Stewart Island Part 1

Photo taken by a US production crew member filming Ocean Mysteries for ABC

Stewart Island for 5 days has been a real highlight with neither of us having been here before. An unspoilt place with clear, clean waters, lush rainforest, beautiful beaches and friendly trusting locals with simple lifestyles.
Despite a land area of 1,570 sq kilometres it only has a permanent population of 400 all of whom live in just a tiny part of the Island at Halfmoon Bay or close by. The only roading is in this area but all the roads seem to lead on to great walking tracks. With about 24 primary school children they have the luxury of 3 teachers and a free medical service provided by 2 District Nurses which probably helps with paying their electricity costs which are 4 times that on the mainland. The locals all leave their keys in their cars with the windows open and never lock their doors. I remember Tauranga being a bit like that about 45 years ago!

Still young at heart!

The weather has been sunny and warm to hot the whole time we have been here which has meant that this is an unusually good summer for them. We have enjoyed doing nearly all of the 9 local bush and beach walks which take from about 30 minutes up to about 4 hours each - perfect. To do much more than that we would need to do the hut or water taxi thing.

Ringaringa Heights 5th (11th&17th) tee!

 We have also played 18 holes of golf on the 6 hole golf course, one hole apparently being called "Heart Attack Hill", but we 're not sure which one as there were two like that. All the holes were 3 or 4 pars but with lots of surrounding bush and dirty deep ditches we lost all the 4 balls that we were given. After lots of searching we luckily found 2 more that we could continue on with. Not expensive to play with green fees of $5 each and $5 for club hire but, not unexpectedly, the greens were like an unmowed Mount back lawn. All good fun!
Yesterday ( Thursday) we had a swim at Bathing Beach which is just down the hill from us - rather cold at 14° they say but the tide was coming in and it seemed warmer than that close to the shore. Not that we stayed in long! We lay on the beach for a while before being driven home by the sandflies.