Oban, Stewart Island-to- Invercargill, 9th November, 2025.

 Thinking of Des today. It was his Birthday. 🥲

We left our motel at 6.45am after a restless night keeping an eye on the time. Walked over to the ferry building in the rain which hadn’t stopped since about 1,00pm yesterday. Someone in my party of two allowed over an hour to walk 2 or 3 hundred metres to the ferry terminal. Just in case we were late. Temperature had dropped a lot also. Very cold waiting on the wharf. Ferry got underway at 8.00am .  There was no wind, no sun, cold and drizzling as my photos will show. Took 50mins to cross over the water. Then got the boat company’s bus which took us back up to Invercargill staying at the Quest Apartments. We were the only ones on the bus so the driver took us along to Bluff Point for a photo. Fortunately I rang the hotel yesterday explaining we were arriving in on the early ferry so they said they would get housekeeping to do our room first so we could have an early check in. Got settled in then had a walk around the city. Sooo quiet after Auckland not many people around out shopping. Picked up something to cook for dinner then back to the apartment to watch the cricket.

We had a farewell from the beach in front of the hotel as we were leaving.

A great day to cross the crossing. No wind and flat calm.Misty light rain.

Waiting for our ferry.

Here she comes

Berthing the ferry that we will be doing the crossing on.

I don’t think many people realise how small the area is on Stewart Island that is habitable. The map above is all of Stewart Island and the area that I have put a red ring around is all that is habitable. 

This is a close up of the ringed area on the above map which really shows how little of the Island is occupied. If you zoom in on this map it shows the total amount of roads (in yellow)on the whole Island. So you can see it doesn’t take long to travel on these roads. 

On our way back across the straight leaving Stewart Island behind us.

Perfect conditions on the water. It was this calm all the way.

Very misty with very light drizzle.

Passengers on the boat including the kids that went over to the Island with us. Kids on the left side.

Bluffs famous road signs at Stirling Point which marks the Southern end of state highway 1 in the North Island. The Point is memorable for the large signpost displaying distances to major cities in the world. A photo of this signpost is a must for your travel journey. We got the company bus (that runs the ferries,) back into Invercargill. As we were the only passengers the driver took us out of his way around the Bluff Point to get this famous photo opportunity.

Going along in the bus note the driver had his little dog coming along for the ride. The dog I am holding in the above photo.

This giant anchor /chain sculpture at Stirling Point Bluff and the sculpture  of the end of the chain we saw at Mamaku Point on Stewart Island, represents the connection between Bluff and Stewart Island.

We went to see these displays in a huge hardware shop/ coffee shop/ museum. A few shots of old motorbikes, cars and a replica of The Worlds Fastest Indian.

A replica, one of two of The Worlds Fastest Indian. These two bikes were used in the New Zealand part of the filming.

This old model Mini has been converted into a racing Mini.

Now here’s a real old beauty above and below.

 Our Apartment room at the Quest Invercargill. Room 209

All nicely renovated.

Standing in the middle of Main Street Invercargill. Not a lot of traffic like in Auckland.

Looking down town the other way

Some street art

Note the name of the Artist below of this street art above.

This was in the main street .” Hare to Shop”

 

Well,  our south end of the South Island is over. It’s been a great trip, great weather on the whole and finally got to iStewart Island ✔️ off. We enjoyed our time over there. A different little world of its own. But not forgetting our first night Ettrick, going up through Gore beautiful farmland, the lovely town of Cromwell, Through  the pretty town of Arrowtown onto Queensland, followed by Te Anau. The superb area including Manapouri and Fiordland. Down to Bluff across to Stewart Island. Invercargill and back home tomorrow.

 

Oban, Stewart Island — 8th November, 2025

Our last day on Stewart Island. It’s been a fun place to visit. A very small area of roads. Just branching out from the town. 90 %  area is conservation land. A great place for really serious walkers. Like three day walks where they stay over in huts for two days along the way. Lots of walking tracks with plenty of choices on length of walks. The only roads are the ones branching a few kms out from the township of Oban. Very small proportion in area of the whole Island. We booked the mini bus tour thinking that would cover most roads but no there were a few more places to see so we hired a car today for about 4 hours to cover most roads in the area. And beaches and bays fishing inlets etc. The weather was going to be rain all day but the morning looked quite good so hopped into a rental and explored most of the area that has roads. By early afternoon the drizzle turned into continuous showers for the rest of the day  and it’s now 7.00pm and still throwing it down. But mainly we have been lucky with the weather in this part of the country. Tomorrow we catch the 8.00am ferry back to Bluff. We will then catch a Uber up to Invercargill for one night before we fly home on Monday.

Before we hired the car we walked up the hill along from the hotel, the red roof building in the middle of the bay. It was very hot, sun was trying to stay out so by the time we came back from our walk we decided to get a car for four hours to see as much as we could around the coast and bays not too far from the township. That’s where the roads stop.

Half way up the hill was this cute little church perched up on the top of the hill.

We were walking along a high cliff walk above the harbour.

Little cottages spread along this walkway. It’s wide enough just to get a car up to this point.

View from the walkway.

This bay is called, Bathing Beach just out of  town. This would be a popular swimming spot in the summer. Although after climbing up this hill today I could’ve been tempted as it was hot work.

Coming back along the cliff walk looking down on the  boats in Halfmoon Bay.

Above and below Ringaringa Beach. Our first stop heading out east from town.

PT found a seat here above Ringaringa Beach and waited for me until I came back from my climb up to see more views.

Wohlers Monument was my first stop further up the hill.

Wohler was a missionary from Germany in 1844 who was very involved with the people.

Walking out further on the point looking over to Nature Island. Beautiful area.

Looking out the other way at Traills Bay.

Walking back down after the climb to Rev Wohlers Monument a view through the trees  back towards Ringaringga Beach where PT was waiting for me.

Passing by Leask Bay. Boat in a very bad way. Left to rot.

Ackers Stone Cottage.

Inside

Walking to the end of the grass  in front of the Stone Cottage looking down to the beach

A fishing community in Golden Bay

Looking down over the boat sheds in Golden Bay

Thule Bay. Next bay along from Golden Bay.

Driven around  the eastern side of the Township now driving over to the western side. This is a long inlet where families love to bring their kids swimming, as the water never gets too deep when the tide comes in.

We have now arrived at Butterfield Bay very nice beach.

Bragg Bay is the inlet, around the first point, in the above picture. A calm shelter for the boats.

Looking both ways at Butterfield Bay 

This is a terrible photo, now bucketing down with rain. I didn’t want to get out of the car so quickly put the window down and hoped for the best. This is Horseshoe Bay the biggest beach we saw. In the right weather it would be a beautiful beach but couldn’t show its size. Would have had to climb up high to get it all in the photo. If you can imagine this photo is only half the size of this huge sweeping bay the shape of a horseshoe .

Going into the Hotel Bar for a drink before Dinner. This is what the afternoon turned out to be and it’s still raining. But we have been so lucking over the whole holiday with great weather

My Dinner tonight half a fresh crayfish specially ordered in for me. Had to give the chef 24 hours notice to book this meal. Very yummy with a big salad bread and chips. I have eaten nearly half  the crayfish before I thought of taking a photo.

🤳 

PTs dinner beef cheeks pasta  cheese etc etc 🤔

• Alarm is set for 6.00am tomorrow morning to catch the 8.00am ferry. Not going to be very pleasant if we have to walk the 300m from our Hotel to the Ferry in this rain with our luggage. It’s been great coming to Stewart Island we have really enjoyed the experience, something we have wanted to do for a long time. Now we can ✔️ that one off.