Stewart Island, Part 2

I'm going to do my best to finish recording my adventures, but I'm afraid these next posts, whenever I write them, will be more hastily done than before. I want to put this blog to bed before the semester starts, but we'll see how it goes (12 days!).

For dinner that night I had blue cod! I thought that I don't like fish, but when it is deliciously fried then I really do! Now that I've had blue cod fresh from the sea I think my standards are going to be higher than before. Mark, from the mussel farm, introduced me to some other people in the pub at the hotel and I got to know the locals while I ate. The Olympics were on the TV in the corner while we told jokes and played pool. The fisherman liked some of my fish-themed jokes and they were pretty impressed when I sunk the 8 ball, even though it was too soon. If you ever play pool in NZ, know that the stripes and solids are large ones and the wee ones, respectively.

The next day I arranged for a water taxi to take me to Ulva Island, a small island within Paterson Inlet. The island is nature reserve and most of the water around it is protected too. There weren't many other tourists and I was the only one going to Ulva so after the water taxi dropped me off, I was the only person on the entire island! Except for a few rats that are being exterminated, I was the only mammal on the island! There were some paths on the island that a small information book guided me around, and I learned about history and nature of the island. I saw many of the birds on the island, and they weren't afraid of humans. They were hard to take pictures of, but they were very active and some had lovely songs. Until sometime in the 1920s, a family lived on the island. Whenever mail from the mainland arrived on Ulva, the family would raise a flag, and all the other people living around the inlet would row or sail to Ulva to collect their mail and chat with their neighbors.

I spent a few hours walking around the island, but my favorite place was Sydney Cove. Sydney Cove has golden sand, clear blue waters, and...a rope swing! The rope did not swing far out over the water when the tide was out so I didn't get very wet. That was probably my favorite thing, possibly in all of New Zealand. An island to myself, sun shining, wind in my hair, bird calls surrounding me, and flying through the air without a care in the world.

That afternoon I flew from Stewart Island to Invercargill on an itty-bitty plane and flew from there back to Chch on a plane slightly bigger.The airport was the same as the post office, the gate was a van that doubled as air-traffic control, which drove to the top of a hill that had a small landing strip. After a passenger, a box of fruit, and a few duvets were unloaded, myself and a second passenger boarded. I climbed on the wing of the plane to get to the door. The pilots gave the safety talk, which took about 10  seconds, and then flew for about 15 minutes over to Invercargill. Once there, I boarded the plane to Chch, which had, like 50 whole people!



That night, intern friend Jordan arrived in Chch to commence adventures in Canterbury, which will be explained later!