Stewart Island is the most southerly part of the main islands of New Zealand, the most southerly extent is 47 degrees 17' South, almost in the Furious Fifties. There are only about 400 permanent residents on the island and they live in the single community of Oban or Halfmoon Bay. Tourism, crayfishing and fish farms are what the makes the place tick. It is separated from the South Island by Foveaux Strait ( pronounced Fo-vo) which is only 17 miles wide but is often extremely rough. In the week before we arrived a fishing boat capsized in storm conditions and 7 people lost their lives.

For the first few days of our visit the weather was superb (locals claim very unusual). In Halfmoon Bay we replenished our dwindling supplies and also met a local couple who were relatives of friends in Bateman's Bay, NSW. Colin Hopkins is a 4th generation Stewart Islander and a crayfisher as his father was before. He and his wife Margaret lived in a beautiful 100 year old house overlooking the bay. They were a wealth of information and were very helpful and hospitable.

We headed off down the east coast in search of whatever we could find really. It surprised us as to how many people there were actually in this remote part of the world. There were 6 or 7 yachts, a couple of fishing boats and quite a few groups of hunters. Deer hunting has become very popular in NZ but that doesn't mean they are easy to catch. There are many safe anchorages on the east coast and made our way down to Port Pegasus on the south eastern coast of the island. There is little evidence of human occupation however this area does have an extensive history with shipbuilding, sealing, whaling ship repair facilities, fish factories and tin mining - most of which occurred 100 to 200 years ago. There was even a hotel and post office at Port Pegasus.

The weather generally left a little to be desired with a couple of days of 40 to 50 knot winds. The walking and climbing in this area is popular and Frances and I managed to climb the romantically named "Bald Cone". It is 229 metres high, not the tallest on the island but spectacular nevertheless.

Heading back to the North of the island we were accompanied by a pod of what we believe were Minke whales which we have found out are quite uncommon in this area.

Back in Glory Cove in Paterson Inlet just south of Oban we managed to see 3 kiwi in the wild. There aren't many of them around any more unfortunately. We spent yesterday fishing for Blue Cod and managed to catch enough to allow us to store/freeze a few fish meals before we head back north.

As I am writing this we are just doing some jobs at Oban waiting for a couple days until the winds are OK for heading north.