13 January 2025

Today is our last day on Stewart Island, the furthest south Kally and I’ve ever been. (Pen and Scott have been inside the Antarctic Circle.

Although I’d planned on sleeping in, (My watch says I only got 5 hours 11 minutes of sleep) I still woke about 6.30 – to the sound of the radiator pinging. I’m wondering if it’s designed to heat shower water in winter when it’s on, and when people shower, the water flows through.

Having lain there for a while, wondering if I could get some more sleep, or if I should type up last night’s blog, I decided on the blog. So that’s all typed up, but I haven’t downloaded my photos yet – other than the red/yellow blobs that are on my phone.

Eventually we got up at 8.30 and got “washed” (sponge bath. We’ll have a proper shower when we don’t have to share a wet floor with others), dressed, and breakfasted. Then we packed our bags and left them in the storage shed here at the backpackers.

Then we set off on a walk.

When we were in Bluff we talked with a couple who had visited Stewart Island four times out of the last five years and absolutely loved the place. Their recommendations were to make a jade piece (we considered this, but at $250 for something that doesn’t have any use when I’m low on money seems pointless), do the Fuchsia (spelling, correct this time, Pen?) track, go up to the Observation Rock, and a couple of other things I can’t remember.

As we hadn’t done the Observation Rock, and it was only a few hundred metres up the road from the Stewart Island Backpackers, we did that first. And it was worth it.

The Rātā are still flowering, and the Tūī were enjoying them. We saw about five, possibly from the same family, as they were a bit more tolerant of one another than most groups of Tūī.

We were just thinking of leaving when I nearly broke Pen’s arm. I’d just seen a bellbird and I was drawing her attention to it. So that was something special that we hadn’t really seen yesterday.

When we’d finally made the descent from Observation Rock we cut across Traill Park to the beginning of the Raroa Reserve Track. (After a chance for Kally to add another entry to her “toilet’s I’ve visited but never used” book.)

This track was absolutely beautiful, and we both enjoyed mooching through, enjoying the scenery, and taking the occasional photograph.

This track came out at the junction between Golden Bay and Thule Bay and we headed back to Traill Park and then down through Fuchsia Track. (Finally! I’d seen Fuchsia trees. I’d seen Fuchsia flowers. But I hadn’t seen Fuchsia trees flowering – until I finally saw one flower!)

Pen seems to have a knack for seeing Tomtits and was able to point one out. But it was too quick for a photograph.

When the walk, sadly, came to the road, we headed back to The Sunggery for lunch. Being determined to have a hot cheese roll, I ordered one of these, plus a chicken wrap, which were tasty. I also bought a homemade lemon, Rakiura honey, and ginger tea – and it was definitely homemade!

After our fill, we checked out the Beaks and Feathers office and Pen bought me a Pīwakawaka mug to say thank you for “being her guide”.

Over the road was the DOC visitor Centre and Pen bought a Kākāpō sponsorship as a donation to New Zealand’s conservation effort. She’s now sponsoring “Waikawa”.

As we didn’t have long enough to do anything else, we went back to backpackers and did some blogging.

3.00 pm we dragged out bags (well, I dragged mine as Pen had left her case in Bluff), around to the ferry terminal and checked our bags in and got our boarding passes. That is, Pen got the boarding passes. Then when the time came for boarding, we were told that everyone had to make sure they had theirs and I said that Pen still had mine. She was adamant that she’d given it to me… Until she checked her pockets and found two.

We sat in the middle of the boat as, in theory, that should have the least amount of sway. Not that we knew how rough Foveaux Strait was as we’d only seen the tide in Half Moon Bay. We started out and I felt like writing to our Transport Minister, Simeon Brown, that he shouldn’t worrying about the potholes in the roads and should, instead, be focusing on the potholes where Foveaux Strait met the bay.

Except those potholes continued on into the strait.

With nothing much to see from where we were sitting, I closed my eyes, and listend to the Elton John song earworm in my head. “Reach out, for the healing of hands. Reach out for the healing of hands. And then focussed on my breathing. In – one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three, one thousand and four. Out – one thousand and five, one thousand and six, one thousand and seven, one thousand and eight. In – one thousand and etc.

There were a couple of times where I wasn’t sure if I was about to burp or something else, but I managed to remain intact. What was irritating was all the people around us who were laughing and joking with no issues at all.

There was one point, about fifty minutes into the one hour journey, when I heard a rustle of paper to my front and right. Then I heard further rustle to my right. And then…

At least I’m not the only one on this holiday to be less than impressed by the motion of the transportation of the moment. But I was not going to check if Pen was okay, because I knew that if I did, I wouldn’t be.

Fortunately, we were nearly in harbour, so when we were in calm waters and were docking, I said to Pen that she go ashore and sit down, and I’d take care of the bags.

She seemed to perk up quickly enough and took charge of our booking in, whilst I wrestled my case through the door.

Once we were upstairs, we did a bit of rearranging our gear so my stuff came out of Pen’s suitcase and her stuff that had gone to Stewart Island, replaced it. Following that was a very welcome shower to wash away the backpackers’ grime.

Then it was time to consider tea.

We’ve been looking forward to going back to Hayz @ The Anchorage and, on the boat trip, I was envisaging not feeling well enough to be able to enjoy their meal again.

I needn’t have worried. I checked their web site for their opening hours, only to discover that they were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. (Maybe Thames isn’t quite as bad as Bluff.) So I told Pen she had no need to hurry and went down to reception. He said that on a Monday we had two options. One was Oyster Cover – about 1.8 kilometres towards Stirling Point. The second was Stella’s in Bluff, which had been closed as her child had had a heart operation, but that today’s Facebook post had said that it was open.

So, as Stella’s was only next door to the 4Square, we went there and bought a chicken fried rice (me) and chicken fried noodles (along with some breakfast) and brought them back to the Foveaux Hotel and ate in the lounge. Then we did photo downloading and blogging. And watched the Auckland Aces get beaten by the Northern Districts Braves, and listen to a Dan Snow’s podcast on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Victorian Christmas.

Steps from midnight = 13,760

Kilometres from midnight = 9.5