We spent a pleasant afternoon together, although we had to suddenly shelter in French Farm when the southerly change suddenly hit.

The next morning we were off out the harbour and were blessed with good winds for most of the day, and part of the night. Through the clouds the stars and full moon shone now and again, and we had our watches. The motoring is tiring, but once the wind has died, has to be done. It was motoring, and then feeling the breeze come up, try sailing, then motoring again, and so on. So when the watch was finished Rowena was too exhausted to even crawl into her sleeping bag.

The breeze picked up about mid morning, but the forecast wasn’t for more wind so we decided to go in at Oamaru. We had to anchor outside the harbour and wait for high tide, as the harbour is very silted up. Then a fishing boat came out to guide us in….pretty scary, but we managed. Inside the harbour, no problem. So, while waiting for winds, we had two days of exploring, eating out and so on.

We saw a drama about the great storm of 1868 and by coincidence the daughter of a friend was acting in it. It was very well done, with a cast of three, and we were very impressed. http://www.livinghistorynz.com/gallery.php The historic precinct was very enjoyable, and especially after seeing the drama we appreciated it all the more. The Limestone carver was fun to talk to and watch carving.

The next day Julia Guthrey (the actor in the drama) came to Sunshine for a visit.

We think we are sailing to Moeraki next, but who knows……..

The new GPS really proved its worth many times over, and made things so much easier. Max is of the generation of using a sextant to shoot the stars to calculate the position when he sailed around the world in the 1970’s. So having a map with your position in seconds was a real luxury. We still did use the charts of course. 

We timed our arrival at Paterson’s Inlet with the dawn, as the rocks can be tricky, which meant sailing all through the night with watches. The stars were out with a good moon, and only occasional clouds. When Rowena was in the cockpit on watch, there was a sudden fluttering of wings right beside her, and a pair of trusting little eyes looking up. A grey bird (from looking at our book I now think it was prior) hopped onto her hand, walked up her arm and snuggled into her neck! She was astonished but happy to oblige so that is where it stayed until the end of her watch. Inside the cabin she tried giving it food and water, but it showed no interest. It even stayed snuggled up while she got into the sleeping bag and settled over her heart.

“Well, you know what’s going to happen next don’t you?” she thought.

But no accidents happened and 2 hours later back on watch she made it a little nest of rags. Then while Max was on watch dawn was coming, we got closer to land, and the bird hopped up his arm, on his head, had a good look around and headed for the nearest rock. The bird life is fascinating, and prolific so that was a really nice introduction for us.

Bad weather was on our heels, so we headed into an all weather shelter at Little Glory Bay and stayed cozy for 4 days while the wind and rain whistled around us. The bay was full of jellyfish. We ventured out kayaking in between, and on one trip Rowena found a mussel tree!

So we had mussels for dinner, but that isn’t all. Max spent a lot of time and strategy with fishing from the kayak, but Rowena was getting bored so Max gave her a little reel and hook. Within 5 minutes she had a huge barracutta!!!!!!

“Max, what shall I do?” she screamed as the barracutta pulled her and the kayak along…….. “Put it in the kayak.” said Max. Funnily enough Rowena said “No way!” so Max took it into his kayak. (Have you ever seen the sharp teeth on a barracutta?)

Kayaking was a lovely experience in Stewart Island with many fascinating sculptured rocks, beaches, native bush and streams, as well as the wild life.

One beach in Little Glory Cove where they kiwi-spot at night was lovely, with a walk through to another beach on the ocean side. We both got used to long kayaking trips with picnic lunches.

Millars Beach in Patersons Inlet has a jetty and huge picnic shelter with a walk to the site of the Norwegian whaler ship maintenence base.We were thrilled to see a wild deer here. Rowena’s favoured clothes for kayaking were the wet suit, gumboots and jacket….not quite the summer holiday she had been imagining! There weren’t many sunny days - in fact shorts and T shirt only came out on one day of the 2 months there.

Paterson’s Inlet is full of little nooks and crannies to explore-perfect for us with the kayaks. You can glide up close to the birds and wildlife, and you feel so connected with nature. Then there are the lovely little beaches to go into and explore from.

Trying out hammocks

In Oamau we had seen Tom Hennessey’s Camping Hammocks, which we thought, were pretty amazing. It is a lightweight but strong hammock with an insect proof netting roofing, and a tent fly to string above. If you sleep on the diagonal you can sleep flat, and with this you don’t need a tent. We decided to try these out one full moon night, after we had found a lovely campsite beside the track, and with a view of the boat. We had a campfire, set them up, walked into them from underneath, and chatted till we fell asleep. They proved their worth, as it started raining in the night, but we were fine.

Prices Point Tipi Backpackers

We met a young couple setting up a backpackers at Prices point while we were getting provisions etc at Oban. We walked to their place from Millar’s beach, and then later when we passed Dundas Bay on the other side we checked out the tipis and so on they are preparing. Looks pretty special! All the rocks had mussels and in Dundas Bay we found pipis for dinner.