Monday, 13 October 2025
After our very late night last night, we slept in this morning. When we woke up around 8.00am, it was to the sound of rain bucketing down. Hmmn, no need to rush to get out and about then. After a leisurely breakfast we made our way down to the Rakiura Museum, arriving just after opening time at 10.00am. The museum holds an interesting collection of local artifacts telling a balanced story of the traditional Maori occupants and the European settlers. On Stewart Island these lines are very blurred with a strong tradition of intermarriage of Maori women to European men.
The collection included objects and interpretative boards that covered many topics. We learnt about the traditional owners, the Waitangi Treaty and others that preserved unique hunting traditions in this part of NZ. To this day, Rakiuri Maori descendants have the right to hunt tītī (mutton birds) between April and May each year. There was also information about the timber milling, sealing, whaling, tin mining, gold mining, fishing and farming activities of the European settlers.
One gruesome exhibit was titled The Wet Collection and was a huge collection of ‘pickled things in jars’. Cedric and Elsie Smith collected and preserved interesting marine specimens over many years. When the first museum opened in 1960, Cedric was appointed as its first curator and he transferred his Wet Collection to the museum. For many years the collection was not on display because the formaldehyde preservative they used was considered unsafe. The collection was cleaned and conserved in recent years, using modern preservation methods, allowing the collection to go on display in the new museum when it opened in 2020.
There was one tiny reference to Captain Cook that noted that he charted Stewart Island as a peninsula rather than an island. The story was actually more about the Polynesian navigator, Tupaia, who accompanied the crew on the Endeavour from Tahiti and helped to manage interactions between Cook and the Maori. The board noted how little was recorded about how the Polynesian navigational charts were recorded and interpreted and investigative work is now being conducted to try to recreate and understand their methods.
From the museum we wandered down to the original Glowing Sky Clothing Store. I had a browse yesterday and was impressed with their collection of merino garments. We popped back in today and I purchased a couple of short-sleeved T-shirts and one long-sleeved T-shirt because merino garments are so travel friendly. I am now on their mailing list because they ship to Australia.
Back up the hill to our motel to drop off my shopping. We pulled on our waterproof overpants and collected my DSLR to head back down to the harbour for this afternoon’s guided tour to Ulva Island. We met our guide, Jan, who drove us over to Golden Bay where we transferred to a water taxi, for the short trip across Paterson Inlet. At check-in we were asked if we would be able to manage climbing a ladder?? The dock over on the island is currently being repaired, necessitating a climb up a ladder to disembark on the island at the moment.
It was low tide when we arrived so the climb up the ladder was as long as it gets! Still manageable … even for me. It’s a bit of a birdie nerdy paradise with our first bird spotted before we even left the dock! A Stewart Island robin. In 1997 a group of locals set up a charitable trust and they set about clearing all the introduced vermin – cats, rats, deer and possums – from the island. They then campaigned for the island to be given protected status as a predator-free bird sanctuary. They started to reintroduce birds in 2000. Without predators, the birds are doing really well.
While strolling through the virgin podocarp and hardwood forest – this time in the daylight – we saw many birds, and heard even more, with Jan pointing out the birds themselves and their calls. So many small, fast birds flitting around. We were seeing plenty but it was very difficult to photograph them as they just would not sit still and pose for photos, ha, ha. Without a bird book I’m struggling to recall what all the birds were. Of course Jan named them all but, apart from the robin, it’s hard to remember them but, with assistance from the Internet, I think we saw a South Island saddleback and lots of yellowhead Mohoua. We heard some kakariki but failed to see any of these parakeet like birds. We glimpsed a fantail and, right at the end, a kākā, one of the large forest parrots.
We exited the forest onto the beach at Sydney Cove, which Jan scouted first to make sure there were no sea lions. They can be aggressive towards those who intrude onto their beach but Jan assured us she is trained to manage that! A short stroll along the sand, briefly back into the forest and we found ourselves back at the dock where our water taxi was waiting for us.
Despite the forest dripping on us after this morning’s rain, and some persistent light drizzle, we had a lovely tour with yet another truly passionate guide. Even though Jan has been doing this tour for years she was super excited about every bird we saw like it was her first sighting. It must be fabulous to have a job that you love so much.
Back at the harbour we headed towards the Presbyterian Church on the hill for a photo. While we were part way up the hill we spent some time chatting with the German tourist who has been on our last two tours and one of our trainee guides from last night. Harry is an Englishman who has been living in Canada for the last three years and now working on the Stewart Island tours with RealNZ until April next year. He says he may yet settle in New Zealand. After photographing the quaint little red and white church, we returned to our room to relax for an hour or so before dinner.
Dinner tonight at the South Sea Hotel. We arrived at the same time as the German girl who has been on the same itinerary as us, so we invited her to join us for dinner. We chatted amicably about travel, compared notes on the covid pandemic and learnt about her years spent working as a freelance travel writer pre-pandemic and her return to a safe and secure job in insurance afterwards. We won’t cross paths again as we are on the early boat tomorrow at 8.00am then heading west, while she is on the afternoon ferry service to Bluff, then flying from Invercargill to Christchurch to pick up a tour that stops at a couple of places on the north-east coast, before heading to the North Island.
Steps: 10,019 (6.49kms)
