Exploring Oban, Stewart Island – Day 159

Today we are finally making our way to New Zealand’s third island, Stewart Island, a bird sanctuary and a wildlife paradise.

For the next four days we’re gonna be taking a holiday from our gap year.

Alright guys we just arrived in Bluff which is the total complete bottom of the South Island there is no southerner point on the South Island than Bluff and we’re about to board on the ferry to Stewart Island. We have packed all our cameras, all our gears for the next four days on an epic discover of the southernmost island of New Zealand.

The Stewart Island ferry with Real Journeys is a little bit of an operation. We are having to load our backpacks into the containers which are then loaded by crane onto the back of the Stewart Island ferry.

It’s not time to board onto the Stewart Island ferry which we’re taking with Real Journeys today they daily departures from Bluff to Oban and back. And we’re taking the morning ferry.

Our destination is the little township of Oban which is the only town in Stewart Island and the cruise to get there is a little bit rocky although it’s a beautiful day there is a lot of waves and Laura won’t admit it but she’s getting a little bit scared and also a little bit seasick.

However, we’re having an awesome time because the skipper is giving us a lot of commentaries and a lot of very fun facts and also a lot of really bad jokes and you guys all know that i’m very very fond of very bad jokes.

Arriving in Oban really feels like arriving in a beautiful holiday destination. The water is absolutely stunning. The sun is out and everybody seems super relaxed. the pace of life here feels very different than anywhere else I’ve ever been.

The whole place is so inviting that the first thing that Laura and I want to do is walk along the beach. It’s an amazing area. Every single one of the beach, even the one right in town, is golden sand bathed in turquoise waters. it’s amazing.

Because it’s getting around to midday we’re starting to get a little peckish and we’re trying to find somewhere to have lunch nothing seems to be open today except for the Four Square supermarket so we go and get ourselves some cheap eats for a little bit of a picnic on the beach.

The really awesome thing about Stewart Island is that the locals are super friendly there’s only a population of 400 people and a few dogs here and obviously they’re happy to see new people so they’re super keen to talk to us.

After following the advice from the local we were just talking to, she suggests that we head toward the east side of Oban where there are some walking tracks along the coast. It only takes us about 10 minutes for us to reach a really awesome beach and we make our way through beautiful forest along the way,

On our way to Bathing Beach which is where we’re gonna be spending the afternoon there are awesome views overlooking the whole bay. It’s a really cool place to spend some time and actually just embrace the slower pace of life which is right here in Stewart Island. And before we arrive at the beach itself we stop at the little lookout and we get to see heaps from the awesome views to the amazing wildlife.

I’m not 100% sure what type of bird that is but I think it’s one type of heron and they look really different than the heron we usually see on the mainland of New Zealand. Those ones are really grey and white and much bigger than what we’ve seen so far. It’s really awesome.

Despite Stewart Island being the closest place to the Antarctica that probably Laura and I will ever get to it is an amazing weather. It was really cold back on New Zealand mainland but right here it’s stunning weather and the beach looks amazing it literally feels like we arrive in Samoa or Fiji or something.

But before we relax, you guys know us, we can;t stop ourselves from walking along the entire length of the beach.

So after making our way along the beach and exploring the bit of the area, Laura and I find a lovely little spot to relax for the afternoon.

This gives us plenty of time to decide what we’re gonna be doing here on Stewart Island and there is heaps to do here and we have elected to go do some jade carving, we also want to do a massive hike in the Rakiura National Park which is one of the biggest parts of Stewart Island, it covers over 80% of the island and we also want to take a flight above the whole canopy.

There is also awesome bird sanctuaries that we have to check out. that’s a massive plan for the next four days. But before it gets dark we are heading toward the local cinema, because yes there is a cinema on Stewart Island.

This is activity that has been recommended to us the most from the crew on Real Journeys boat to the local information centre and even the local that we met when we were having lunch.

The Bunkhouse Theatre is a really cool and quirky cinema and it shows one movie which is A Local’s Tail which shows the history of Stewart Island from a dog’s perspective. Anyway, that’s it from us for today but join us tomorrow as we do a more in-depth exploration of Stewart Island.

We need to get some lunch so nothing is really open at the moment except for the Four Square so Robin gets us some reduced priced pies. Thanks Robin. And… Robin treats us to some pies yet again with budget in mind when we don’t have budget bread, Robin makes sure that budget in mind is the key thing of our lunch and we are having reduced priced pies. Nonetheless, it does the job. I have some pizza as well, reduced price, Don’s you worry.