Stewart Island, Part 1

This week I had so many adventures, I don't even know how I'll ever share all of them. I spent last weekend hanging around at home, relaxing, nothing too exciting. The real fun started on Monday when I set off for Stewart Island (SI). My supervisor used to be a fisherman and lived on the island for a long time. His ex-wife still lives there and owns the hotel and its pub so I was going to have a nice place to stay there while I enjoyed myself and visited the mussel farm that raises the green-lipped mussels used in Bio-Mer's products.

Beginning of Highway 1 in Bluff

Bright and early Monday morning my supervisor drove me over to his other business, a crayfish (lobster) company and I sat in the passenger seat of an empty truck on it's way down to Bluff to pick up a load and bring it back to Christchurch. The truck driver was Brian, a nice guy. He was happy to have someone change the CDs for him (ZZ Top and CCR). After almost 8 hours on the road, we finally got to Bluff. The plan was that I would take the ferry from Bluff to Stewart Island, but because of strong winds the ferry was cancelled. Brian got me booked at the same hotel as he was in, just down the street from the ferry terminal and then he drove us out to the beginning of Highway 1 with this international street sign. The hotel served us a huge dinner and we watched some coverage of the Olympics.

Tuesday morning came and the wind had died down only slightly. The ferry was going though, so I was too. Foveaux Strait was rough. Even the locals and people that make a business being out in boats thought it was rough. The wind was especially strong, but it is usually a choppier stretch than most of the ocean because it is relatively shallow and because the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans are mixing. I managed to hold on to my breakfast, but the one hour ferry was about 50 minutes too long for my taste. Once I got to the island I went to the hotel and spent the next couple hours lying in my room, watching the Olympics, trying to recover my appetite. I had a small bite for lunch and set off to explore! I followed a couple short tracks and was amazed by fauna and flora. The beaches all have stunning views with other small island dotting the horizon and the plants were thick and green because SI, like other parts of NZ, is considered a temperate rain forest. There was an abundance of native birds because the island doesn't have as many predators as the rest of NZ and many of birds on the island are actually distinct subspecies!

The next day I woke up early and met Nudge, Mark, and Nanu at the wharf, put on some giant gumboots, and set off for the mussel farm! To get there we took the small boat out into Patterson inlet and transferred over to a larger boat that stays anchored out there. From there we took that barge over to Big Glory Bay where the mussel lines are anchored. Nudge showed me how to steer the boat, but it was really hard! We went in a couple circles so I gave the controls back pretty quickly. The first couple hours at the farm I sat upstairs to watch the guys at work and take pictures of the bay in the morning light. After a couple hours of relaxing I decided to see the mussels up close so I went down to the deck and helped the guys out.

A machine would remove the mussels from the rope and sent them out on a conveyor belt. Then, we sorted through the mussels and threw out the ones that didn't belong. As we sorted through them, they mussels were gathered in large bags on the deck, and when we finished the prescribed section, those bags were emptied into another machine. This machine put the mussels back around a cleaned rope and covered them in a thin white sock, which would break up in a year or so, but by that time the mussels would have re-attached themselves to the rope. The mussels are also spaced farther apart than before so they can grow larger by the time they are harvested in 3-5 years time. Mussels are a lucrative business, but it is not easy to get started. The rope that the mussels grow on costs about $10 a meter, and it only lasts long enough for two harvests.

I sorted mussels for a couple hours, but when they finished that for the day and switched to re-stringing the mussels, I stayed out of the way and mostly just took more pictures. Then we took the barge back to the boat, which we then took back to the wharf. Before the sun went down, Mark drove me around the island with a running commentary. I think we covered almost all of the 27 km of paved road. Then we returned to the hotel/pub for dinner.

I think this is long enough for one post, so expect part 2 in the next few days.