Our South Island Adventure Day Seven

Bluff to Stewart Island

There are only two ways to get from the mainland to Stewart Island: ferry or plane. I thought the former was the lesser of two evils. Now I’m not so sure. (Apparently it was a calm crossing.)





There was a shock awaiting us on the island. We had booked ahead months ago but accommodation in the mid range had been fully booked and we had decided to give the luxury accommodation a miss and had thus settled on something in the budget range that we thought would be suitable. One look at our accommodation and I was ready to get on the ferry and return to civilisation!

However, I must have absorbed some of that pioneering spirit that has inspired us over the course of the last few days, for I decided to make the most of it. After all, I’ve roughed it before – the only difference is that in the past, I was able to plan ahead and ensure we had what we needed to ‘rough it’. (Oh why didn’t we pack a solar shower?)

Still, it is a pretty place, and once we’d dropped our bags off, we set off on foot to explore. Four and a half hours later we had discovered a stone house that once housed a family of eleven, visited a [disappointing] lighthouse, explored a beautiful and secluded bay, and become quite expert at bird watching.









Our host is rather eccentric … like our accommodation. Thankfully some other guests arrived and we now know how and where to have a hot shower. You can cope with a lot as long as you can have a hot shower! (Up to this point we had imagined we would be showering the way we did in Indonesia: scooping cold water from a bucket and pouring it over ourselves.)

One of the challenges I have had this holiday has been pain in both shoulder blades. I don’t know if this is from the long hours of sitting in a car, from tension (it always seems to go to my upper back and I had had some emotional upheaval before we left for our holiday), or a combination of both (I’m thinking this most likely). DH also seems to think that my knitting on the plane and in the car hasn’t helped. He could be right. But whatever the cause, this is when a hot shower is so very welcome. At least I know this is now a possibility.

Whatever the shortcomings of our accommodation there is much surrounding us to create awe and wonder.





For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Colossians 1:16 (NKJV)


Links


(Note: This website contains a wealth of information about Stewart Island, getting there, places to stay, things to do, etc. The place where we stayed is not listed on this website and we have not experienced the other ones listed under budget accommodation and therefore cannot comment or make recommendations.)

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