Stewart Island - Ulva Island

Here I am again. Where do I start..... Let me think. I left you guys in Christchurch, so I'll begin from there. The bus trip took forever. It was a nice ride ... but way too long, so during the 10 hours on the bus I had decided that no matter what I was going to take the plane going back to Christchurch. Anyway ... the ride was beautiful again. For a long time I could see the Southern Alps again. We were going through a lot of small villages. Every once in a while a stop to stretch eat or do other stuff :-) Well 10 hours and 40 minutes later I arrived in Invercargill. The weather changed a lot, so by this time it rained, the temperature had gone way down and the wind was blowing. So bad that the ferry did not go that day to Stewart Island.... uhhhh any other possibility??? Well I just waited until the next morning. Still they could not tell if the ferry was going. But anyway I could cancel the whole thing and fly over to Stewart Island. Surprisingly enough, the flight were still going. Off to the airport then. The tickets were made out hand written, the reservation system was a cardboard separated into several boxes with 8 places to add the names. Really old fashioned, I think my dad used to work like that when he started working with KLM over 40 yrs ago ... haha. Anyway I hopped on the flight and when we were about to take of I got really scared. You know to small parts in the paper which tell those stories like, small plane missing in bad weather. I could already imagine this in next days paper. Luckily it did happen and I arrived safely at Stewart Island. A bus took us to Oban, the main city, or actually only city, or shall we call it 1 street village. I dropped my bag at the hostel and picked up a map to do a walk. There was this nice 6 hour walk I decided to do. Even though it was raining and really cold. The track was mostly through like a jungle.Too bad the temperature didn't feel like a jungle. Heard more birds than I saw. Passed beaches, bridges. Listened to the sounds of the birds, the wind, the rain. It felt like I was the only one there. By the time I got back I was freezing, but it was a great walk. I could really feel my feet and legs and I was tired, but it was a satisfying feeling. I had promised myself a hot chocolate and they served carrot cake as well. That was a nice treat after this walk.
Went to bed early and because of that I woke up early as well. I decided to go for a walk, as the weather seemed to be better as the day before. Went to a look out, then walked along the shore and at 8.30 I got back and went to the visitors centre if they had any options of going to Ulva Island. There was a water taxi leaving at 09.00, so I had to hurry. They also arranged my flight back to the mainland. I checked out the hostel and went on to Golden Bay Beach were the water taxi would be leaving from. It was still windy and cold and every once in a while it would still rain, but at least the sun was shining too. The weather is really amazing. Within 5 minutes it changes from sunny into rain, dark grey sky, into bright blue sky with the sun shining again. Anyway the waves seemed to be pretty high, and this boat is fairly small. Crazy .. but with this good captain it was all okay and I arrived safely on Vulva Island. This is completely national reserve. Few tracks have been set, which can be followed. The walk was beautiful. The sounds of birds, the wind blowing through the trees, the waves approaching the beach. The tress were making scary sounds like they could fall down any minute and then all of a sudden it was quiet, the sun tries to reach through the trees. I stop walking and enjoy this moment of silence. Then the birds come out again, all making different sounds. After while I see the beach coming up. Walk a long the beach see a seal sticking his head out of the water. It feel like I'm the only one on the Island. Amazing. After 2 1/2 hours I'm back at the were I started. Have to wait for about 30 minutes until the boat comes again to pick me up, right on time to catch the flight. I get to sit all the up front next to the pilot. Nice views and the flight was better than the one yesterday. The weather clearly as cleared up luckily. I arrived in Invercargill. Arranged my ticket to fly back to Christchurch and cancelled the bus ticket. Walked around in the city for a bit, got some food for tonight and also arranged the train to Picton and the ferry to Wellington. Finally I'am going to make the ferry crossing from South to North. I hope it's not too rough on the water and that the weather will be good enough to take pictures. Let's keep the fingers crossed.