Because I'm bored (again!) a short story about the past couple of days. I left Invercargill the next morning a tad too early (9:00am) to hop onto a tiny 8-person airplane at Invercargill Airport for a 20 minute flight to the airstrip of Stewart Island. As the flight only goes to 1500 feet (I asked the pilot on the way back) you'll have a terrific view over Stewart Island. It's truly impressive from the air! Landed, went to my hostel and then to the information center to check some things out for the next 2,5 days. After that went downtown to the only village on the island, Oban. (350 inhabitants) There is not much to do in Oban though, all shops open or on request or from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, exept from the General Store. (In this case called "Ship to Shore".) So I chilled out a bit on the beach and went shop-hopping afterwards. Got home with some minor stuff and 3 T-shirts, of which 2 are yet in back-order and will be sent to me when I come home. Spend the night peacefully watching TV and eating apples and had my room for myself! (YEAH! And it had a 2-person bed so I stole that one, no one would care anyway.) The next day I booked a small trip to Ulva Island with a boat-trip and a 1-hour guide over the tiny island in Stuart Island. As I was the only passenger on board I had a boat, a skipper and 2 guides all for myself. Awesome! I had a great tour there and had a very close contact with a "Weka", the only predator on Ulva Island. (It's a flightless bird, bit smaller than a Kiwi.) After 3 hours we where back in Oban and I decided to go on the Semi-Submarine as well as I DID want to see part of the underwater life on Stewart. SCUBA diving was not an option, too cold and withouth bringing your own divebuddy you couldn't go anyway. Again I was the only passenger on board and had a great value for the buck ;-P Spent the night again quietly in the hostel, only to know that I finally had a roommate. (But we only said HI.) Next day I did basically nothing but spending 1,5 hours on cleaning out my pocket knife while sitting on a deserted beach just 10 minutes out of town. Ultimately relaxed having the luxury to be able to do that for a while. And the night ended in the pub as I met a new roommate who DID want to go for a beer to kill the boredom on the island. But far too soon (the next morning) it was time to fly back to the mainland again in an even smaller airplane (6 persons including the pilot). I hopped in the shuttle and onto the Bottom Bus again, loaded with 10 other persons. What a difference. Stewart Island is SO empty. There is nothing there but a shitload of nature. And even though I didn't do any of the tracks because I was too lazy I definetely had a great time. It's probably the southern most I'll ever go and so extremely quit that I definetely would recommend it to anyone who needs some time to do totally nothing.
While the Bottom Bus brought me safely to Te Anau that day I was still thinking about the island. And now I'm in Te Anau. The bus arrived quit (?) early so I had some time to develop my 4 films (I lost one which I found back today...) and to book some stuff for today and tomorrow. I almost chocked when I got the bill for those 4 films, $96,- including putting 'm all on CD and and hour and a half internet... And no way I can upload 'm here in the village, too slow connections everywhere. But well, that 'll come later. Did the usual stuff like groceries and after a LONG shower went to the pub to watch the rugby. Not that I'm interested at all but it's always nice to have a couple of pints in a loaded pub. Though the pub was almost empty as soon as the game ended so went back quit early and after a bit of chatting went to bed...
Today had an easy morning, had a chat with a new roommate, a dutch guy. So I spoke dutch for the first time in whatever weeks. It was hard, extremely hard. I managed to keep up a bit of speed but my mind was dazzling afterwards, completely unused to speaking dutch full-speed. And yes, I must 've had an English accent and I definetely mixed english words all over the scentences.
Anyway, the afternoon I spent on a trip to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves, a 25 minute boat trip followed by a combination of a couple of barges and a short walk through the caves. The trip through the caves itself was quite short and all concrete paths so that also oldies could easily do it but it was actually kinda impressive. The fast-flowing water all over the place but off course specially the main attraction, the Glow Worms. I don't know how long they left us in the barge in pitch darkness (I couldn't even see my fingers while I touched my nose...) but it was truly amazing. All those tiny little lights at the ceiling and no sound but the sound of fast flowing water. No one dared to make a sound, I doubt if some people even stopped breathing. Way too soon it was all over again and we went back to the ship to enjoy the 25 minute ride back. And I spent the full 25 minutes in the open air though it was COLD outside. My Driza-Bone kept me nicely warm and out of the wind :-)
And that was it for today. Tomorrow I'll do a full day tour through the Doubtfull sound and then up to Milford. Someone just asked me if it was "friday next week" when it's all over here and suddenly I realized it IS. It's just "sunday next week" that I'll be safely on Schiphol Airport. So I'll take the time to enjoy these last bits of my "holiday of a lifetime"...
Murf | 22 Jun 2005 (Wed), 10:34 @ storyName and Email adres are required. Not because I like to harvest email adresses, but because I like to know who you are. Comment to a response I do rarely unless I find a feedback2feedback for MovableType. Don't worry, your email adress is at a clever way protected against harvesters so that won't become a problem.