Stewart Island

Hey Everybody!

After the Hump Ridge Track we took a day of rest in Invercargill to catch up. While in town we stopped by the i-site for travel ideas. Jared was on the fence about Stewart Island and I really wanted to go to see the “bird mecca” as everyone had touted it. So we booked the ferry for the next morning and went back to Esther at the holiday park to get organized. 

We had fine weather the next morning so I could see the mollymawks (albatross) flying around outside while we rode the ferry over from Bluff to Stewart Island. The seas were a bit rough, but apparently this was nothing compared to what the crossing can be like. They call this latitude “The Roaring Forties” because things can get pretty crazy out on the open seas. Pretty foreign to this Prairie girl. 

Mollymawk

Kiwi Crossing

We landed on Stewart Island and no birds came to greet me or carry my bags....already the guide books had lied to me. We headed to the DOC office to get the skinny on this place. They suggested Ulva Island, a predator-free island that is a sanctuary to all of these NZ birds that either 1) Can’t fly 2) Nest on the ground 3) Suffer predation from the nasties (stoats, ferrets, possums, rats) or a combination of the above. 

We hopped on a water taxi run by these old hippies. It was awesome, our tickets were a couple of leaves. 

Studying up

Ulva Island

Ulva Island itself is in the Paterson Inlet of Stewart Island. It is just tiny, and would only take a couple of hours to walk from one end to the other. We started walking through the bush, hoping we would see some rare birds!

Kiwi tracks?

 I might mention at this point Jared has been a pretty good sport about this whole new hobby of mine and actually picks up on bird calls better than me. Anywho, here is a synopsis of the birds we saw. There is some overlap from Milford, so I only included new birds. And yes, Blair I think it would shock you to learn how much time I actually spend taking pictures of birds in the bush. 

In order of increasing size:

Rifleman

I promise there is a bird in there somewhere

This is just a teeny little bird, it flits around making a ‘zit, zit, zit’ noise which can apparently be hard for older people to hear because it is so high pitched. Good thing I’m getting into birds now....

Saddleback

Seeing this bird was the piece de resistance, I was elated. It was right around 4 when we had to be getting our water taxi back, so it was such good luck to see it when we did. It was cruising around the bush, and jumped up on a low-lying branch to sing me a little song. The fact that they nest and breed on the ground has made them particularly susceptible to predation. 

Red and Yellow-Crowned Parakeet

I hadn’t seen parakeet yet, but after seeing them here and hearing them, I realized I had probably heard their calls before without realizing it. 

Kaka

The kaka is of the parrot family, and this guy likes to climb through the trees like a monkey, using it’s beak like a tail. They are really cool to see on the move. 

While on the island we also saw bellbirds, tui, fantail, robins, tomtit and wood pigeon. It was quite a bird party. 

Friendly little Robin

We also came out onto the beach at the same time a sea lion was coming in to have a sunbathe. These guys are massive, the males are about 750 kg, absolutely enormous. 

We arrived back on the mainland of Stewart Island and it was on to the next adventure. It was after 4 pm and we still had to make a 4 hour journey out to Pt. William in the bush. We started biking, which was great when you were going down a hill, not so cool going up. It was a rather gruelling hour getting to the start of the track. 

A chain sculpture meant to signify the connection between Stewart Island and the South Island of New Zealand. 

This was followed by more hills on the actual track. We walked the first part of the Rakiura track. It is one of the DOC’s Great Walks, but between you and me it’s no prize. The main reason we were going out there was to see Kiwi anyway so we just wanted to get to our site before dark. We just made it, we were in time to watch a pretty cool sunset where the whole sky lit up with pinks and yellows. Rakiura is the Maori word for Stewart Island, which means ‘land of glowing skies.’ I now know why :) 

Cool clouds

Oh I forgot to mention that we stopped and made supper right on the track before we reached our camp site for the night. We were hungry and didn't know how much further we had to go. It was a lovely meal of canned butter chicken that we ate out of the pot together. Sometimes you let your manners go a little but when you are out in the bush. 

So back to the story. We set up camp and waited for the sun to set completely. We hung out on the beach for a bit because apparently the Kiwi like to come out onto the sand and dig around for food. That wasn't yielding much so we ventured into the forest. It was pitch black by now, but no Kiwis. There wasn't even any rustling around. We waited a little while longer in vain. I was sad because I really wanted to see a Kiwi.

The next morning we were pretty wrecked from sleeping on the ground in our tiny $17 tent. We had tramped all the way in to hear/ see no Kiwis. On the way back we were rewarded with nice weather and a rather interesting display by two Kaka.

As you can hear by the narration in the video, I came to the realization they were doing big sex after a few moments. They seemed really tired after. It was quite fascinating. They didn’t seem to even notice us. There was lots of bird life on the way back, including tuis, bellbirds, riflemen, robins, fantail and silvereye. 

Walking back

When we finally made it back to Oban, the main town on the island (pop 400), we just blobbed out. A few hours later we finally made a plan to stay one more night and leave the next morning. I still really wanted to see a Kiwi! 

We stayed at a backpackers and that night ventured out into some bush close to town, hoping we would get lucky. It’s not very common to see them here but we were too cheap to take the $140/pp guided kiwi-spotting tour. 

Alas, we didn't come across so much as a rustling. We had got so lucky at Ulva Island to see as many types of birds as we did, so it was very depressing for me that I came all the way to Stewart Island and didn't see one single Kiwi. Travelling can be like that sometimes. You think something is going to be amazing and then it turns out to be a real let-down. On the other hand, something you didn't even plan just happens and it becomes one of your trip highlights. Kind of crazy really. 

The next morning we hopped on the ferry back to Bluff. In Bluff we decided to check out Stirling Point, which although not the southernmost part of the South Island, it still has a monument up. 

The silver chains are on the Bluff side and the red chains are on the Stewart Island side, signifying their connection.