It Started with a Weather Forecast

For several days the news has been full of predictions of a severe winter storm hitting New Zealand, Snow to low levels, gales, high seas ….. the whole 9 yards. And the weather folk appeared to get it right, except for Stewart Island.

Perception not always correct

Living as we do about as far south as it’s possible without getting your feet wet  in this country we get a fair amount of gentle stick about our “miserable” climate.

So on Wednesday morning I wasn’t surprised to get an email from a more northern friend

If you ski down to the village, is there a helicopter to get you home?
Or do you have the same advantage as Collingwood – not being on weather maps?

My reply suggested they look at our web cam, and also the 24 hr time lapse, as unlike the rest of New Zealand … or at least according to the news ….  we had wall to wall blue sky, and just a light southerly breeze.

Look at the historic tabs on our weather page and you’ll see it was pretty much a non event

We Do Get Storms

And some can be really impressive, but generally our experience is that if the storm warnings are out for all of New Zealand, we’ll generally have just a short spell of bad weather, and then it will be pretty nice.

Yesterday was grey and with passing showers, and I spent most (all) of it inside. Wasn’t warm either, with a high of around 6 degrees. Rainfall 3.5 mm and for the three days of the storm just 12.5 mm in total..

Today mainly sun, the odd patch of misty rain, and lots of sun…. long may it continue

So don’t be put off by Stewart Island as a Winter destination. More often than not we’ll have weather much better than expectations, and even if we do have the storm of the century, looking out at it from a warm and comfortable Sails Ashore will be a magnificent experience.

“The Inlet”

Paterson Inlet, and our trip from Golden Bay up the Inet and back past Ulva Island into Halfmoon Bay

Paterson Inlet is like a mini fjord. It penetrates Stewart Island providing water access down to some of the walking tracks that cross the island and a great many hunting blocks between the ocean and the inlet. It is home to the wildlife sanctuary of Ulva Island, numerous smaller islands, bays and mini inlets, mudflats, marine farms for mussels, oysters and salmon with rainforest to the waters edge. Most of the time it is more sheltered than the open ocean.

Heritage and Character Inns

After getting our tiny house “crib” into a decent enough state to offer a dinner, albeit balanced on our knees, we were able to return some of the very kind hospitality offered to us by Peter and Iris Tait of Sails Ashore Luxury Lodge in Oban, Stewart Island. Peter and Iris are members of the Heritage and Character Inns group and have hosted us for dinner a couple of times – once with Tracey and Jim from Summit Lodge, who had journeyed south to meet some fellow Heritage and Character Inns members. They probably hadn’t intended meeting some of the Akaroa contingent on Stewart Island.

A stay at Sails Ashore is much more than a bed for the night. As with all Heritage & Character member properties there are special features and attributes that distinguish an owner hosted property from a hotel. Hosts are available as much or as little as guests require with many doing specialised tours, talks and classes.

Paterson Inlet Boat Trip

After a couple of post dinner ports (liquid not nautical) Peter said “what are you doing Saturday morning?” And so we were lucky enough to be invited for a spin around Paterson Inlet.

Peter collected us from the Golden Bay wharf. He took us to places we had only been on foot and some we had never been at all.

Looking out from “Vaila Voe”

Paterson Inlet is huge. The main part of Paterson Inlet is about 15 km long and the two “arms” at the end are half as long again as the main inlet.

The passion I already had for the island was amplified as we headed down Paterson Inlet towards Ryan’s Creek. “This is the boring bit of the island” Peter responded to my rapturous “I just love it here”. (The southern harbour of Port Pegasus” was what Peter was comparing the Inlet to)

Old Propellers from Norwegian Whale Chasers at “Whalers Base”

The sea was a perfect mirror until our multi horsepowered intrusion into the little inlets and bays. With a low tide the beaches at Ryan’s Creek, Kaipipi and Millar’s Beach showed off their gilded shores – along with some nasty little rocks jutting just out of the water. These inspired a new respect for the pioneers who charted these waters that go from fathoms deep to hull piercing in a matter of metres. It’s all very well when the water is like glass. Spotting these pinnacles when there is a chop on the surface is much more difficult. With a tidal difference of around 2 metres the high water comes right up the bush level while low water reveals golden sand beaches.

Stewart Island Shag on Ulva Island, Stewart Island

Our tour in a fast boat covered an area rich in history, natural beauty and wildlife. From the back of Ulva Island where the marine farms of Big Glory Bay could be seen, we threaded our way through the offshore rocks and

“Post Office Bay” The landing serving Ulva Island Open Sanctuary

headed past The Neck, Ackers Point and into the wharf at Oban where Iris met us having been interrupted making scones for the imminent arrival of the bishop.

The Taits obviously enjoy meeting people and telling a few good yarns. With years of experience on the island and the ocean there are plenty of good yarns willingly shared with those interested in finding out more about what it is like to live and work on the edge of the Great Southern Ocean.

Stewart Island is way past the end of the road. There is so much to see and do so make the most of the fare and effort to get there and stay long enough to get to know at least a little about the place and the people. And be prepared. Every now and then, when one of the great storms roars in, your stay may be a little bit longer than you anticipated. It’s just a good excuse to chill out for another day.

I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t steal at least a little bit of your heart because it has a great big chunk of mine.

What do ten lambs, several hundred bees and eight hens have in common? This is no trick question. This is a story about the birds and bees that live at Matua Gardens Retreat.

Matua Bees

Many years ago in a past life we used to have several beehives. There seemed to be a reasonable number of bees around this area for long enough but over the past few seasons we have noticed a decline. We had already made the decision, having all the equipment and everything, to get at east one hive, when we saw the Flow Hive being developed. It is a new concept that has come under scrutiny by professional and enthusiast beekeepers alike. Some fear a lack of respect for the bees and treating them like battery hens. Others are enthusiastic about a new way of beekeeping that will encourage more interest in bees.

The merits and morals of farming anything are a whole other argument and not one I am going into. Personally I see these hives as an opportunity to educate people about bees, to see them in action and to be able to pollinate our orchard and garden while adding to our “home grown” produce. Like any crop there is no guarantee of a harvest and first and foremost our obligation is to manage the hive and make sure the bees have enough food for themselves.

We are excited about the opportunity to show our guests where their honey comes from and to educate them about bees. I could watch the bees for hours. The different coloured pollens being carried back to the hive, the different flight patterns, sensing their moods, and trying to work out where they are going, just fascinates me. We do our best to look after our natural environment and to live well within it with a high degree of self sufficiency. We aren’t perfect and we are always looking for ways to improve. I hope that anyone who does get a hive like this or any other hive, manages their bees with respect.

Spring lambs

Matua Garden Lambs

As for the ten lambs – last week we went to buy four. We decided since we had to take a trailer over the hill to do so we may as well get a few more. We arrived at the block to select another two and felt so sorry for them we took an extra four. We have enough grass for now. We would love to have had more but didn’t want to run out of feed and put them straight back into the predicament they were coming from. We will use some for meat and I am talking hard and fast to get the other half to agree to finding a nice ram next year for three or four of the larger ewe lambs.

Free range hens

We have eight laying hens. These girls are scratching around under the fig trees up in the orchard. The have developed a great love for the white scrap bucket. We have two buckets. One that gets tasty tidbits like salmon skin, green vege scraps and meat scraps that get fed to the hens. The other gets the rest of the compostable food and household rubbish including egg shells. We have discovered that if the shells are ground up the hens eat them without knowing what they are. There is a danger that by giving them large bits of shell that they get the idea to break their eggs and we don’t want to encourage that. We keep them behind electric netting to keep them safe and to keep them contained. Much as I love watching their antics and enjoy their “talking” they are quite destructive in the vege garden so keeping them where they are doing the most good is better for all of us.

Ferret in trap

We’ve been having quite a bit of success with the trapping programme -two ferrets, two stoats, two rats and

Ferrets were introduced into New Zealand to combat rabbits. But have become a scourge on our native birds

three possums this week. More than a normal month so something unusual is going on.

It’s a bit like the twelve days of Christmas! One beehive, two speedy stoats, three pouncing possums,eight laying hens, ten spring lambs and four fat kereru in the cherry tree.

Californian Quail adults and chicks

Last weekend Richard came rushing upstairs to get out of the living room. He had the door open onto the deck. A pair of Californian Quail with fourteen chicks were taking a shortccut along the veranda when all the chicks rushed in the door and under the sofa. He thought it best to leave while the parents called all their babies back outside. About ten minutes later, after much angst on the part of dad who flew up into the cherry tree, calling and calling and much peeping from the chicks all were reunited. Oh and last but not least in excitement but definitely smallest in size, a pair of rifleman with their chick outside my kitchen window. We have a large retaining wall filled with stones and the rifleman go into the gaps. They can be gone for several minutes at a time hunting for insects.

It’s been a funny old season. Not a lot of rain, some very hot days, some very cold nights – two apple trees have lost all their fruit to late frosts – Mr El Nino is not doing us a lot of favours at present however we do have grass for stock feed which many don’t so we are fortunate.

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