barrantes tour and travel: 46' South: Scooting around Stewart Island

With a mere 7 weeks left in this fine country, Todd and I are making our way through our final list of places to visit and things to do. Even though everyone here thought we were crazy, we went to Stewart Island and back in a day last Sunday and loved it.

Stewart Island sits south of New Zealand's South Island, 30 k south west of Bluff between latitudes 46 and 47 degrees south. Also known by it's Maori name, Rakiura, Stewart Island has an important role in the Maori legend about how New Zealand came to be, serving as the anchor for Maui's canoe.

To get to Stewart Island, you have to drive to Bluff, the southernmost tip of State Highway 1. From Bluff, you take a ferry across the Foveaux Strait which can get pretty hairy in bad weather. Our plan was to watch the weather and when a nice day without wind crossed our path, we would head to Rakiura for the day.

Todd at the Bluff sign post

Sunday, April 10th proved to be the beautiful day we were looking for. We tracked the weather all week and bought our ferry tickets on Saturday. Sunday morning, we left the house at 5:10am (ugh!) and arrived in Invercargill at 7:30am, just in time for breakfast and a couple of lattes and flat whites. From Invercargill, it's a 20 minute drive to Bluff, and we got there in time to go to the famous Bluff signpost, marking the southern end of State Highway 1. We've already been to the northern end of State Highway 1, Cape Reinga, so it was pretty cool to have made it to the other end.

At the Cape Reinga signpost in December

Cape Reinga signpost: Bluff 1452 kms away

Bluff signpost: Cape Reinga 1401 kms away...huh?

The hour ferry ride over to Stewart Island was great. A bit bouncy because we were moving so fast, but nothing too scary. It's reassuring that you can see Stewart Island from Bluff and vice versa. It would still be a long swim.

We had rented scooters to scoot around the teeny tiny part of the island that is not national park. Having never ridden a motorcycle or anything like that before, I was a bit nervous about the scooters. After a little spin near the rental office though, I was feeling confident enough to head out into the streets.

Our first destination was Ackers Point Lighthouse. After a 10 minute scoot and a 20 minute walk, we were treated to lovely views of some of the Mutton Bird islands off the east coast of Stewart Island.

Us and the lighthouse

Mutton Bird islands in the background

Jumping in Harrold Bay, just off the track to Ackers Point

From there, we scooted on over to Ringaringa Beach and Reverand Wohlers Monument which I didn't actually take a picture of. Oops.

View from the paddock where the monument is located

After a fish & chips lunch break at the Lonely Planet recommended Kai Kart, we scooted over to the Rakiura National Park Gateway. Rakiura National Park covers 85% of Stewart Island and is filled with hiking trails (tramping tracks), amazing beaches, wildlife, and more of the beautiful forests we've seen throughout New Zealand. Although it can be "comfortably tramped in 3 days" according to the website, Todd and I only had time to walk about 20 minutes down the track before having to turn around and head back out.

There is a huge chain sculpture at the entrance to the Rakiura track and an identical one across the Strait at Bluff. These sculptures represent how Stewart Island was the anchor to Maui's canoe (which became the South Island).

The Stewart Island half of the chain

The other half of the chain at Bluff

After returning our scooters, we grabbed a beer at the (one) pub and chatted with some Kiwis who we'd kept crossing paths with all day. While waiting to board the ferry for the trip back, we were surrounded by wild albatross, flying and swimming around the docks. They are HUGE! Royal Albatross have wingspans of 9 feet, and the albatross flying around Stewart Island had about a 6 foot wingspan.