Bottom of the South
Friday: Well after writing last weeks Blog entry (which took me 2 and a half hours! eek) We drove to the Dunedin bus station and picked LISA up!!! Yay! Haven't seen my best friend in 10 months and it was great to see her again and to get to spend a couple of days with her as she does a whirlwind tour of New Zealand.

It was warm and sunny, the first time in three days as we drove out of the city and along the coast stopping for some lunch at Brighton!

We couldn't stop chatting as we headed off into the Catlins at the south eastern end of the South Island. We drove for a while, winding through forested hillsides until we came to a campsite nestled between them in the middle of nowhere!

This evening as we sat chatting we heard morepork and spur winged plover calling into the night air, and were even fooled by a morepork into thinking we were hearing a Kiwi! We sussed him out eventually though.

Saturday: A walk along the Catlins River Walk was this mornings activity. The over night rain had passed and we were left with warm sunshine as we walked along the river through a damp, beech forest. Droplets of water dripped from leaves sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the branches. Soft mosses of varying shades of green draped the trees, bright coloured mushrooms including the classic red and white spotted Fly a garic covered the damp forest floor and grew from fallen tree trunks. We watched small birds flitting amongst the trees.

After an hour and a half walking along the slippy, muddy trail a big black cloud appeared over the horizon, visible amongst the trees and shortly later the heavens opened dropping its deluge on us! Despite having waterproofs we decided it was probably a good time to make our way back to the car.

The rain cleared quickly as we ate lunch at the campsite and we were greeted by blue skies and sunshine as we drove back towards the coast, following sandy beaches with rolling white breakers crashing onto them we drove up to Nugget Point.

First stop here was Roaring Bay, a small bay with a hide for viewing penguins and sea lions, unfortunately we saw neither but did manage to spot White-capped Mollymawks (type of small albatross) and Sooty Shearwaters gliding over the deep blue, white tipped ocean waves.
Next we made our way up to Nugget Point itself and stopped overlooking a cluster of rocky islands, there were New Zealand Fur Seals everywhere! They covered the large rocky islands, right to the top! we marveled at how they had managed to climb up these steep slopes. In the rock pools below numerous young pups swam and played, splashing around while their elders slumbered on the rocks nearby.

Out over the deep blue sea, scattered with white caps as the wind raced across its surface, more White-capped Mollymawks, Sooty Shearwaters and Giant Petrels skimmed the waves, white Stewart Island Shags rested on the very top of the rocks.

Back to the car and we drove along more gravel roads to another wind swept sandy beach, called Cannibal Bay. The sun was getting low sending long shadows across the golden sand when Lisa spotted a young Hooker Sea Lion slumbering on the sand! We then continued down the beach, across a sand dune covered in grass and flax until we came to the next bay and were greeted by an even longer stretch of sand, the golden evening light catching the spray of breaking waves as they rolled up onto the sand. Here we found an absolutely massive male Hooker Sea Lion! cautiously we watched him slumber amongst the sand before making our way back to the car. We then drove for a couple of hours into the darkness to Curio Bay where we camped amongst the forests of flax near the shore.

Sunday: We awoke very excited, we were camping overlooking Porpoise Bay where there is a resident population of Hectors Dolphins that come close into shore, Rach in particular was brimming with excitement about showing these wonderful dolphins to Lisa. However it was dull, grey and raining when we emerged from our tent....

Not going to let the rain stop us we headed for the camp office, here while Lisa and Lee looked inside at leaflets Rachael stood at the door scanning the dark, grey green waters of Porpoise Bay. Two fishing boats were moored in the middle of the bay, hundreds of sea birds sat nearby and then close to the shore, amongst the small breaking waves at the far side of the bay she spotted the black, rounded dorsal fins of three Hector's Dolphins! Calling the others over we were each able to watch them feed with the aid of our binoculars. The dolphins were surfacing three or four times then going under for a few minutes before re surfacing, classic feeding behaviour, they also seemed to be coming closer. We walked down onto the beach walking to the waters edge, squinting through the wind and rain, searching again for the dolphins. Lisa and Lee spotted them right away, it took Rachael a little while longer as she constantly had to clean her glasses!

Cold and rather wet we left the beach and returned to a shelter on the bank overlooking the beach. From here, out of the wind and rain we were able to watch the dolphins and birds with our telescope =)

It was soon time to make a move, we still had a few more places we wanted to visit before going to Gore where Lisa would get the bus to go to Fiordland. The rain had briefly stopped and the weather cleared a little, Rachael was just taking the rubbish to the bins when she spotted the dolphins really close to the campsite! Once more calling Lisa and Lee we spent another few minutes watching the dolphins still feeding, really close this time =)

Almost dragging ourselves away from the dolphins we drove a short distance to a petrified forest. At a look out over looking a rocky beach we could make out the fossil remains of a forest that had stood here millions of years ago. Trunks turned to stone where they fell and we could even make out the tree rings on various stumps. While looking at the remains Rachael suddenly spotted a Yellow-eyed Penguin waddling up the beach on the far side, then stopping to preen itself! We were all really pleased to have found one, especially Lisa!

Our next stop was the Niagara Falls of New Zealand, and we must say it is the most pitiful falls we have ever seen! Someone was having a big laugh when they named it!
It started to rain heavily again, the surrounding landscape obscured by grey clouds, still we pushed on not letting the dismal weather stop our sight seeing. Our final stop in the Catlin's was Slope Point, the most southerly point of the South Island! We arrived and it was still raining and very windy, still we had not driven all this way down gravel roads to stop at the car park. So battling against the driving wind and rain we crossed two fields to a cliff edge where a sign indicated we had indeed reached the bottom of the south island! Needless to say we did not hang around!

Back in the shelter of the car we drove along the coast and up to Gore, our final destination with Lisa, she was heading off on this evenings bus for Doubtful Sound while we would stay in Gore tonight before heading down to Stewart Island over the next couple of days. It was sad to say goodbye, we had had so much fun and it had all gone so quickly, just a few days was never enough but still we all had many more adventures to experience before we would meet up back in the UK and enjoy the memories together.

Thank you Lisa for sharing part of our trip with us!

Monday: A sunny morning in Southland we drove from Gore to Invercagill where we booked ourselves onto the Stewart Island ferry for tomorrow morning.

The rest of the afternoon we explored Invercagill, hanging around as we had finally found someone who would make a very special ring for us at not an extraordinarily expensive price! Since proposing with a lovely ring he had carried all the way from the UK we had been looking for another ring to remind us of New Zealand. Our idea was for a ring with New Zealand Greenstone or Jade on it. We both loved the ring he had proposed with but wanted something a little more special from the country where we had got engaged.
After searching since leaving Kaikoura we had finally found a jeweller who was willing to put a bit of jade onto a diamond and gold ring within the afternoon!

We collected the ring later that afternoon, both of us really really pleased with it =)

Tuesday: Early start in order to drive to Bluff to get the 9.30am ferry to Stewart Island! It was grey and overcast on the mainland but over the Foveaux Strait between here and Stewart Island a large area of blue sky was moving our way.

During the hour crossing, which was rather bumpy and rolly, with white capped waves dancing around the boat, we kept an eye out for birds and were rewarded with huge rafts of Sooty Shearwaters lifting off and gliding close to the water as we passed and White-capped Mollymawks skimming the waves a short distance away.

On arriving in Halfmoon Bay on Stewart Island where the main town of Oban is located, the sun finally burst past the bank of grey cloud, welcoming us to a beautiful sunny Stewart Island. Once we had booked into a Backpackers we spent a while exploring Oban, a small town nestled between native forest and the blue waters of the bay. We booked ourselves onto various activities over the next couple of days and then went for a walk through the native forest around Halfmoon Bay.

With the Kiwi tour fully booked this evening we decided to do our own search around Oban, so once the Kaka had finished their noisy evening display and the night had got dark we headed out for a walk in search of the Stewart Island Brown Kiwi.

First stop was Traill Park where Kiwi have been sighted in the past, slowly we squelched round the edge of the grassy park, scanning the bush at the edge. Nothing.
We walked back to town, sheltering from a brief rain shower, then up Main Street to a track though native forest behind the town.
The bright moon now shone as we entered the damp forest, ferns and trees lit up in our torchlight as we searched for any sign of a kiwi. An hour or so walking through the forest we were getting tired, a sudden loud, scream like a squealing pig from the bush next to us freaked us both out. Not really wanting to investigate the source of the scary noise, we walked back through the forest to Oban and our room at the backpackers. Hopefully we would be able to get on the Kiwi tour the next night, which heads to more remote areas where Kiwi are more likely to be.

Wednesday: 9am we took a small ferry over the waters of Paterson Inlet to Ulva Island, a predator free, open bird sanctuary run by the DOC where a number of rare New Zealand birds now thrive, much like on Tiritiri Matangi.

Dropped off at Post Office Bay, the site of the original post office, we were greeted by an extremely inquisitive Stewart Island Robin! Our first stop after this was Flagstaff Point overlooking the island and across Paterson Inlet to Stewart Island. We then spent 5 hours walking the trails through the native forest to Boulder Beach and West End Beach, searching for the Yellowhead, a rare endemic passerine. Although we did not manage to find this bird we saw over 20 species of birds, not one of which was a European introduction and included the rare Saddleback. We also had wonderful close encounters with rather cheeky and inquisitive Weka.

For the final two hours (yep we were on Ulva for 7 hours!!) we relaxed on the beautiful golden beach of Sydney Cove watching shags and white-fronted terns feeding in the calm blue waters of the bay. At 4pm the ferry collected us and took us back to Stewart Island, here on finding that there was no Kiwi trip tonight we decided to spend the evening relaxing at the backpackers.

Thursday: Another trip starting at 9am, this time a fishing/pelagic bird watching trip with Aurora Charters. Patchy sunshine and cloud greeted us as we were welcomed aboard by Graham our skipper and then headed out through the calm waters of Halfmoon Bay and into the wavy waters of Foveaux Straits.

Stopping near a couple of offshore islands we started fishing as the sun dipped in and out from behind clouds. Straight away White-capped Mollymawks and Buller's Mollymawks started gathering around the boat as the smell of fish wafted through the salty air! They hung around the boat, squabbling over any scraps thrown over board, it was great bird watching and great fishing! We all started bringing up good sized Blue Cod straight away, a couple of us even managed to catch Scarlett Wrasse, Spiny Dogfish and one guys caught a Trumpeter!
Soon the mass of birds around the boat was joined by 3 Royal Albatross!

When the wind and tide picked up, Graham moved us to a slightly more sheltered spot closer to the islands. As we moved off our entourage of mollymawks followed, soaring with arms reach of us close to the back of the boat and providing wonderful photographic opportunities!

The time flew by, we had an absolutely wonderful morning fishing and watching beautiful birds. As we headed back into shore we were once more followed by mollymawks gliding over the waves and circling the boat! And after three hours fishing we were also given two kilos of filleted blue cod, thats the next few nights dinner sorted!

After an afternoon of sorting photos and relaxing we finally headed off this evening for the kiwi watching tour! As the Kaka started their evening display, we made our way onto MV Wildfire where we were greeted by our skipper Philip who would be taking us to a remote beach in search of Southern Tokoeka Brown Kiwi!

The whole way through the 35 minute boat trip into the dimming light a Buller's Mollymawk shadowed us, swooping in close for a look then moving further off, wheeling up and down over the grey waves.
Finally we moored up at a small jetty at a remote beach, before going ashore Philip gave us a small talk on the kiwi found on Stewart Island and played us a tape of their calls. We were both surprised when the call of the female sounded like a screaming pig, exactly like we had heard the other night!

Excited over the fact that we had heard a kiwi while searching on our own and that we were hopefully now going to see one we followed Philip up a trail through native bush, slowly searching for those shy Kiwi. With no luck in the bush, and the rain now falling we felt a little apprehensive that this would be the first trip all summer that had not found a kiwi! Still our search continued onto the beach and into the rain. Kiwi on Stewart Island not only often feed during the day they also spend a few hours in the evening feeding on sandhoppers on remote beaches. A short while after starting our search on the beach finally a round brown shape, with a long bill probing into the sand appeared in Philip's torch light! A female Southern Tokoeka Brown Kiwi! Yay!!

We all watched quietly as she continued feeding along the beach only a short distance away. The rain stopped and a moon just off full rose up from behind the clouds, glistening on the water and giving us a little more light. We continued on down the beach and found another female and a smaller male feeding also! Three kiwi in one night!

Once we reached the end of the beach we made our way through another area of bush, carefully walking over exposed, slippery tree roots all the time searching for more kiwi. We came out onto a small beach overlooking the bay where the boat was moored, no kiwi here we made our way back round to the boat, and then back to Oban. The tour was over and we were excited! we had seen three different individuals of our second species of Kiwi, it was nice to have let someone else lead the way after all the hours we have spent searching over the last couple of weeks!

Friday: Early morning ferry back to the south island, we're both a little sad to be leaving Stewart Island and are both keen to return some day to do some of the longer tramps over the island and maybe find kiwi out feeding during the day.

The ferry trip back was uneventful, a little wavy with some distant mollymawks gliding over the grey waters, we were soon back in Bluff collecting our bags and returning to our car.

On leaving Bluff we headed to Anawaru Wetland Reserve to do a little bird watching. It was freezing, exposed to the cold wind on the mud flats and the tide was out which meant the birds were distant! Still we managed to identify a few before seeking shelter in the car and heading back to Invercagill. From here we followed the scenic route along the south coast and then along the border of the Fiordland National Park to Te Anau. The coast was cold and wind swept, bays of dark green grey waters with white breakers crashing onto deserted beaches. We stopped briefly for lunch and at a look out over TeWaewae Bay where we saw two Hector's Dolphins surfacing briefly amongst the waves.

Te Anau, at the edge of Fiordland National Park will be our base for the next couple of days as we explore this world heritage site, its stunning scenery and wonderful wildlife.