Stewart Island Part 2

They have a short 45 minute film showing several times a day in their nice little theatre and this was worth a view with quite a bit of humour in it. It's called "A Local Tail" and is about the history and people of Stewart Island told through the eyes of a dog.

South Sea Hotel with chess set made from traffic cones!

When we first arrived we went on the Village and Bay bus Tour which was great for familiarising ourselves quickly with the area and gleaning info from the local bus driver. The Paterson Inlet Cruise and guided walk on Ulva Island was also worthwhile with us seeing lots of hidden coves as well as little blue penguins and Buller Albatross out at sea. The birds on the island included Tui of course, Stewart Island Robin, Bellbirds, Parakeets, Wood Pidgeons, just the footprints of kiwi and weka, and lots of Kaka which we have also seen flying from the trees to the roof of our little self contained sleepout called Room With a View where we have spent 3 nights.

It's really handy to the "town" which is really just the Pub (South Sea Hotel) and the 4 Square but the Pub is definitely the Hub of Stewart Island and very important for the locals as well as the visitors as its where everyone meets up. We're really pleased we stayed in the Hotel on our first night - old, clean and comfortable. We were in a double room with shared facilities down the passage but we seemed to be the only ones using them. The shared comfortable, homely lounge, tea and coffee making facilities and huge balcony with great views over the Bay were just perfect and I don't think we felt that just because we have been living in a bus!

View of Halfmoon Bay from hotel balcony

We gather that the Pub is often very noisy and , although we didn't need to use them, we were provided with earplugs by the bed instead of biscuits or chocolates!
The Pub had great meals and not expensive as you might expect. The night we arrived they had whole crayfish on the menu with rice and salad for only $35 so we couldn't resist that! Cheap because they were rejects from the export shipment to China but delicious.

The Cray twins!

We have totally loved this place where there has been only one downside and that is the voracious sandflies which are especially bad down in Halfmoon Bay on the waterfront. We'll never try and eat blue cod and chips there again! I have to say though that despite being covered in red bites we are not actually itchy which is quite strange.