Stewart Island

Am back to civilization. Had three good days hiking. You take the ferry boat over and it is about an hour trip to get there. No cars on ferry. The locals have a few cars on island but there are only about 20 miles of road. Checked into the hotel/pub first day and went for look around. The place is so quiet and isolated, it's almost like stepping back in time. All the fishing boats idle in the harbor looked really cool. Oban is the only town on island and only about 500 people live on whole island. It basically is a fishing town. Blue Cod, Oysters, Lobsters the main catch. Hit the trail the next day first thing. Had about a 6 mile hike in to the first hut. Did a bit of fishing and caught few small perch like fish. Second day was about 8 mile hike. The bush(forest) here is really thick. Lots of ferns and such. The place is a classified rainforest. Lots of mud and everything is perpetually wet. And green. The closest I came to seeing a Kiwi were tracks on the beach and the sign of one on the power pole! They're pretty elusive I guess. Hiked out third day (6miles) and caught ferry back to mainland. All in all its a very neat place. My only fault for island is the forest is so thick and never changing. After three days hiking, it always looked the same. But the birdlife was amazing and the peace and quiet very refreshing. I would recommend that you go there, just don't think you need to hike for multiple days. It truly is a special place.