The great kiwi hunt 🕵‍♀️

The ferry from Bluff to Oban, the only town on Stewart Island, takes roughly 1 hour across the Foveaux Strait. We'd read it can be quite a choppy ride so we sat outside with our eyes on the horizon and we were there in no time. Leaving Hades the campercar on the mainland, we'd booked ourselves into the only hostel so headed there to settle and make tea. 

People tend to head to Stewart Island to spot a kiwi in the wild. We'd tried not to put too much hope on this, as to avoid disappointment, but the hostel had a book of all the sighting with times and locations so we felt pretty hopeful. As night fell we headed out to all the frequented areas, walking around the small town for about 3 hours in the rain. It was to no avail, but with only 2 nights we had to give it a go. 

We had nice lie-in the next morning, needed due to our late night and because we could hear the rain continously hammering on the roof. When we eventually headed out we explored the town by daylight, spotting bird life, walking in the bush and visiting Ringaringa beach. 

We saw albatross in the harbour, which we think were white-capped albatross and enjoyed watching a huge New Zealand pigeon perched in a tree. 

We'd planned to eat at the pub but after chatting to a family in the hostel, and hearing about their trip to Ulva Island, we soon had a decision to make about where our budget would be best spent. Ulva Island is a bird sanctuary just a short boat ride from Oban which is completely pest free, but you have to book a water taxi to get there. We'd soon booked the water taxi for the next morning and were back in the hostel kitchen cooking up another round of tomato pasta! 

The rain had stopped so as it began to get dark we got prepared again for the great kiwi hunt. We set off with two other ladies from the hostel who had basically just arrived and we asked 'do you want to come look for kiwi's with us?' 

We spotted a kiwi within the first 10 minutes of entering the rugby field where their often seen! However, it very quickly headed out into the field so it was very much a glimpse. We began to try to follow, with our dim red torches, but didn't want to chase it. Another couple from our hostel had headed out before us with a huge floodlight like thing so we'd tried to avoid them. However, we soon saw their light flash all the way across the field and the silhouette of the bird dash into the surrounding bush. 

The girls we were with were overjoyed with their quick glimpse so headed back to the hostel but Matt and I were definitely eager for a better viewing. We left the rugby field and visted other locations for while before heading back up there. We spent about another 3 hours looking but the glimpse in the first 10 minutes seemed to be all we were destined to get. 

Annoyingly the next morning, the couple from the other side of the field showed us a video of them following it into bush and getting some real good views. We thought should we have pursued it more? But it didn't feel right at the time and at least we had seen it. 

We woke to a lovely day the next morning and headed down to Golden Bay wharf to jump aboard our taxi. The trip across was very pretty with rainbows in every direction you looked. 

We were dropped on the island with one other couple, so as the boat drove away it was weird knowing we were 2 of only 4 people on the island. We had a great few hours spotting a rifleman, New Zealands smallest bird, and a rare South Island saddleback. This was alongside plenty of kaka, yellowheads, brown creepers, Stewart Island robins, tomtits, red-capped parakeets,  and our favorite, the New Zealand fantail. There really was plenty of bird life. 

The island became predator free in 1997 after a huge conservation effort to get rid of all the rats. It took 4 years and the task continues as approximately 1 rat a year manages to hitchhike across to the island. As a result there are still traps every 10 metres or so scattered on Ulva containing a posion called Brodifacaum or 1080. These are also seen all around Oban too, as there is a huge push for the whole of Stewart Island to be predator free as well. In fact, there is an aim for the whole of New Zealand to be predator free by 2050 which seems like a huge challenge. 

Whilst walking just around Oban it's clear the aim is controversial with plenty of banners on peoples fences and stickers on people's cars claiming it's unachievable and worrying about the other effects of the posion, which is harmful to humans and other wildlife. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

We had been told there were sea lions everywhere on the island but after visiting all the beaches and walking around for nearly 4 hours we hadn't seen a single one. We were walking along the beach close to the pick up point and I jokingly said to Matt that maybe one would come swaggering out of the water and a few minutes later one did! I wish I'd used that power on the Kiwis the night before. 

We jumped on our boat back to Stewart Island, spotting more rainbows, and then had to quickly get to the other wharf for our boat back to the mainland. We sat with Lea, one of the ladies we'd been kiwi spotting with on the boat back, hearing about her travels and sharing stories, which was a good distraction from the choppy ride. 

Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕