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Don't Leave Town Till You've Seen The Country: Stewart Island
The title refers to a world famous in New Zealand 1980s promotion to get New Zealanders to stop zapping off overseas and instead spend their tourist dollars at home. It wasn't all that effective, to be honest. In normal times, Kiwis take about 3 million overseas trips a year, which out of a population of 5 million can only be described as staggering. It's not like we don't want to see our own country. International tourists tell us all the time how gorgeous it is. But we figure we can see it...later. You know, after we've seen everything else.
This last year, however, we haven't had much choice. Contrary to the fervid beliefs of the online conspiracy theorists, there's nothing stopping us leaving. But with #zeroCovid at home, why would we? Oh yes, and the return quarantine bill totalling several thousand dollars for people travelling voluntarily is also a bit of a disincentive, to be fair. So with no overseas visitors over the last year, Kiwis have done their best to prop up our ailing tourist industry and see their own country at last. It's actually the opportunity of a lifetime because seeing places without the usual tourist press is an amazing privilege.
I did a trip last December to Stewart Island and the lower South Island: I didn't talk about it at the time, as most people in the world were stuck within four walls and it seemed a tad insensitive. But now with things opening up I'm going to do some posts about it (and inflict my holiday photos on people other than my nearest and dearest).
Like a lot of New Zealanders, I was particularly keen to go to places I'd always wanted to visit but had never got around to. And again like a lot of New Zealanders, number one on my list was Stewart Island. Here's where it is on the map, and please do take a moment to marvel at my exquisite Photoshop skills:
I live in Auckland, so Stewart Island or Rakiura, its Maori name, is pretty much as far as I can go and still be at home. It's about 1700 square kilometres or 674 square miles, most of it is a national park, and it has 400ish residents. You can fly there, but I love boats, so the ferry for the 30 km/19 mile trip from the mainland was a no-brainer. Here's what you see as the ferry docks: the bustling metropolis of Oban. It wouldn't be fair to say that it's the island's largest settlement, because it is in fact the island's only settlement.
It was pretty. And like the ferry, it was thronged. I am not by a long shot the only Kiwi who's always wanted to go here. Thronged on Rakiura is, however, relative. We were staying at an Airbnb a bit out of Oban, and once we'd driven out of Oban in the car that came with the property, we didn't see a single other car on the road. Not in four days. This is the view from the back of the Airbnb:
There are kiwi living in that tree-y growth you can see, and they apparently often run across the lawn at night, but sadly we never saw them. Kiwi as our national bird are a massive deal here and very few people have seen them in the wild. I'll have to go back and try again. What a tragedy. The little piece of track you can glimpse where the gate is is the start of the Rakiura Track, one of New Zealand's official Great Walks. It's a 32km loop that takes three days to do and is beautiful, apparently. I wouldn't know, but I did find it very soothing watching the odd hiker, or tramper as we call them locally, puffing past as I lounged on the lawn in the sun.
I didn't really know what to expect on Stewart Island, but something that was a total surprise was the absolutely stunning beaches. I had to keep leaping out of the car and taking photos. Here's one of them and an equally lovely estuary:
The weather in early December was too cold to swim, but the water was so amazingly clear that it was difficult to restrain myself from racing in anyway. Lucky I did, as on a later boat trip I saw that the water was full of jellyfish. Damn you, Nature.
I think that's enough for one go. Tomorrow: Ulva Island Bird Sanctuary!
This last year, however, we haven't had much choice. Contrary to the fervid beliefs of the online conspiracy theorists, there's nothing stopping us leaving. But with #zeroCovid at home, why would we? Oh yes, and the return quarantine bill totalling several thousand dollars for people travelling voluntarily is also a bit of a disincentive, to be fair. So with no overseas visitors over the last year, Kiwis have done their best to prop up our ailing tourist industry and see their own country at last. It's actually the opportunity of a lifetime because seeing places without the usual tourist press is an amazing privilege.
I did a trip last December to Stewart Island and the lower South Island: I didn't talk about it at the time, as most people in the world were stuck within four walls and it seemed a tad insensitive. But now with things opening up I'm going to do some posts about it (and inflict my holiday photos on people other than my nearest and dearest).
Like a lot of New Zealanders, I was particularly keen to go to places I'd always wanted to visit but had never got around to. And again like a lot of New Zealanders, number one on my list was Stewart Island. Here's where it is on the map, and please do take a moment to marvel at my exquisite Photoshop skills:
I live in Auckland, so Stewart Island or Rakiura, its Maori name, is pretty much as far as I can go and still be at home. It's about 1700 square kilometres or 674 square miles, most of it is a national park, and it has 400ish residents. You can fly there, but I love boats, so the ferry for the 30 km/19 mile trip from the mainland was a no-brainer. Here's what you see as the ferry docks: the bustling metropolis of Oban. It wouldn't be fair to say that it's the island's largest settlement, because it is in fact the island's only settlement.
It was pretty. And like the ferry, it was thronged. I am not by a long shot the only Kiwi who's always wanted to go here. Thronged on Rakiura is, however, relative. We were staying at an Airbnb a bit out of Oban, and once we'd driven out of Oban in the car that came with the property, we didn't see a single other car on the road. Not in four days. This is the view from the back of the Airbnb:
There are kiwi living in that tree-y growth you can see, and they apparently often run across the lawn at night, but sadly we never saw them. Kiwi as our national bird are a massive deal here and very few people have seen them in the wild. I'll have to go back and try again. What a tragedy. The little piece of track you can glimpse where the gate is is the start of the Rakiura Track, one of New Zealand's official Great Walks. It's a 32km loop that takes three days to do and is beautiful, apparently. I wouldn't know, but I did find it very soothing watching the odd hiker, or tramper as we call them locally, puffing past as I lounged on the lawn in the sun.
I didn't really know what to expect on Stewart Island, but something that was a total surprise was the absolutely stunning beaches. I had to keep leaping out of the car and taking photos. Here's one of them and an equally lovely estuary:
The weather in early December was too cold to swim, but the water was so amazingly clear that it was difficult to restrain myself from racing in anyway. Lucky I did, as on a later boat trip I saw that the water was full of jellyfish. Damn you, Nature.
I think that's enough for one go. Tomorrow: Ulva Island Bird Sanctuary!