first port: stewart island (oban), new zealand

Friday, December 9, 2011

Halfmoon Bay (Oban), Stewart Island, New Zealand

Stewart Island is the southern most inhabited island of the New Zealand archipelago and was our first port in New Zealand. The ship was anchored off shore and we had to tender into the port on smaller boats. This was a fun first-time experience for me and Tim laughed at all the questions I had for him about it! When we got to the dock, we had a few hours to explore the town before we had to be back to catch our Pelagic Bird Cruise excursion, so we headed up and over the hill to the town of Oban. The population of Stewart Island is about 500 permanent residents and we pretty much walked through their neighborhood on the way over the hill to “downtown!” The scenery was beautiful and we took the long way to town, which included a stop at an overlook at the top of the hill that had great views of the water. Once we got into “town,” we checked out the general store and bought some wine to take back with us on the ship for our cabin, then walked around the little fishing port. There is exactly one hotel, one major restaurant/coffee shop, and one general store on the island…yet they have a visitor’s center. We figured the visitors center was just something they temporarily set up since they knew the cruise tourists were coming into town. Anyway, after we were done looking around town, we stopped into the restaurant to split a plate of incredible blue-eyed cod fish and chips and a bowl of potato veggie soup. To top it off, we had a table at the window which provided some entertaining people watching! 

Overlook in Oban, toward the port of Halfmoon Bay, with ship in view

Honeymooners in Oban

Beautiful flower on the trip up and down the hill into Oban

After lunch we made the trek back up and over the hill to the port to catch our excursion, the Pelagic Bird Cruise. The tour guide for the ride was from Stewart Island and was the daughter of the family that own the company and boats for the excursion and her good friend was our captain. They provided us with a bunch of great stories about the region and really were knowledgeable on the animal and sea life in and around Stewart Island. Our first stop was to see a popular species of bird native to New Zealand called the “shag” (yes…I giggled when they said this!). There are many varieties of shags in New Zealand and our guide named off about 6-8 types that she could see just in one the area where we were looking. Our second and third stops were in the same area, where we saw how blue-lipped mussels are harvested and saw the workings of a sustainable salmon fishery. The salmon fishery was particularly interesting in that they only breed and fish what is dictated by demand and they work in a process whereby they divide the salmon based on “age” so that they are always making sure to replace what they fish. They also move their offshore fishing stations every two years so that the area beneath the station is not saturated with salmon droppings.

On our way from the salmon fishery to our next stop was the highlight of the day – we encountered a pod of 8-10 dolphin! They were so lively and swam around and along side the boat, playing and jumping in the wake and putting on quite the show! They stayed around us for close to 15 minutes and we enjoyed every second of it – Tim taking some incredible photos (like the one below!!!) and me trying to catch everything on video….leaving lots of work for Tim in editing that video as I’m sure I couldn’t keep the camera focused for my excitement!! 

I'd say my husband is an EXCELLENT photographer!

Once the dolphins decided they were done entertaining us, our captain took us to our final stop to see if we could coax some Albatross our way with some fresh catch-of-the-day. He put the fish out there and we waited a bit, with only a bunch of seagulls coming around for the catch. Then in swooped a HUGE 6-foot plus wingspan bird – the famed Albatross! I was in awe of how gigantic this bird was and almost couldn’t believe my eyes. My awe increased tenfold when 3 more Albatross made their entrances to sit on the water for their share of the catch. You can see the beautiful shots Tim got below, a close up of an Albatross sitting in the water, and another in flight. 

Again, my husband takes great photos - Albatross in flight

Huge huh?!

On our way back to port, the captain spotted a New England fur seal lazily sitting on a rock sunning himself so we really capped off a great afternoon.When we got into port, the last tender was waiting to take us back to the ship.

We have to thank the Meyer family for the gift of this excursion – it was a great experience and gave us wonderful memories of a perfect day on and around Stewart Island. 

Thank you Lee, Deb, Amber, Geoff and Molly! We love you!