Our Journey to the Southern Tip (Part 3)

We can’t say we weren’t warned.  Every time we mentioned we were heading to Stewart Island during our two week trip, people would say something to the effect of: I hope you have seasickness medication for the kids!

The journey started off with two spews (our new Kiwi way to say vomit or puke) from carsickness.  That didn’t bode well for our cruise across the Foveaux Strait, known to be one of the most treacherous crossings in the world.  When planning our trip, we had discussed whether we wanted to subject the kids to a terrible one hour boat ride or a death-defying 15 minute flight to get to the Southern most tip of New Zealand, tiny Stewart Island.  Given the cost differential and our love of life, we decided we could do anything if it was only for one hour.

As soon as the boat started one man at the font of the cabin turned green.  And then others slowly followed suit.  The crew whipped out plastic coated paper bags from seemingly nowhere and were quite skilled at spotting the next victim from across the boat, arriving just in time to hand over the necessary receptacle.  We have never been in such a public display of mass vomiting and we hope we never will again!

Luckily, despite that experience, the trip was worth it.  Stewart Island feels a little like it is lost in time.  Activity centers around Oban, a quaint sleepy little town on the harbor which serves as a launch point for tons of hiking and beaches.

We took a taxi ferry (can you believe we got the kids on another boat!?) to neighboring Ulva Island which is a bird sanctuary where the beloved and endangered Kiwi bird has been reintroduced recently.  We were very lucky to see one during the day (they are nocturnal).  The flightless bird is a bit funny looking but charming nonetheless and captivated all of us for the 20 minutes or so we were able to observe it in the wild before it disappeared into some brush.

We spent most of the rest of our time on Stewart Island on the jungle gym or swings around the Island, hanging out playing cards at the pub in town (it rained a bit while were there) and dreading the boat ride back to the mainland.  Lucky for us, it was a clear sunny day on our return and nary a spew bag was used.

We then picked up our car and headed over the Fiordland on the Southern West Coast of the South Island.  The 2 hour drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the country so we sort of bent the truth and evaded questioning so the children didn’t realize we drove 4 more hours than we needed to the day we arrived, to glimpse one of New Zealand’s treasures.  The kids even managed to fit in an impromptu dance party at a pit stop along the way.

Unfortunately, we didn’t glimpse as much as we could have, given the low hanging clouds and rain.  (Do you sense a theme here?!)  The one good thing about the rain is the number of waterfalls (or cascades as they’re called here) that it conjures.  We did count over 130 cascades on our drive to Milford Sound.  And the was well over the number of tour buses we saw, which had been our goal.  Near the end of the drive, there was an amazing cathedral of waterfalls and then a kilometer long tunnel before you finally arrive at the Sound.

We then drove all the way back (fine, we did use candy, known as lollies here, to mollify our annoyed passengers) to our charming funky campground cabin where we made friends on the jungle gyms and heralded in the New Year by going to bed early in order to be up for our early morning cruise of Doubtful Sound.  Another day thwarted by weather, where we took two boats (not spews cruises thankfully!) and a bus to arrive at a foggy mysterious Sound that is probably quite beautifully rimmed with snow-covered mountains but we would have no idea.

A rainbow was our one visual treat to hang onto for the day.

That drew to a close our generous 2+ week vacation in the Southern Island.  We spent two days driving back to Westport, which really felt like home to return to.  The girls were then subjected to a few weeks of dad camp while Dara returned to work.  They returned to school on February 1, and everyone was quite happy for some level of normalcy and routine to take over after such a long and varied school holiday.