mattys traveblog part 2: Steward Island - 1.1.2013

On the first of january, I could sleep a tiny little bit longer, but not that long. I had to check out at 11 am from the hostel in Invercargrill. After that I guess I cooked some lunch and then had to wait until about 15:30, when our bus driver brought me and 2 other people to the ferry terminal in Bluff. So all in all we were only 3 people who went to Stewart island. All the others went back to Queenstown that day. At the ferry terminal we cecked in our luggage and then at 5 pm the ferry started. The journey from bluff to Stewart island lasted about an hour. The island itself is only about 35 km away, so if the weather conditions are not too bad you can see the island at the horizon while standing at the ferry terminal. After our arrival at Stewart island we checked in into the hostel. Then I cooked some green Thai curry for dinner, which took me ages, because it was so busy in the kitchen. The curry was not bad but a bit too spicy. I don't like it if things are to spicy, because I think this destroys the natural flavour of the food.

On the 2nd of January I got up quite early. I decided to go for a walk to the lighthouse at Ackers Point, because people told me that penguins can be seen there. Before I started my walk I chose to go to the harbor again to the information centre quickly, because I wanted to find out where exactly penguins could be seen. The girl at the office told me that penguins could only be seen in the evening, because during daytime they were out on the sea for fishing. Nevertheless i decided to walk to the lighthouse in hope, that i might see a penguin nevertheless.

half moon bay on the way to the Ackers Point light house

On the way to the lighthouse i met a local from the island, who said something like, "nice day - not?!" Which i found a bit strange, because the complete sky was covered in clouds, and it looked like it could start to rain every second. But yes as i found out later, on this island it rains almost 365 days per year! So i guess as long as it is not raining it is really a nice day on this island :).

Ackers Point Lighthouse

When i arrived at the lighthouse i couldn*t see and penguins, but i was surprised to see seals on the rocks, where i would have expected penguins :). One of the seals was very active and "walking" around, which was really nice, because usually the seals just lie on their rocks and sleep, and do nothing.

Seal at Ackers Point Lighthouse

Seal at Ackers Point Lighthouse 2

After my trip to the lighthouse i returned to the hostel to have lunch. In the afternoon i decided to go for a second walk, and check out the other side of the bay. There i found a beautiful lonely beach. On the map i had it said that there should be a walking trek along this beach, which goes kind of back to the hostel.
I couldn*t see any path so i decided to walk along the rocks near the beach, in order to see weather i could perhaps find a path beyond the rocks. I walked as far as i could along the rocks until i came to a point, where i would have had to climb across a chasm. Because i was alone and i am not an experienced climber, i decided to go back, the same way i came. Before i went back i made the following picture of the coast. Beyond these rocks you can see the small lonely beach , where i came from.

beach, picture taken while standing on the rocks

After this small trip to the beach, i went back to the hostel, where i decided to wait until about 9 pm. My plan was to go out again in the evening in order to perhaps see some of the blue penguins at the lighthouse. So at about 9 pm i started to walk to the lighthouse. I waited there for ages. The sunset was a bit strange, because there were so many clouds, but nevertheless the colors were quite pretty. After waiting there for ages, i was about to give up. Because it was already dark. And my chances got lower to see a penguin in the dark. Apart from that i was the only one at the lighthouse. At the moment when i wanted to go back, to other persons showed up at the lighthouse. They told me that they live in Christchurch, and come to this island often for holiday, and that they come to the lighthouse often in the evening in order to see the penguins and the Titi. They were carrying red torch lights, which are better if you want to see animals at night, because they don*t scare the animals so much. So we waited some more minutes at the lighthouse, and then suddenly all around us there were noises of the penguins and the titi which were coming back from the sea. You could see the titi birds flying around the lighthouse, and one after another they were crashing into the bushes like airplanes having a crash landing. Unfortunately we couldn't see any of the penguins. We waited a bit longer, and then we so one single penguin hiding in the bush. Maybe they knew that we were there and were afraid to climb back into their nests. The two Newzealanders told me that usually you can see lots of the penguins.
Maybe we just had an unlucky night. But in general i guess it is a bit hard to see the penguins at this lighthouse, because they can only be seen after sunset, when they climb back into their nests.

sunset as seen from Ackers Point Lighthouse

On the 3rd of January i went for a walk to the so called "Horse Shoe Bay", with two girls from my hostel. The bay which our hostel lies in is by the way called the "Halfmoon Bay". The Path to the Halfmoon Bay was about 3.5 km away. On this way we saw some nice bays and beaches, one of them was called the "Dead Man's Beach".