Steward Island

Hi there,

We were at the port in Bluff, waiting for our ferry to be ready to board. We were thinking about our car door the whole time... but as soon as we were on board and the boat was sailing, we focused only on our one-hour boat tour. We had very rough seas and the boat was rocking a lot. I almost felt sick, but Daniel loved it. When we arrived at the port of Steward Island, another adventure began on a small island :D The weather was great! We went straight to the campsite, checked in, set up our tent, and had lunch. After that, we met two Argentinians who were camping next to us. They gave us great tips for beautiful hikes, which we tried right after lunch. Our hike went up and down the mountains and we had beautiful views. We also met two other Germans who accompanied us on our way. Patrick and his brother Jürgen are on vacation in New Zealand. They are so nice and we got along with them right away. I was amazed by Patrick's cameras. The pictures he took were amazing. We agreed to meet in the evening to watch kiwis and if we don't see each other, we will take the first ferry to Ulva Island together. Ulva Island is a small island 10 minutes away from Steward Island by boat. It has rare birds and with a lot of luck, you can even see a kiwi during the day. Our trail led us to a bay with black and white sand! It looked so beautiful! We also saw birds and seagulls diving into the sea to catch fish. After a short break, we walked back to the campsite to make some food. We only had canned soup for dinner... but it was delicious. After that, we packed our things and went to the beach to hopefully see blue penguins at the harbor during sunset. After about half an hour, we saw one. We joined the other people who gathered on a platform to get a good view and luckily, we managed to find a good spot! More and more people arrived! We tried to adjust our camera to take nice pictures, but it didn't work at all. After everyone left because it was getting too dark, I approached a Norwegian animal photographer who was sitting next to us and asked him if he could help me adjust my camera correctly. After the nice man adjusted my camera, it worked great... the pictures were just a little blurry. But that's because we don't have a tripod and we always shake a little. We thanked him and went on a search for kiwis. In our campsite, there was a book where people wrote down when and where they saw a kiwi on Steward Island. We went on a search and adjusted our camera and waited in the bush... I found it so spooky... it was pitch black... in a forest... I was briefly scared that someone would come... After 30 minutes, I heard rustling and said to Daniel, "Shine the light over there!" And there was a kiwi. He was so fat and yet so fast that we couldn't take a picture of him... Unfortunately! But we saw one and we were super happy! After that, we passed by a group of three and thought that they couldn't be our two Germans because they were only two. The next morning, they told us that it was indeed them and they had another woman from the hostel with them. And they didn't see a kiwi, which was a shame because they were only about 50 meters away from our kiwi spot... When we arrived on Ulva Island, we bought a map for $2 and started walking. It takes about 45 minutes from the beginning to the end without really looking at anything. We took 5 hours to explore everything. We saw many different birds. Unfortunately, we didn't see any more kiwis here. But we did see a large sea lion. We had a lot of fun. I went with Patrick and asked him about his photography skills, while Daniel looked at special plants and information on the side with Jürgen. We had a small picnic for lunch, then explored the island a bit more, and at 2 pm, we took the ferry back to Steward Island. When we arrived on Steward Island, we said goodbye to Patrick and Jürgen and wished them a good time. They were such nice people... It was really great to meet them. We packed up our tent, packed our things, took a shower, and walked back to our ferry. We drove back to Invercargill from Bluff for shopping and chose a nearby campsite for the night.