived at 11:30 and the ferry and its passengers were waiting on us. We all boarded right then and there and were off. It’s a small ferry – a pontoon boat that can carry 65 passengers. There were roughly 30 of us that day. I’ve been told that the crossing at the Foveaux Strait is choppy on a good day, but on a rainy, windy day like that it was quite the experience. One person on our boat was sick and I was informed by another backpacker when I arrived that 70% of the passengers on her ferry were sick so I was lucky. Yes, I suppose I was lucky because I had my moments during the one hour trip when I had to silently talk myself through the nausea I was feeling and if more people were sick I may not have succeeded in holding down what was left of my breakfast.

The ferry drops its passengers off at the town of Oban. It’s a cute little place with a little hotel and pub, a few backpackers, some B&Bs and cottages. There are 300-400 residents of the island itself (not sure how many are in Oban) and the primary employer is the sea – fishing. There is even a NZ reality TV show on these days that feature the life of the crayfishermen of Stewart Island. There are a few tracks on the island, which is what most people that I met were there to participate in: tramping – either the 3-day hike or the 10-day hike. I wanted to go kiwi spotting, but I did not. The tour cost $110 and it was SOOOOO cold there I just didn’t have it in me to spend that kind of money to be out in the cold with no guarantee of seeing any kiwi birds. A big highlight of Stewart Island are the yellow-eyed penguins, as they call this and a few other island, and the Otago peninsula home. I went out walking a couple of times to see them but was out of luck. It’s hard to spot a yellow-eyed penguin because they are very shy and any noise at all scares them off and they won’t come ashore. They tend to come ashore anytime after 4 PM and into dusk, although most people I’ve talked to say they more often come in after dark.

A nature lesson for you, as I’ll have more to post on these little guys next time… The yellow-eyed (hoiho in Maori) is the most ancient of all the penguins and can only be found in southern NZ. When the Europeans settled here they brought with them various predators to this little penguin (rats, cats, stoats, etc) and as a consequence their numbers dwindled until they were declared endangered. They are still listed as such. Their colonies are now very closely monitored by conservationists and there is even a penguin reserve on the Otago Peninsula (where I got to see some and will post on it soon). At this time of year they are moulting – they have to shed their feathers and grow a new coat, then spread oil from a gland on their behind all over their new coat to make it waterproof before they can head back out to sea. This takes around 3 weeks, and during this time they stay on land. The way to identify a yellow-eyed penguin is their distinct yellow band around their eyes and head.

I left Stewart Island, thankful for the rest that the first day of rain there afforded me, but not having seen any of what I went there to see. I wasn’t disappointed though, as it was a nice trip – the crossing was much calmer on the way back – and I got to go as close to Antarctica as I may ever get! I hopped back on the tour bus that I was taking before and reconnected with a new friend I’d made back in Wanaka. Another new friend also hopped on that bus, whom I met on Stewart Island. We spent the day on the bus touring the Catlins. This is a really, really beautiful part of the country. Real, soft sand beaches, sand dunes, beautiful surf, dolphins, fur seals, etc. It was really nice. We stopped for a little while at a place called Waipapa Point where we saw two fur seals and a Fiordland Crested penguin. I only know this because when I later went to the penguin reserve I asked one of the conservation workers to look at my photo of the penguin and identify it for me. This penguin was moulting and was sitting in the tall grass in the dunes off the beach. I was much closer to it than you are supposed to get (although I didn’t realize this at the time). You are supposed to stay a minimum of 5 meters away, preferably more, in order not to stress the penguin if you see one. I think I was maybe 2 or 3 meters away. He was soooo cute!!! And apparently it is VERY rare to see a Fiordland crested – one of the penguin reserve workers there had actually taken a cruise in order to try to see them as he’d never seen one before and he never did get the chance. How lucky were we??? After touring around the Catlins for the day we arrived in Dunedin late in the evening. I will post on Dunedin next time.

Fiordland Crested Penguin

New Zealand fur seals