Super Impressive Sailing

Stewart Island is gearing up to host the contestants and support crew in the 2012 Round New Zealand race organised by The Short-handed Sailing Assoc of NZ http://www.ssanz.co.nz/ that started on 25 February. All being well, the first boat to complete the second leg is due in tonight after an 'exciting' ride down the west coast of New Zealand amidst the weather bomb that hit over the weekend. Stories of heaving seas with 9-10m swells, injuries, seasickness and gear failure haven't deterred most of the sailors - big hats off to them for sticking it out and I hope the Island turns out in force to cheer you over the line. They stop over here for some well-earned rest and recovery period before setting off for the third leg to Napier on 13 March. Surreal is currently in the lead and making excellent time, ETA is around 2.30am tomorrow morning.

The above race makes my adventure of moving to Rakiura very tame by comparison. Somehow sitting outside on my deck doesn't hold a candle to being in gigantic seas and being tossed around like a cork in a spa bath. Check out the boats and brave crew on http://www.facebook.com/ssanz.inc?sk=app_190322544333196 

I haven't heard any kiwi calls for almost two months and the mud puddles on my driveway have been more like dust bowls so it was reassuring to hear a female call loudly last night and then a male call around 6.30am this morning. A lot of visitors come into the Visitor Centre and ask where they can see kiwi - it would be lovely to have a magic wand so I could magic one up for them! The best odds is the Bravo Adventure Cruise http://www.kiwispotting.co.nz/ that leaves Halfmoon Bay in the evening and cruises to Little Glory Bay. A short walk through the bush brings you to Ocean Beach where kiwi can usually be seen feeding on the beach. When I went on it (in 2010) they had seen kiwi on 188 times out of the last 189 times that they had gone out. Pretty impressive for seeing a wild bird!

Night vision shot of the female kiwi that I saw

There are good numbers of kiwi on Rakiura but it's upsetting to hear a number of trampers/hunters reporting a lot of wild cat sightings, especially over on the west coast around Mason Bay and Doughboy. It would be so good to eradicate all unwanted pests (both animal and plant) and have the whole island as a predator-free bird sanctuary.

I'll leave you with a couple of pics that I took a couple of years ago - the first one is of the Fuchsia Walk (a few minutes from the waterfront) with magnificent native fuchsia trees (kōtukutuku) which are the biggest tree fuchsias in the world...

Tourists standing underneath huge Fuchsia excorticata trees

...and here is a close-up of a Stewart Island robin (toutouwai) on Ulva Island. All the robins are banded before they fledge the nest (University of Otago is studying the effects of inbreeding on small island populations) so you can work out how old the bird is.

Petroica australis rakiura

Have a great week :)