I’d come to Stewart Island to get away from civilization for a few days, that was the plan. But after 4 hours spent walking around Oban, checking out the South Sea hotel for some seafood chowder, and a couple of hours chilling in my room I was getting bored.
I went to the general store and picked up two dozen beers to take back to the hostel, luckily I’d always been good at making friends while traveling and knew some tried and true ways of breaking the ice. On the way back to the hostel I decided to get a fish and chip meal for dinner, the Island is famous for its seafood, particularly the blue cod in Stewart Islands waters are known for their tastiness. The Island’s seafood lived up to its reputation, the blue cod caught in the Southern waters was the nicest fish I’d ever had – no exaggeration.
I’d ended up falling in with a group of tourists from Auckland and drinking with one guy whom I will call “the lawyer”. My two dozen cans had come in handy after the lawyer had run out of his – told you the two dozen would come in handy.
After we moved from the hostel to the South Seas hotel pub we found a certain buzz in the town. The pub turned from a quiet restaurant for tourists during the day to a buzzing local pub at night. Pints, TV screens, and muttonbird pie – muttonbird being a local delicacy in these parts. It was the first and only time I’ve had the bird, a Southern ocean Petrel. It tasted salty and seafood like with the consistency of a game meat, I was an instant fan.
The next night was a General Election night in New Zealand. I’m not going to get into politics on this blog but it did create an atmosphere in the large hostel common room. Myself and the lawyer drank and watched the results come in before moving to the pub later that night. The pub was busy with local fishermen, a few out-of-towners, and local workers. It was busy and pumping like the night before, TVs displayed the election results although there was some interest, the pub conversations didn’t seem to revolve around it too much, faith in humanity restored. The night ended with a bonfire on the beach with a local burning crates, family dogs roaming around, and a few of us drinking mulled wine.
The next day I took an early morning walk around the town. Oban is very pretty on a still clear morning. As I said previously, the best of New Zealand from a previous era. I went back to my room in the backpackers to gather my bag and head to the airline bus station.
I came to Stewart Island for isolation, but I quickly realized what I really needed was a change of scenery and the ability to clear my head. Stewart Island turned out to be the perfect place to do that too.
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