Kiwi cruising

This week's cruise ship visitors had a mixed bag of weather; they arrived yesterday morning in bright sunshine and just a gentle breeze - just perfect for wandering around the village.

The Silver Discoverer moored out in Halfmoon Bay

Low tide on Halfmoon Bay - lots of seaweed to collect for the garden

Looking up Main Road - 2km from home!

The wind got up during the night and dawn brought low cloud and drizzle for our visitors' guided tour to Ulva Island. Our choppy ride over in the water taxi was a tad bouncy but the tenders coming from the Silver Discoverer were open zodiacs so a lot more exposed than an enclosed water taxi. With a front moving through at speed there were times we thought the guided tour might be called off but the Weather Gods blessed us and passengers started arriving on Ulva Island - a tad wet in the rain and spray but full of enthusiasm.

Lots of people and narrow paths make for a bit of congestion so I steered my group past a couple of others and we headed off to the Sydney Cove turn-off. Another group got there just before us so we changed plans and took another track; what a turn of luck though as partway along we came across a kiwi! Especially exciting as it's the first kiwi I've seen over at Ulva Island - and also the first Stewart Island kiwi that I've seen in daylight. We watched him/her for a few minutes and I managed to sneak in a quick pic before he/she disappeared into the bush on the other side of the track. Woohoo!

Nigel watching the kiwi cross the track

With huge grins on our faces, and with the sun coming out, we completed our short tour of beautiful Ulva Island. The island was set aside as a nature reserve in 1899 and I reckon it's one of the best examples of temperate rainforest in all of Aotearoa. I love its diversity - not only of the trees and birds, but especially of ferns, mosses, shrubs, lichens, orchids...

Zodiacs leaving Ulva Island jetty on the way back to the
Silver Discoverer on far right

My patch is a heap more modified than Ulva Island but there are still gems to be found when you look closely...



Lobelia angulata (above and below)



Thelymitra venosa orchid (above and below)

Visitors

Summer is all about visitors and January is peak season for cruise ships, trampers and those just wanting to chill out. Although it would be lovely to have sunshine to welcome them, the people I've spoken to have taken our inclement weather in their stride. The Coral Discoverer made its fourth visit this month and possibly won't be back for a year or two; our guiding team had the pleasure of having lunch with the staff and passengers on board before showing them round Ulva Island - with a cold easterly blowing most birds had sought refuge on the lee side of the island so just as well the plants stayed put!

The Coral Discoverer at anchor in Paterson Inlet

On the tender approaching Coral Discoverer

The tender after being lifted to deck level

Looking from the boat to Sydney Cove, Ulva Island

Off to Ulva Island in the tender - good view of the tender 'cradle'

Ulva Island jetty with the Coral Discoverer tender mid-picture

My visitors at home are four-footed or winged...

Whitetail deer out from the deck - a spiker (?Dad) to the left, Mum at
the rear and Bambi by the incinerator

Lots of kereru around at present

Another pic of our lovely native pigeons

My visitors pale in comparison with those visiting Beverley's garden; her mature kowhai tree had 16-20 kereru perched in it the other day.

The top half of Beverley's kowhai tree

The Bluff Coastguard were here last weekend on a PR visit; they appreciate the fundraising efforts of some Islanders and were giving free rides out in their rescue boat. I went down after work and got these shots as they took another group for a ride.

Summer time - yeah right!

It feels like mid-Winter except it's still light. The fire's lit, I had soup for lunch and I am wearing two layers of polar fleece to combat the 11°C air temperature. Not exactly Summer down this neck of the woods! The good news is that I don't want to stray far from the fire so what better excuse than to write a long-overdue blog or two.

I have been busy with Summer activities though; picking blackcurrants, cutting grass and trying to coax my green peppers into edible size. The plant is brought in every night and only goes outside on warm days - there's about 15 peppers with the largest about 60mm long.

An outside day for my pepper - early January

Woohoo! First sign of pepper success!

I've had a bumper crop of blackcurrants and the rhubarb is growing well again so that means jam and relish making. I have a lovely recipe for rhubarb relish which complements the cheese sandwiches that I have for lunch most days. I've also made rhubarb and blackcurrant jam (which I prefer to straight blackcurrant jam) and blackcurrant concentrate - so yummy drizzled over the Greek yoghurt that I've been making.

Another kilo of blackcurrants from 6 plants - yummy

Rhubarb relish in the making - isn't it colourful?

The finished product - 3 jams and 5 rhubarb relish

There is still a heap of currants to pick but I was waiting for a fine and sunny day so that they keep better; I've been busy working most days so harder to find the time for topping and tailing the currants; the concentrate works well but I'm running out of freezer space. Blackcurrant wine could be the answer in the future!

Orchid hunting has taken lower priority and the lack of sunshine means that the Thelymitra (sun orchid) haven't opened on many occasions. Still, they have a beauty all of their own in the rain...

 

I'm a bit rusty with names but I think this orchid is
Caladenia lyallii

 

Summer hibernation

Winter is usually the time for hibernation but my computer isn't getting a lot of use this summer! It's been five weeks since I last blogged as there's so much going on that even the long daylight hours aren't enough to squeeze in blog-time.

Conserving the non-replaceable battery on my new phone (ie not using it as a wifi hotspot) has its disadvantages. After replying to emails and doing essential updates it's time to shut down again. It's made me realise how computer use has changed in the last decade; once there was a time I could be very productive when offline but it's quite a challenge now getting around online data storage, clipart, help topics and blogging. Many thanks for your patience in waiting for me and I know I'll crack a happy medium once I've got time to suss it out!

Rakiura is in full swing of tourist season; lots of visitors, thriving businesses and increased ferry and flight schedules. The cold weather has given way to more settled, sunny weather - some locals will be hoping for rain to fill up water tanks depleted by extra visitors. Our temperate rainforest is looking very dry with filmy ferns tightly scrunched up and turning black.

Oban Cemetery looking out over Mill Creek

Beau playing on Deep Bay at low tide

View from Paterson Hill Road looking over Halfmoon Bay

The fine weather has coaxed the sun orchid flowers to open - not quite fully yet but I reckon the next hot day will do it. I'll do the orchid photos in my next blog.

A juvenile black-backed gull guarding the ambulance

A female putangitangi (Paradise shelduck) grazing on Halfmoon Bay

Putangitangi are my favourite ducks - unusual to see the female
without her mate though

Cruise ship season started on 2 January; it's quite strange to see such large boats moored in Paterson Inlet or off Halfmoon Bay.

The Silver Discoverer moored off Halfmoon Bay on 2 Jan

A perfect day for the cruise ship visitors

Looking down on Halfmoon Bay

Sunny day at home as another Stewart Island Flights plane
heads to the airstrip

Hello Summer

I won't be sorry to farewell Spring; the strong El Nino has given us a chocolate box of weather - wet, windy, frosts, hot sunshine and low cloud. I think there's been more disruption to ferry and flights lately than in the past 4½ years that I've been living here. I have a min/max thermometer on my ranchslider and, whilst it's not protected from the sun shining through the deck roof, it gives an indication of the changeable weather we've had in the last week.

Low cloud and wet trampers

Late afternoon - wet and windy

The weather today - beautiful clouds, sunshine and warm temperatures

My vege seedlings can't work out if it's winter or summer; I heard on TV that tomato plants will 'sulk' if the night temperature drops below 10°C but I could be waiting all year to wait till then!

Still, with sunsets like last night it doesn't take long to forget the wind and rain and realise how lucky I am to live here.

The aliens are coming

I love this striking rimu near my drive

An evening with Neville Peat

Neville Peat is a renowned author and was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship in 2007. His books on Stewart Island have been well researched and I often consult his 'Rakiura Heritage' book for island history. He has recently updated his 'Stewart Island Rakiura National Park' title and returned to Stewart Island last week to give a talk on some interesting characters.

The hermit of Whero Rock was Lance Richdale, a teacher and ornithologist born in 1900 who went to extreme lengths to research birds. His pioneering work with albatross is reflected in the naming of the Richdale Observatory at Taiaroa Head which was opened in 1983, the year that Richdale died. He spent his holidays on a lump of rock in Paterson Inlet studying titi (muttonbirds) and initially lived in a tent but later in a small shed that was built for him.

The evening talk was held at the Community Centre and when I came outside I was greeted by a group of kaka who put on the after-talk entertainment! At the bottom is a short video (6.6Mb) of them making an unusual noise that I hadn't heard before.

Love that flash of red under their wings