From the 10-seater Stewart Island Flights’ plane, Horseshoe Bay’s waters are varying shades of turquoise. Stewart Island, almost totally green, looks barely touched except for where Oban, the only settlement, spreads back from fishing boat-dotted Halfmoon Bay. My first visit here, I was eager to explore.
Oban is centred on Main Road and Elgin Terrace, which follows the shoreline. A Four Square, South Sea Hotel, café, and the tourist operators can be walked in around 10 minutes. I picked my DOC hut tickets up from the Rakiura National Park Visitor Centre and the next day headed out in rain on the three-day Rakiura Track, a Great Walk. Despite hail, thunder and copious mud, it was great; tannin-stained river waters, velvety moss covering tree trunks, tall, sheltering, verdant canopies creaking in the wind, wild deer, and, overlooking empty beaches, chilly DOC huts where I read of the area’s whaling and sawmilling history.
Around Oban, short walks revealed sheltered inlets fringed with old boatsheds or evoked memories of Greece. A heritage-listed stone cottage was found on the way to Ackers Point.
Landing on sweeping, sandy Mason Bay Beach in a six-seater plane was awesome. A brisk, flat, 15km walk followed; through sand dunes, crossing boardwalks above swamps, alongside tannin-stained waterways. Rakiura Water Taxi ferried us along the black Freshwater River and across Paterson Inlet back to Oban.
Oban is centred on Main Road and Elgin Terrace, which follows the shoreline. A Four Square, South Sea Hotel, café, and the tourist operators can be walked in around 10 minutes. I picked my DOC hut tickets up from the Rakiura National Park Visitor Centre and the next day headed out in rain on the three-day Rakiura Track, a Great Walk. Despite hail, thunder and copious mud, it was great; tannin-stained river waters, velvety moss covering tree trunks, tall, sheltering, verdant canopies creaking in the wind, wild deer, and, overlooking empty beaches, chilly DOC huts where I read of the area’s whaling and sawmilling history.
Around Oban, short walks revealed sheltered inlets fringed with old boatsheds or evoked memories of Greece. A heritage-listed stone cottage was found on the way to Ackers Point.
Landing on sweeping, sandy Mason Bay Beach in a six-seater plane was awesome. A brisk, flat, 15km walk followed; through sand dunes, crossing boardwalks above swamps, alongside tannin-stained waterways. Rakiura Water Taxi ferried us along the black Freshwater River and across Paterson Inlet back to Oban.
On Ulva Island, an open island sanctuary, I dawdled trails peering into native forest and was rewarded with sightings of acrobatic kākā ripping trunks apart, stitchbirds, kākāriki and an inquisitive weka who inspected my backpack. And I saw three kiwi on Beaks and Feathers’ evening tour at the bush-lined airstrip! Magic.
A week later, I headed for Invercargill. Uninterested in cars or motorcycles, I surprisingly thoroughly enjoyed Classic Motorcycle Mecca, a collection of 300-odd motorcycles in central Invercargill. Rocket-looking sidecars, old-fashioned trumpet horns, early motorbikes resembling modern electric bikes, red racing ones, blue scooters…an hour whizzed by.
Bill Richardson Transport World was equally engaging with 300-ish trucks and cars, and colourful vintage petrol pumps that are works of art. My favourite? The scarlet 1940 Dodge Texaco Tanker, closely rivalled by VW Kombis and vintage trucks. The wooden 1911 Koehler truck with wooden-spoked wheels and vertical steering column made me grin. There’re collections of jukeboxes, pedal cars, memorabilia from Cadbury, quirky wearable art, and a Lego Room and replica 1935 Police Paddy Wagon and jail for children to play in.
Nugget Point, SouthlandSpring flowers were blooming in 80ha Queens Park in Invercargill’s centre where I strolled rose gardens, Chinese and Japanese gardens and hothouses passing by a golf course, aviary, pond and rotunda. The stumpery, where twisting stumps and branches formed fences and sculptures, inspired me.
Behind the shop/café at Seriously Good Chocolate is a small room where delectable chocolates are created. The pāua, sambuca and coconut cream sounds odd but oh, my…what a way to start the day! Its inside was green, but didn’t contain actual pāua. Their chocolate bomb, a chocolate ball almost snooker-sized, dropped into hot milk is seriously good, too.
Drab-looking Bluff is battered with wind, which is possibly why it has a history of shipwrecks which I read about, along with whaling history and mutton birding in Bluff Maritime Museum. Curator, Trish, has been mutton birding for around 60 years and shared wonderful stories.
Heading for the Catlins, I dropped into Demolition World. Wow! A demolition yard, it’s also home to a western-style town comprised of demolished buildings and abandoned items. Mannequins that probably once wore stylish clothes in shop windows model tattered or antique clothing in buildings such as an old railway station, dental clinic, hospital, school, church. Cluttered, dusty, musty-smelling ‘stores’, are a treasure trove that would evoke memories for numerous generations. You’d notice something different on every visit.
With glimpses of the sea, I drove through a landscape of rolling green hills dotted with woolly sheep exploring western Catlins. On the beach below Waipapa Point’s 1884 lighthouse I spotted a sea lion. At windswept Slope Point, South Island’s most southerly point, eroded cliffs stand battered by wind and sea, trees grow on a slant.
At dusk in Curio Bay I hoped to see yellow-eyed penguin come ashore. Sea sprayed high as it hit rocks and cliffs, but no penguin showed. Porpoise Bay, beside Curio Bay, looked a peaceful, beautiful, summer camping spot. My accommodation was an hour away, at The Whistling Frog Resort in Catlins Coastal Rainforest Park. A welcoming light shone in my luxurious-looking chalet and their award-winning chef Tom Peake’s beef mince and three cheese pie waited in the fridge with salad.
Just 3km away is 22m McLean Falls. The 40-minute return bush walk, where moss hung like cobwebs from trees, was the prettiest I did in the Catlins. Forty kilometres away was the most spectacular waterfall, Purakaunui Falls. Water tumbled down tiers of rock, like a wedding cake with icing flowing down its sides.
The museum in Owaka, a tiny town with cafés, Bake House Gallery and Catlins Country Store, is a must. The Surat shipwreck movie was well-worth watching, and there’re displays about other shipwrecks, logging, and early Catlins’ life. On the main road out, Teapotland, an outdoor collection of 1376, metal, china, fancy, plain, antique and modern teapots is fun.
I stopped often to walk many short trails. Lake Wilkie mirrored the surrounding bush, the boardwalk at Tautuku Estaury led me through bronze-coloured reeds, I found sandy and rocky bays — all deserted in late September. Many give the opportunity to see sea lions…or their footprints.
Views at Nugget Point, at the end of a winding coastal road and 900m walk, were spectacular. Rocks off the point are perfect, little ‘nuggets’ in turquoise water. Kelp swirled at the base of black cliffs and I spotted several seals, or sea lions, on rocks far below. My last chance to see yellow-eyed penguins was at Roaring Bay, a two-minute drive from Nugget Point…out of luck.
Heading north, I left wild, rugged Southland behind. I’ll be back.
