  Stewart Island
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 36 Stewart Island Tips.73 Stewart Island Photos.0 Stewart Island Videos. Stewart Island Pages by TheWanderingCamel
| Page Views: 231 Last Visit to Stewart Island: March, 2008 | New Zealand's Third Island by TheWanderingCamel - last update: Apr 12, 2008 |
An hour by ferry from the flat, windswept southern tip of New Zealand's South Island, Stewart Island is a beautiful green gem set down in the chilly waters of the Southern Ocean.
With just one small township (Oban, pop 400) and only 26 km of road, the island's golden beaches, rocky coves and forest- and fern-clad hills are mostly given over to Rakiura National Park. An excellent network of walking tracks give access into the wilder reaches of the park for those with time for an extended visit and fishing, birdwatching, mountain biking and kayaking will keep others happy for days, but we had just one day before we had to move north from Invercargill to our rendezvous with Wanaka's Warbirds so were not too sure whether to do the trip or not - we'd wait to see what the weather was like in the morning.
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|  | Five hours on the island Waking to a clear, bright sky and the promise of a fine day, our minds were made up, so it was off to Bluff to the ferry, and fingers crossed for a smooth sailing - the Foveaux Strait that seperates Stewart Island from the South Island is notoriously rough crossing! We couldn't have wished for a finer day - not only did we get a smooth crossing, it turned out the day we made our visit was the warmest day the island had experienced all summer, a perfect 28 degrees.
A day trip to Stewart Island gives you just five hours on the island. Once there you have several choices of how to spend that time. Sightseers can opt for a tour that will show them most of the sights accessible by road and includes a short guided walk. There are different short cruises on offer. Those into pedal power can hire a mountain bike whilst cars and motor scooters are available for short term hire for the less energetic. Maps of walking trails are available, some of which are suitable for a short visit.
You'll need tp spend a night on the island if you're to have a chance of experiencing the wonderful colours of sunset and sunrise that give Stewart Island its Maori name - Rakiura - land of the glowing skies. If you're really lucky, you might catch the Aurora Australis setting the whole night sky aglow. That's something we had to leave for another time, the few hours we did manage to spend certainly left us thinking we'd be back.
leyle |
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 Comments for TheWanderingCamel about Stewart Island | | | | |
scottishvisitor Sun May 25, 2008 17:55 UTC
Lovely page with a very different Oban but I see they have the ferries in common!! | cnango Sat May 10, 2008 21:52 UTC
Your beautiful pictures & descriptive tips really made this Virtual tour enjoyable. I love NZ & hope to vist this area some day. | toonsarah Sat May 10, 2008 19:44 UTC
Such a beautiful spot - so tranquil-looking! Thank you for sharing it with us :) | MalenaN Sun May 4, 2008 10:43 UTC
What a beautiful island! Looks like a great place for hiking, especially when the weather is as nice as you had! |
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