Stewart Island

After a couple of days visiting friends in Invercargill and wondering what to do next I pondered my next move. I could have headed back to Christchurch, that didn’t appeal much. So after seeing an advert and asking around about standby fares on Stewart Island air I decided I could take a quick trip to Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third largest Island located off the Southern Coast.

The next morning I found myself at Invercargill airport weighing my duffel bag for the short flight. I’d got myself a cheap standby ticket. I’d never had plans to visit but being only a twenty minute flight away, the idea of a visiting the isolated Island appealed. I wanted to get away from civilization for a few days. It was the perfect place to spend a few days away from cell phone reception and such modern conveniences.

Twenty minutes later I was walking across the tarmac of Invercargill’s small regional airport with a dozen others toward a small twin engined plane on my way to the most remote part of New Zealand I’d ever been.

Soon after taking off I could see the dense forests of the island, they looked grande and ancient. The Foveaux straight below looked rough. It was a short flight, about twenty minutes with a tail wind. Our aircraft landed on an airstrip towards the middle of the Island. I gathered my duffel bag out of the cargo hold and with the other passengers boarded a van to the township of Oban.

The land was different here. Southland featured wide rolling country, dairy farming. On Stewart Island it was rainforests and lush vegetation, more humid than the mainland. Something unexpected this far South. Later the coasts looked more like the North of NZ’s South Island, just without the more tropical temperatures, it got cold quickly when the wind changed.

After a short drive we arrived in Oban. I took my bag and asked a few questions about the return flight in three days time. Out of the carpark, Oban was a small town, it felt like something out of 1950s New Zealand, in all the good ways people reminisce about simpler times.

I walked to the Stewart Island backpackers and asked if they had 3 nights accommodation available, which they did. I checked in and chucked my bag in my room. I had a room to myself, the place was simple and clean, perfect. It had a large common room and kitchen available for cooking.

I quickly got my bearings in the town. There was a nice wine bar near the wharf, obviously aimed at day visitors from the mainland but the heart of Oban seemed to revolve around the fantastic community called the South Sea hotel, it served some of the best seafood I’ve ever had during the day and at night offered classic Kiwi pub food, mutton pie, and pints on tap with a local atmosphere.

In addition to the backpackers and hotel, Stewart Island offered a cafe & cinema, that didn’t seem to be open for the three days I was on the Island, a general store, and, possibly, the best fish and chip shop in the Country. Like I said, the best of New Zealand, from an earlier era.

Most people come to Stewart Island for a day and go on a walk, see the penguins, eat some great seafood, have a wine on the wharf. Or they are more hardened hikers, spending three, seven, or even more days on a great walk in Stewart Island’s rugged forest. Me, I was here to get away from things. It didn’t need to be Stewart Island, I’d only come as an opportunist grabbing a cheap standby air ticket. But the remoteness and lack of cellphone reception made it the perfect getaway spot.