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Deborahs journey
25th may
i obviously wasnt used to having a proper dinner as i was nt very well today. however we had to leave Curio bay where it was really frosty very very cold and still dark so we could get to Invercargill by 8.30 for Moira and i to get a shuttle tobluff and the ferry to Stewart Island. luckily the bus ride was only an hour and just survived the journey!! We thn got the shuttle to Bluff which took half an hour. From here we got the catamaran ferry to S. is. this only took an hour and the sea was calm. i slept most of the way so was unaware of the scenary! S is. is mainly national park and Oban is the only area where people live. it has a small supermarket, a cafe, resturant and hotel which has a bar and serves food. We were told not to book our hostel so we headed straight to S. Is backpacker where we intended to stay however they had a school group there and were fully booked. We then walked to the info centre where they were able to sort us out. As it was the hotel is owned by the same people as the hostel so the lady arrnaged for us to stay in hotel for one night as hostel rate the go to hostel for the last three nights! we got to the hotel and we had a single room each with an electric blanket and was really nice. i had a nap for half an hour then we headed out to look around the 'town', went to the cafe where moira had some lunch. we then went on two little walks around the area. the second one took us to Observation rock which had views back across halfmoon bay and the sea. we walked back to the hostel and i slept for a few hours before Moira woke me up. We then went to the bar for some dinner. i only had some wedges as i wasnt really hungary. i was in bed and asleep by 8.30pm!!
26th May
when i woke up i felt a bit better and we checked out of the hotel and walked around to the hostel. There was noone around when we got there so we left our bags there and went to supermarket so we could get some bread for lunch, when we got back reception was open (to coincide with the ferry arriving) we checked in had some breakfast, made some lucnh and then went for a walk to ackers point and the lighthoue. it was a warmer day then yesturday but raining. The walk goes past Ackers house which is the orginal 'house' that the acker family lived in many years ago. after walking to the lighthouse we came back and had our lunch in the house! there was a seal asleep in the bushes outside. we got back to hostel kmid afternoon and a few more people had arrived there. in the eveing a group of men who had come to the island to fish let ustry some blue cod and trumpeter that they had caught today which were really nice.
27th may
Today we caught a water taxi across to Ulva island, which is just a small island 10mins away which is now a sanctury for birds. We walked around the island birdwatching. we saw a kaka, nz robins, wekas, fantails, tui's, oyster catchers., kukupa and some parakeets. it was quiet a successful day. i really wanted to see a kiwi but as they were nocturnal i didnt see any. at 4.30pm we got the water taxi back to S is and went to the shop to get something for dinner. Cooked up a nice feast and had another quiet evening!
28th May
got up early today so we could do a full day walk. We walked along the road to Lees bay where the road ends and we enter the national park. From here we walked through the rainforest following the edge of the beach, we ad to walk along the beach to continue with the track. we eventually got to maori beach which was were we were stopping and had lunch in a little shelter there. it had been spitting most of the way but got heavy as we had lunch. we then walked back throught the rainforest until we got to the beach we had walked along before. as the tide had come in we needed to find the high tide track to be able to cross the beach. however there was no sign this side of the beach unlike the other side, we managed to find a path which we followed and was going around the bay so we continued on this path. it did disapear as we got to the end and was very muddy but it did bring us out the other side so we were ok. continued back along the road and to the hostel. The walk took us around 6 hours to complete. had a nice dinner and a quiet evening
29th may
we were getting the ferry back to bluff at 3pm so we were planning a quiet day. After checking out we made some breakfast went to the tiny musuem looked in the few gift shops, got some postcards and went to the cafe next to the church at a top of the hill to see the views and have sme lunch. back to the hostel we played cards until it was time for the ferry. the crossing was smooth and it was a nice day and i was able to enjoy the views this time.
we stayed in Invercargill the night, where the hostel was very quiet and were back in civilisation with mobile signal!
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