Stewart Island and Ulva Island

From Invercargill (and Bluff in particular) we hopped on a ferry to cross Foveaux Strait to Oban on Stewart Island. It takes about an hour and the swell wasn't too bad given the rough weather we've had.

Oban

We were told that a family of Kiwis lived on the hill near the red church so we went looking, twice, without success. We weren't really expecting to find any so we weren't too disappointed and there plenty of other things to look at and a Kaka parrot treated us to a spectacular array of calls. The harbour at Oban is very beautiful and although there are only about 40 km of roads on the island nearly everyone has a car. We stayed at the great little pub and they put on a tasty meal there as well.

Promises, promises. A sign near the Oban playing field.

Rainbow, Stewart Island

White-fronted Terns, Stewart Island

Our main reason for going to Oban was to visit Ulva Island which is just offshore. It's a haven for birds because it's been cleared of rats and the vegetation on the forest floor is also recovering. From the wharf we walked the six kilometres of beautifully maintained tracks to three little beaches and through stunning fern gullies and trees with an understory of shrubs and fallen trees covered in lichens and mosses. Such a delightful walk, one of the best.

We kept stopping of course because there were birds everywhere, some endemic to the island, and I found two orchids as well. It took us five hours to do the walk. At each beach a Weka came out to greet us, and at each seat in the forest a Stewart Island Robin walked around our feet quietly.

Stewart Island Weka

Stewart Island Robin

We saw most of our special target birds, Brown Treecreeper, Bellbird, Silvereye, Yellowhead, South Island Saddleback, Varied Oystercatcher, Tui and Rifleman. The forest was alive with the calls of birds. There are Kiwis on the island but they are nocturnal and we didn't see any. We met a couple of scientists on the track who were locating Kiwis using radio trackers but of course they wouldn't tell us where they could be found.

Track on Ulva Island

Black-backed Gull

Bellbird

Sigrid on an Ulva Island beach

Rifleman, New Zealand's most ancient and smallest bird.

Saddleback

Saddleback chicks

Weka quietly feeding in the undergrowth

A highlight for me was finding two species of orchid, The Greenhood and the Spider. They are very difficult to see in amongst the wet ferns and mosses.

Spider Orchid Corybas oblongus

Greenhood Orchid Pterostylis auriculata