I had to get up before the sun this morning to catch the bus down to Invercargill that connected with the ferry that I took to Stewart Island today. I was a bit concerned because my watch (which is also my alarm clock) stopped working last night, but I managed to get myself up in time to make the bus. Strangely, the watch is working again now.
The ferry took an hour to reach Oban, and it was an hour of hellishly choppy waves. A few girls weren't so lucky, but I made it without suffering too badly from seasickness. Stewart Island is strangely quiet after coming from Queenstown and it has an especially calm feeling because few people drive cars here (there's no vehicle ferry to the island). I plan on starting a 3 day walk tomorrow on the Raikura track. The DOC office staff were extremely helpful, a welcome change from the "we don't deal with that" attitude from the staff in Queenstown. I can walk to an from the circuit track from Oban, so I save some money on transport. The weather looks good, although Stewart Island seems to always have clouds hanging over it. The Maori called it "The Land of Glowing Skies" because of its lingering sunsets that I assume are intensified by the low hanging clouds.
I'll spend the night here again on Friday and then start heading slowly north towards Auckland.
-Brian
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