Stewart Island: A Gem in New Zealand

After Covid was eradicated in New Zealand – last May, New Zealanders got out to explore their own country. I joined a Facebook group for traveling locally, New Zealand, so we could find where the locals were going. Stewart Island kept coming up as a bucket list destination in New Zealand for New Zealanders. Up until now we had not been to Stewart Island. Stewart Island is a small, mostly undisturbed small island south of the south island. Only one small corner of the island is inhabited, probably 5% of so.

We have made a trek the length of the south island with the goal of getting to Stewart. It was surprisingly hard to find accommodation and get transportation to the island. Lots of people try to ferry or fly over and leave the same day. We managed to line up accommodation for three consecutive nights, but then could not get a ferry ticket for the right days. So we are flying. As is often the way with travel, getting there is half the fun.

The straight between the two islands is supposed to be very rough. Deciding between ferry and flying is described as either an hour of horror or 15 minutes of sheer terror. We are going with the terror.  The plane seats 8 with a ninth passenger sitting in the copilot’s seat.

We have a bach with an unobstructed view of a desolate beach about a half hour walk from town. A “bach” is a beach house; usually fairly rustic cottages that have been kept in the family. It comes with a Rav 4. Sounds perfect for us. Unfortunately rain and high winds are in the forecast for all four of our days. 

Our number one plan is to take a ferry to yet another smaller island. Ulva Island, is totally predator free and native animal (aka birds) dense. It is the only place where one may spot a kiwi in daylight. This nocturnal bird has gone toward the light on this island. A second event we are keen to do is a day of hiking: we will get flown to the tip of the island landing on a beach, so timing is tide dependent. Then hike four hours and get picked up by a water taxi at the end of this trail.

The overarching goal of this trip is to spot a kiwi. Most New Zealanders never see a kiwi in the wild; nonetheless, I have decided it is something I must see before we leave. 

Flight started smooth, but ended like a rollercoaster. The bach is exactly as described: gorgeous easterly view, serviceable car and rustic. It will be fine once we get a fire going and warm this place up. Weather is promising to be as forecast too – not good news. There is one restaurant (booked), two take out trailers (kiwi food trucks), one closed tonight, and one small grocery store, mostly picked over by the time we got there. We are having single serve packets of dried pasta for dinner tonight.

The pasta was surprisingly satisfying; we got the fire going after almost burning down the bach. Note for the future, no matter how wet the kindling is, it should not be left unintended drying on the top of the wood burning stove. No kiwi sighting tonight. Tomorrow we wake up for the first ferry to Ulva Island.

We took the first ferry to Ulva and the last one back. The boarding pass for the ferry was written on a leaf we needed to keep for the return trip. Most of the island’s inhabitant birds we spotted, but no kiwi. We walked around the whole island once, then again, and most of a third; hiking from 9am to 4pm. It rained a little, but not much. A thing about rainforests: it rains a lot, but the rain hardly ever reaches you on the ground; the canopy works like a huge umbrella. The best picture I took all day was from the pier of a jellyfish in the crystal clear water. After getting back to Stewart, we spent much of the evening trying to spot a kiwi on our own to no avail. 

Next day we did two different two hour hikes, beautiful scenery, no kiwi. So finally we brought in a professional guide to lead us to this elusive, rare bird. Sure enough, two more hours of tramping through tall wet grass (my waterproof hikers, are not as advertised), and we have seen some kiwis in the wild. One trotted right past us on the trail – they cannot see very well and hardly knew we were there. They are much bigger than we thought – turkey size. Their beaks are more than a foot long.  Kiwi are heavy footed, they have stout legs that could support a much larger bird. They chuffle and grunt constantly. Kiwi move constantly, dipping their beaks into the ground in such a rhythm it seems they are using the beak as a cane. They are not pretty, they do not make a pleasant song, but I am starting to see how they endear people. It is extremely rare to see kiwi in the wild, we feel very lucky. Another lucky break for these most lucky wanderers.

I do not have a great picture to share. This was one of those occasions when you would feel really dumb if you wasted the moment trying to get a picture instead of enjoying the moment. It is really bad to hit kiwi with white light, so a flash going off would be criminal. We had video running, but not good enough to post. So, go to Stewart Island and spot your own kiwi people.

As we left our bach this morning we had an upside down parrot staring us in the eye under the eaves. It was a one legged Kaka bidding us goodbye. Nice send off.