North Arm – Oban (12.2 km) – Invercargill, Tina & Tony’s

Tuesday, February 19: Overcast, with some sun appearing in the afternoon

GPS Tour

Oban panorama from the pier

Up fairly early in an attempt to make it onto an earlier flight. The last of the breakfast stuff was soon eaten and again there was enough coffee for two cups, though the sugar seems to have run out. A bag of salt was used to season the egg, and everything was packed up and ready to go by 9:00.

Lucas had already left a couple of minutes prior to me; then I was off on the very well graded and gravelled Rakiura Track. Not much mud here! A couple of stops for photos – mainly snapshots – some of which would be copies of the 2009 series. On the one long wooden bridge, the compass slipped out of its holding and bounced along the bridge. My heart nearly stopped beating. But in the end the device was safe.

Lee Bay from the air

Reentered the atmosphere shortly after the sign to Ryan’s Creek, then basically all was said and done: Mission accomplished! Stopped off at the DoC to register my complaint against the hunters, then went to Stewart Island Flights depot to see if they could put me on an earlier flight. Spent the half hour that I still had (three hours walking & twenty minutes @ DoC) walking around the waterfront taking pictures, then it was into the waiting room to await the shuttle.

First recognised the girl from the flight over (from Osnabrück) and then Lucas; it was going to be a pretty full flight. Eventually we were called and packed into the minibus which waited at the near end of the airstrip for the plane to land. Then a minor manoeuvre to position the vehicles for crossloading, and in a jiffy we were seated for takeoff.

Quarry near Invercargill

Got most of the shuttle and flight on GPS and took a number of pictures on both sides of the Foveaux. Very smooth flight.

Picked up my rucksack from the luggage wagon and elected to take the shuttle into town to Tuatara Backpackers which I was assured had internet. The music in the bar was very distracting after ten days abstinence. Got a connection and Tina’s phone number but couldn’t call from skype.com so I set out trying to find a coin payphone which involved walking up and down the street a couple of times. Eventually called Tina’s mobile (had also sent a message via AirBNB) saying that I would walk along Dee Street towards their house.

Just before taking a turn into a side street, Tony pulled over and drove me the rest of the way. Nice bloke. Got here, showered, properly washed the hiking stuff and chatted about all & sundry until Tina arrived. Tony went off to his work at a gym, and Tina & I had some banana cake together.

At the moment all the contents of the suitcase and pack are at maximum entropy, and although I found the shaving cream, I could not localise a razor, so will have to go about as the hairy man for just a bit more.

Tina and Tony prepared a mutton bird feast for me, their daughter, and a Chinese student they have staying with them. Very tasty little critter – the mutton bird, not the student – and I had one whole one.

A bit of relief being out of the rainforest, and the sense of achievement is there. Next stop Christchurch & car.