Got up at 2:30am and went for a walk down Fern Gully Track hoping to see a kiwi in the bush. I walked off the track into the bush about 100 metres. I stood still and waited for about 15 minutes thinking that I would at least hear some bird life scuttling about. I didn't see or hear a thing. It was pitch black and raining very lightly. I was back in bed at 4:00am a little disappointed.
Caught a water taxi from Golden bay to Ulva Island at 11:00am. Walked Ulva Island for approx 3 hours. There is a pamphlet on the Island ($3 honesty box) that shows the birds you are likely to see and has many other points of interest. I found it very useful and interesting. I saw a kiwi about 2m off the walking track. I was pretty happy about that. I also saw South Isl. Saddlebacks, Stewart Is. Weka's (very friendly), Stewart Is. Robins (on my shoe), Tui's, Kaka, the NZ Parakeet (Kakariki), a flock of Brown Creepers (Pipipi), fantails, and more. It was pretty cool for birdwatching and the 3 hours went quite quickly. I didn't get to see a rifleman, NZs smallest bird.
At one time I was alone on West End Beach on Ulva Is. and I heard a loud snorting sound come from some bushes where the sand met the bush line. I turned around to look and saw some bushes swaying. This was a bit scary as there was obviously a large animal in the bush quite near me. I tried to think what animal it could possibly be. Ulva Is. is protected and there wouldn't be any pigs or cattle on the island. I cautiously crept a little closer to the area of interest. Again I heard a loud puffy grunting sound, and the bushes swayed again. The sound was very base and seemed to indicate a possibly very large animal. OK, now I was quite scared and thought about getting the hell out of there. However, I just couldn't let it go,.. I wanted to know WHAT kind of animal this could possibly be. I crept even closer to the source of the sound. I stood at the bush line and looked around in the bush. I was ready to run for it at the slightest sign of danger. Again I heard the noise and this time I saw the head of a sea lion swaying up and down in the bush about 3m from where I stood. I also caught a slight whiff of a fishy smell. The sea lion's breath no doubt. I watched the sea lion for about 30 seconds then moved away.
Caught the water Taxi back to Stewart Island at 2:10pm. ($25 return) Then on the ferry to Bluff at 3:30pm. Much smoother ride this time. Took a photo of the "Wet Fish Dept." sign at Bluff. It just seemed to appeal to my sense of humour.
Depart Bluff about 5:00pm
At Invercargill I went out to Oreti Beach and had a quick blat down the beach as per Burt Munroe. There was a bunch of bikers on Harley's and tourers that were gathered on the beach having a beer and paying homage to Burt. They cheered me on as I blasted past.
Also stopped at the gate to Teretonga raceway.
Then north to Lorneville and left onto highway 99 to Manapouri and Te Anau. Near Tuatapere I noticed an on coming police car and glanced down at the speedo. At that very instant the needle on the speedo dropped from 100km/h down to zero. I thought that this was particularly weird and for a split second thought that the cop may have played a part in this. However I very soon came to the realisation that my speedo cable had just broken. It seemed a weird coincident that the speedo cable should break at exactly the same time as a police car appeared.
I stayed the night at a backpackers In Te Anau. I shared a dorm with two German girls and a Kiwi girl. The German girls had been in NZ 3 days and had just come from Queenstown. Already there were quite annoyed with the way NZ (esp. Queenstown) had "processed" them as tourists and taken their money. They asked me what I thought they should do while in NZ. I suggested buying a campervan and just driving around the South Island camping out where ever they fancied. It was difficult to give definite locations and or events off the top of my head. For me it is the journey that is fun. I guess motorcyclists are fairly well misunderstood by the general public.
Here is a link to Google Maps showing the route I travelled.
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Shannon+St&daddr=Dunns+Rd+to:Tweed+St+to:-46.143686,167.695313+to:Lakefront+Dr&hl=en&geocode=FTUAOf0dVIgICg%3BFQFoO_0dJQcHCg%3BFeK3O_0d8MUICg%3B%3BFZj4Sv0dRRf_CQ&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=3&sz=9&via=1,2,3&sll=-46.0999,168.066101&sspn=1.117955,2.120361&ie=UTF8&z=9
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