The Hillbilly Kiwi: Stewart Island: Waiting for Gilligan

This past weekend, we headed down to Bluff to hop a ferry to Stewart Island.

This signpost is much photographed, and gives you an idea of "you are here X". We are more than three times closer to the South Pole than we are to New York. We are closer to the South Pole than we are to the Equator, even.

There is a huge variety of bird life down here. These are Sooty Shearwaters, as seen from the ferryboat. They were using the boat to corral a school of fish, and were actually herding them from the other direction so they couldn't escape. Then they dive under the water to snack at their leisure. These birds can plunge up to 68 meters. That's 224 feet. Under water. Fun fact: they're also a Maori delicacy, and long before there were canning methods here, they had a method of cooking the bird and packing it in a basket woven of flax that could preserve the food for years.

The town of Bluff is famous for their oysters. It's actually oyster season right now, so there were trawlers bobbing on the water well into the Foveaux Straight.

Stewart Island is a special place. You can only get there by boat, helicopter, or tiny plane. The majority of the island is part of the National Park system. There are 28k of roads on the island, and 280k of hiking trail, if that tells you anything. Stewart Island is also surrounded by a large number of smaller islands, some are actually fairly large and you can take water taxis out to explore them.

If you can see the two houses in the center of this pic, we were staying right behind them. Our host's family has been on this land for 6 generations. That's just about as long as the island has been inhabited by European settlers.

This is the path through native bush that goes down to the water and then out to Acker's Point.

This is Acker's Cottage, the oldest building on Stewart Island. It's owned by our hosts, and you can peek about inside, as long as you respect the premises.

View from the front door of the cottage.

The cottage has had a couple of incarnations. Originally, in 1836, it was built by an American whaler who took a Maori wife and made the island his home. He was famously strong, and built the house stone by stone, by himself. If you can believe it, a family of 11 lived here. He was also a great boatbuilder, and that was how he earned his livlihood.

When the Crown came in and asserted it's ownership of the island, Acker was forced to move, and settled across the straight.

Captain Harrold then bought the land from the Crown. The cottage became his blacksmith shop and brewery, but he also continued Ackers tradition of shipbuilding.

I read somewhere that he may have even kept a bed down here, for the sake of marital bliss.

Set into the sand, there are still traces of the old pylons from the long-gone dock and boat ramp.

A tribute to Captain Acker.

Okay. I know I go on a bit about the Albatross and the Mollymawks. But they are amazing. They are the largest of the flying birds, and all species of Albatross are on the endangered or threatened list. Lucky for us, they call these southern waters home.

They are remarkably graceful, and skim across the water, occasionally even dipping the tip of a wing into the waves. They can remain at sea with no land in sight for years, and only come back when the urge to find a mate draws them home again.

Stewart Island is also a haven for Blue Penguins. They too are endangered, and are the smallest of the penguin species. And while we've been lucky enough to spot a Yellow-Eyed Penguin since we've been in NZ, the Blue Penguin remains elusive even though we can see their little cozy houses.

Stewart Island is riddled with lovely little coves.

View from our breakfast table.

View from the girls' room.

Looking out to the mountains as the weather was coming in.

Sweet little boathouses tucked into one of the little coves.

The whaling history of the island is still seen all around, and it's not uncommon to see massive vertebrae or rendering pots featured in gardens to commemorate that heritage.

The island has it's own museum featuring artifacts from the settlers' time and pieces that have been found on the island and donated by local families.

One of the historic cemeteries overlooking the sea.

I don't even know what to say about these two.

Chancing the weather, we did take a water taxi over to Ulva Island. Ulva is a bird sanctuary as it has been completely rid of stoats, possums, and rats...all of whom were introduced to New Zealand and have been devastating to native bird populations.

With the predators gone, the birds are making remarkable strides in getting re-established.

This is a Weka. They are basically wild chickens. And funny as can be.

Several breeding pairs of robins were released onto the island. While most of the ones we saw were banded, we were lucky enough to see quite a few that were not, meaning they had fledged on the island.

They are so darling, and follow you around hoping you'll kick up a few bugs for a snack. We would actually stop and dig our boot heel into the dirt for them, and they'd quickly hop over to see what turned up.

We covered every bit of trail on the island.

This is a Bellbird, and is one of the most spectacular songbirds you will ever hear.

This is a Tui. They will actually imitate Bellbirds. In fact, they have such a range of sound that they have even been taught to mimic human words. Tuis and Bellbirds keep company quite often, and it can be hard to figure out who is serenading you.

Stewart Island is home to around 400 people, and around 10,000 Kiwis.

While we didn't get to see one, we didn't come up completely empty-handed either. I was also able to hear one calling in the night.

Being a close cousin to the Kea, the Kaka must be avoiding me too. Stewart Island Kakas are very common where people are, as they love hand outs. Even though you are NOT supposed to feed them, most people do. Someone was even telling me that one bird would come in the mornings and knock on their window until it was given something. They did not come 'round to our cribbie, perhaps because we were outside of town in the bush. Town=smorgasbord.

The above pic is of a Kaka cafe on Ulva. Knowing they were probably close by, we started scanning the treetops, when we saw someone looking down at us. Another large body swooped past and landed in an opposite treetop. Then another. Then they started chatting to each other. It was very, very cool, and in the end I think I'm happier to have seen them as they are meant to be rather than begging on the corner.