Stewart Island

It seemed my early retirement was just not early enough - having set my alarm clock in the dark I'd not noticed the little "PM" which had popped-up when I set the hour. The rest of my room had left early to go sheep-shearing (already ticked off the list on Ted's Tour), leaving me to sleep on and on and on and on...

Twenty minutes after I was supposed to be on the bus the owner of the hostel burst into my room in a fluster telling me that I'd overslept and needed to get myself downstairs within a minute as the bus was coming back to get me but if I was late we'd miss the ferry! The next bus wouldn't be for three more days - panic set in! I've never moved so fast - I hopped out of bed, rammed everything into my oversize backpack and hurried downstairs. Amazingly I was at the foot of the stairs in under a minute, just in time to see the bus pull-in! Trying to find somewhere to leave my room key slowed my escape and completely took my mind off my margarine and milk that was waiting in the fridge. Alas though they were the only casualties of my immensely-quick departure so all-in-all an awesome exit I think!

After a relaxing ferry trip, once again with free tea and coffee, we made it to Stewart Island and decided that a nice cycleride along the old road was worth a go. Unusual signposts punctuated our journey around the island and required a good photo or two. I don't know why I selected the only white T-Shirt I had for mountain biking, especially as I'd only just got it a couple of days previously for doing my bungee jump. The back track was great - full of mud and with nice narrow routes between trees and along ridges and some with a bit of descent involved for a big of speeding through the muck! Awesome!! Accompanied by beautiful views of the forest, the sea and its bays it made for a great ride.

So, having paid for a 3-hour hire, and having not managed to get through the paperwork and leave until 3.30pm, we thought that we were getting a bit of a raw deal when she said we had to return them by 5.45pm, rather than the 6pm stated closing time. Hmm...now that seems a little closer to two hours to me! Well rebellious as we are we didn't bother to get back until a good seven minutes after we'd been told we should be there...and what happens when you do that and they've got Merris' credit card imprint? They lock up and leave!!

Well...they almost lock-up. In actual fact they managed to leave one window open and and so there was the chance for another holiday-first...breaking and entry! I won't be bragging about it to any convict friends I might make in the future though, because to be honest I don't think breaking in and leaving with less than you came with comes very high on hard-core criminal activities!

Luckily, however, a band of short people with oversize, bare hairy feet and a tall man with a staff, silver beard and a conical hat happened to be walking by, and jumped to our aid thus devoiding us of any responsibility. In they hopped, opened the door, popped our muddy bikes on the tiled floor and then even borrowed Merris' credit-card imprint on a long-term loan. Handy what these waddling New Zealanders can do for you eh?!

Rewarding ourselves for the walk we had a slap-up dinner of sausages, potatoes, peas and carrots and then took an easy evening playing a few songs and chatting with everyone in our little apartment until the wee hours.