Laura and I are in Sydney now, and we’re cranking on a few blog posts to get this dang blog up-to-date for the last few days we spent in New Zealand. So, without further ado…
The deep south tour took us from Queenstown to Milford Sound (and Gunn’s Camp, a lovely little spot which you’ve no doubt already read about), down to Invercargill and on a ferry for an overnight on Stewart Island, then back up the Catlins Coast to Dunedin, finally looping back into Queenstown. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, but one that we’re glad we took!
Lustin in Bluff, the southernmost point of the south islandInvercargill — famously described by Mick Jagger as “the asshole of the world” — was a bit of a depressing place, really. Not much going on, lots and lots of empty storefronts (although that’s not unique these days), and not a heck of a lot to see. Their mayor ran with the campaign slogan “I want to be mayor, and I don’t care where”, and I guess Invercargill was where he finally got the votes. Fortunately, we didn’t stay long there since we were on an 11AM ferry down to Stewart Island, the island at the bottom of the south island, to spend the afternoon and night.
The ferry ride was pretty quick, but it did have an exciting moment or two. The funniest (in a Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom sort of way) involved a wayward sea bird that one of the crew had found in a neighbor’s garden in Invercargill that morning. He had the little guy in a shoe box, and he took the bird around the boat to show everyone before the captain navigated the ferry close to a nearby island that’s designated as a bird sanctuary. As passengers looked on, the crew released the bird and it started flying just above the water (a little wobbly, but confident) towards the island. Things were looking good, and the captain was talking about how the bird would probably fly to the island and find more of its own kind to live with, when… two other, larger birds entered the scene. They were flying fast towards the smaller bird, and before we know what had happened, one of them had the little one in his beak! It was a real “circle of life” experience, and everyone shared an uncomfortable laugh about the whole thing. Who knew there were predatory birds that ate birds??
Our stay on Stewart Island was very peaceful and all-too-brief. After a really kick-ass lunch at the Kai Kart (literally a mobile home that has been turned into a semi-permanent restaurant), Laura and I wandered around the little town of Oban and took an extended walk on some of the trails and beaches nearby. We dined at one of only two restaurants in town, had a now-all-too-familiar “Lustin doesn’t think we got the room/table/seat we deserved and aren’t afraid to speak up about it” experience (it truly was a real f-up on their part, since we’d made a reservation and lost the one remaining table with a view to a pushy guy with no reservation, but hey, it’s not San Francisco), but we managed to enjoy the dinner and the rest of our evening there anyway.
The Stray crew barely hangs on to the world’s steepest streetWe caught an early ferry the next morning back to Invercargill, where Ricky and the Stray bus were waiting for us. The drive up the through the Catlins was pretty rainy and *really* windy, but we made a few stops along the way to see sea lions on the beach, look for penguins, and otherwise take in the scenery. We stayed one night in Dunedin, which is a very charming little Scottish city. Not many highlights there, aside from the entertaining (and mildly intoxicating) tour we took of the Speights Brewery and climbing up the world’s steepest street.