A broken tooth highlights one of the disadvantages of living on Rakiura but fortunately the planets aligned and I had it fixed less than 20 hours later. I was amused to get an appointment at 2.30pm (tooth hurty!) but appreciate the rapid service and great teamwork at
Tooth Works in Invercargill to reconstruct my molar. The Weather Gods also blessed me with fine weather and calm flights with just enough time to walk from the airport to the dentist and back again for the 5pm flight to the island.
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| Flight to Invercargill 10 April - Oban from the air |
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| Flight to Invercargill 10 April - Horseshoe Bay |
Invercargill is a 15-20 minute flight from Stewart Island, enough time to shake off the bush and birdlife and put on my city suit with traffic and tall buildings. I resist waving to the cars as they pass and crossing the road needs my full attention - such a different lifestyle only quarter of an hour away!
I planned to get a seat on the right side of the plane for the return journey as I wanted to get some aerial shots of my place. Unfortunately I was thwarted yet again as an elderly traveller wanted the seat closest to the door. I missed my place but got these shots instead...
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| Bluff and Bluff Hill overlooking Foveaux Strait |
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| ObaHorseshoe Bay with Paterson Inlet at top right |
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| Paterson Inlet on the approach to the Ryans Creek airstrip |
One thing that Oban has in common with Invercargill at present is roadworks! We even have a detour in place as new stormwater drains are installed over the next few weeks. Quite disruptive for visitors but at least it wasn't started in peak tourist season. There's still a number of trampers here and although our Indian summer has morphed into autumn and shorter days, we're still having lovely settled weather. Long may it last!
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| Closed road and detours for the stormwater drains to go in |
