Mid-October, I requested Sunday – Tuesday off and I set my car up for some glamping (because when you have a world map pillowcase, it’s not really camping.) After work on Saturday, I tucked into my car and drove an hour and a half south of Dunedin to Jacks Bay, where I parked my car meters from the high tide line and listened to the waves and the penguins while drinking some wine.
The next morning, I continued my weekend getaway trip south through the Catlins, stopping at Purakanui Falls, Niagara Falls, Curio Bay, and Slope Point before pulling into the ferry terminal at Bluff. I caught the 4:30 ferry across to Stewart Island and settled in to the cushy seat of the Stewart Island Experience catamaran. Paul, the captain, said it might be a bumpy ride, but a few years on a boat taught me that that term is quite relative.
We docked precisely at 5:30 and I waked across the street to the South Seas Hotel, where I secured a room for two nights, and then headed to the bar for the weekly pub quiz.
I love pub quizzes, if you didn’t know. I used to host them back when I lived in Glasgow and my friends and I would gather at the Post Grad Club (sadly, gone) for the weekly quiz. We started taking turns hosting them and it was always highly entertaining and honestly, I’m surprised they let us continue. But it was a good excuse to sit around and drink cider on a weeknight. Anyway. Pub quizzes are my jam and thanks to my crossword habit I have a lot of random knowledge that’s good for these sort of things. I wandered in and got teamed up with a Kiwi and two Aussies; we didn’t come in last, but we didn’t crack the top five either… not a bad showing for a group that didn’t know each other beforehand.
In the morning, I laced up my hiking shoes and checked in to both the Red Shed and the DOC before deciding where I wanted to go. Turns out a leopard Seal had been spotted at Lee Bay, so I decided that sounded like my kind of place. Off I went, walking the narrow roads past Butterfield Beach, Horseshoe Bay, and through the bush before cresting the hill and spotting the rugged coastline before me.
Lee Bay’s coast disappointed me. I sort of wanted a wide rocky beach to walk along, and maybe if the tide had been better I would have gotten that; instead I got a thin strip of seaweed covered rocks, so I abandoned my efforts and kept walking toward Maori Beach.
The walk was stunning, from the coast line to the forest and the rambling hills, then I stumbled onto Maori Beach and the sawmilling relics. There’s a big history of sawmilling on Stewart Island and the local museum does a good job of discussing it. To live out in the bush like those families did would take some serious patience and work, but they did it.
On the walk back, I decided to tackle the Horseshoe Bay loop, which was a massive mistake because my knee was really sore by the end of it and I could barely walk. I was tempted to try to hitch back into town, but by the time I got back to the road I thought I was closer than I really was and ended up just walking the entire way. Limping, actually, was more like it.
I’m writing this well after my trip to Rakiura and so I can give you some more background on my knee. It’s painful. I wish I had been a little more careful in my wandering, but I also have to thank my brother for bringing my ugly knee brace down for me, because it has been a literal lifesaver. I don’t think I would have been able to do all the walking have done since leaving Queenstown without it. If/When I go back to the States, I will have to have it looked at again and get a pro opinion on it….. Not my first choice but it will be better than ruining it in the long run, I think.
That night, I wandered out to the lighthouse and then settled in for a relaxing night. The next morning, the rain came down in sheets so I didn’t do much; I went to the museum and had a few chats with locals, and then caught the ferry back! I highly recommend Stewart Island if you are coming to travel New Zealand. It’s $130 for a round trip ferry and you can leave your car safely at the ferry terminal in Bluff. I didn’t, but you can rent a car or moped on Stewart Island – but there are few roads and you really only need it for half a day.
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