It’s been a few days since I posted. Last place we were was
Invercargill. On Monday morning,
we got up early and headed to the ferry at Bluff, which is about 20 minutes
away. The day was threatening
rain, but the winds were calm. We
had a nice trip over to Stewart Island – easy we thought! After taking care of a few items before
we caught our water taxi, John got a short nap between raindrops.
The water taxi was smooth sailing and he dropped us off in
what seemed the middle of nowhere.
We hiked for a little over 3 hours and made it to Mason Bay Hut. My main goal in going here was to
possibly spot the illusive kiwi.
At the hut, we walked to the beach and saw a bunch of oyster catchers
(birds). The weather was
definitely turning bad and windy.
It rained a lot on our hike in, but the wind wasn’t too bad. That night, we stayed out until 11:30
looking for the kiwi.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see one, but we did hear them calling which was
good enough for us! I planned on
getting up early and looking, but the weather was really bad. Very windy and rainy until about
7:00. We did look in the morning,
but again didn’t see any. There
were about 10 people at the hut that night finishing or doing other treks. Four others were heading out our way
that morning to catch the water taxi home. This time, getting from Freshwater Landing Hut to Golden Bay
was very windy and big waves. We
checked into our hostel and enjoyed the rest of the day.
The next morning, Wednesday, we checked out and headed for
our trip to Ulva Island for hiking and bird watching. This island is one island in New Zealand where all the rats,
stoats, weasels, etc. have been eradicated. There were 4 other people crazy enough to want to go over
because today, the winds were HOWLING!!!
Our driver got us over there, we spent 3 hours walking around looking at
plants and birds between hail, and came back. We found out
later that all other trips to Ulva Island were cancelled for the day. It’s funny because we were told they
always go to the island – no matter the weather.
Upon arriving at the place we ate lunch, we found out that
all the ferry trips from Oban to Bluff were cancelled! We were told they NEVER cancelled the
ferry unless it was REALLY bad. I
think it was REALLY bad. I heard
the winds were over 125 kms per hour out on the water. I believe it. The squalls kept coming through as they had the last few
days, but the weather was definitely colder and windier. We went to the ferry to collect our
backpacks which we left that morning, found a hostel for the night, cancelled
our hostel in Invercargill, and just enjoyed the time. There wasn’t much else to do. I do have to say, it was COLD! I packed just the opposite. On our first hut hike, I took all my
cold weather gear since we were heading near glaciers. It was hot. This time, I left my cold weather gear because everyone said
it wouldn’t be cold, and it was!
No heat in the hostel and this morning it was 42° with 100% humidity! Cold!
Anyway, we finally got on the ferry this morning at 8:00 and
had a VERY bumpy ride back to Bluff.
It’s about an hour ride, and if it would have been even a few minutes
more, I’m not sure any of us would have kept anything down. We were all laughing at first going
over the big waves and crashing down, but the closer we got to Bluff, the
bigger the waves and there were about 3 times that we actually came all the way
out of our seats. No one was
laughing now…
We drove to Dunedin via the scenic route, but didn’t stop
because it was pouring. We visited
the campus to find out about his housing key, but will be leaving his bag at
the Uni Flat Office instead of his flat.
So we found our hostel for the next few days, Hogwartz, and it’s a great
place. We will go sightseeing
around town tomorrow, out to see the penguins and albatross on Saturday, and
packing bags for John’s flight out on Sunday.
Dunedin is a beautiful town, but very large. There are so many neat buildings and
hopefully I’ll post some pictures in the coming days. It’s very hilly here as well. All’s good and I’m glad we are in Dunedin. I think John is excited! Oh – and the hostel has a guitar so
guess what he’s doing?
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