The Anchor of New Zealand - Stewart Island

Let me set the scene....

The story goes down here, that New Zealand was created by a fishing incident to put it bluntly.

Maui, who was an important but young demi-God, was being a bit cheeky and had hidden in his brothers boat as they had gone out fishing. When they discovered him out at sea they scolded him but let him stay. However Maui was quite unaware of the powers he possessed. He decided though to throw his magical fishing hook over the boat and see what he could catch and after a while got a very large bite. It was much to big to be any normal fish and all of a sudden a huge fish burst out the water. This became the North Island of NZ and had many scars left on it where the brothers beat the fish with their clubs and weapons, these scars are the many hills and valleys of the North Island. The Maori call it Te Ika a Maui (The fish of Maui)

The South Island therefore is Maui's canoe where he and his brothers were happily fishing from, known in Maori as Te Waka a Maui (The canoe of Maui). That leads us nicely to Stewart Island, known in Maori as Te Punga a Maui (Mauis anchor). This held the canoe in place while the brothers reeled the fish in and that my friends is where todays story begins!

We were going to Stewart island and for an treat and for me to avoid going on a boat mainly, we decided to fly over. We got the first flight of the day at 8.30am, it was about a 10-seater plane, including the pilot and was very noisy. It was cool though and the whole system very sweet, you know the same person that checks you in and takes your bags also flys the plane. Anyway it was a very crisp morning but the sun was creeping up gradually and we hadnt planned to do anything over there except walk.

The flight was only about 30 minutes so we had plenty of time to wander around really, it seemed a little colder over on the island but we had wrapped up well. We went and popped to see the people at the DOC centre (Dept. Of Conservation) and headed off from the islands main hub, Oban.

The island has a population of about 400 people and is also completely a national park, called Rakiura or glowing skies, due to its famous sunsets but also as a good place to see the Aurora Australis, or southern lights. The islands also home to many many birds, the main thing for which its famous, because they haven't got any of those introduced pesties like foxes and possums over there.

Anyway we were just simply walking. We did a brisk  2hours walk to a place called Lee Bay where an art installation of a huge chain is. This represents the anchor connection and is a cool idea I think ,its also simply a nice beach of course. There were also some other lovely clean beaches on the way to and fro and some great views as usual. Am sure in the Summer i would've taken a dip but definitely not today. We then walked the 2hours back to Oban.

After lunch we found a seal in a bush. Yes it was alive and seemed to be having a bad day maybe. It was quite a way from the beach and up a concrete slope and across one of the busiest roads on the island. It didnt seem to want our help though and then decided to do a smelly fart and use it cleverly designed rear flippers to waft it at us, hmm gratitude eh. We went and told the DOC centre who showed some pretend interest but we're sure it was quite normal and a bit like the requests Si use to get at Dinton when a panther was seen up a tree!

We did another little hill walk and then mosied around mostly until it was time to fly back to lovely Invercargill again. At 4.30 we were back on the little plane and got the good window seats again, ha ha! This time the sun was getting ready to set, so it was well worth the extra few dollars than a spewy ferry crossing and made even greater photo ops.

We were both pretty worn out but had a really great day, even if it did involve just walking, I must be getting use to it now or Si must be drugging me??. We then had dinner and I spent the rest of the evening making Si a special birthday cake in an oven from the 1940s, as the next day was the 7th.

Hope you;'ve enjoyed my highly educational story today, tests will be emailed next week ok!

Anyway that'll do for now. Hope that this finds you well.

Stay in touch and thanks for stopping by

All our love

Jem and Si XXX