Last Day on Stewart Island

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Well, I do believe that an update is long overdue. I have been told that having too much fun is not an excuse for not posting on the blog.

The last few days have been packed with activities and have gone by in a blur. Here are some of the things we did, in no particular order.

First task once we came into Stewart Island (after a shower) was to go see the sail maker. Roger Hall from Doyle Sails has come down to help repair and fix sails for all the race boats, so far he has been very busy. He was also at Mangonui and will be coming to Napier. We pulled the Mainsail off the boat and the number 1 headsail and took them off to Roger to see what he could do. The locals have been very accommodating and have allowed him the use of the pavilion for his sail repairs. He brought with him 2 very heavy sewing machines and we spent the day with him learning how to repair and sew sails.

The repair that took us ten hours I had to unpick and it took all of 5 minutes, it was depressing. Roger however was very impressed with our needle work, so impressed in fact that at prize giving, me and dad were awarded the ‘sail making award’ and given Doyle t-shirts as ‘honorary sail makers’ which was really cool. He also gave us some more thread and another 70 metres of sticky back sail cloth!

Roger has also been great with the local school kids. He had them down to talk about sails and even ended up cutting them a small mainsail for them to put up in their class room.

Prize giving was held on Saturday night and was a great night. The locals provided the food, of which there was lots and SSANZ provided the entertainment. There were local mussels and paua and steak, and I piled as much of it on my plate as I could and stuffed myself (I seem to have been doing that for the whole time I have been here).

The prize giving was held in the local ‘half round’. It has a large gym and was built by volunteer labour (locals) and is immaculate, it’s amazing what they have been able to achieve down here. While everyone else was getting rummed, I had a great game of soccer with some of the local kids, they ended up running me ragged.

Peter and Donnie have been the best hosts. We have been driven around the Island (all 26km of road). What I never realised was that the majority of Stewart Island is only accessible by walking tracks, and even then a lot of it is a nature reserve. There is nothing on the island that is more than 4km from wherever you are whether it’s the pub, or the shop, or the houses down the other end. Everyone here knows what’s going on. They know who is here, who is on holiday, who is married to whom and who is now married to the gardener! There are lots of stories about the locals and everyone has nick names (it’s actually really funny).

One of the jobs we needed doing was to repair the car that holds pulleys for the self-tacking stay sail (we sheared off the U bolt in a storm). Unfortunately Stewart Island doesn’t have a chandlery, only the 4 Square that seems to stock almost everything. We ended up pulling a saddle off the deck because no one seemed to have anything that would fit. After a conversation with Helen (who owns the local hotel and pub) she told us to head down to her workshop and get it repaired. The next day we borrowed Peter’s 4x4 and headed 5 minutes down the road to a small tin shed. There we met Squirt, the local metal man. He helped us heat and bend and buff the stainless saddle and mount it on the car. It works perfectly and hopefully will last until we can get back home!

Last night was very funny, every Sunday night is Quiz Night down at the pub. So we tagged along for the experience. And what an experience it was. A local gal called Vicky runs it (she looks like a biker chick, but has a heart of gold). So we teamed up with Peter and Donnie and Tim and Cam (from Surreal) and gave it our best shot. The night was good fun and we didn’t come last! Vicky has a great vocabulary and used some choice language, she also takes to people that talk with duct tape! We were fortunate to be able to witness this great spectacle first hand.

Unfortunately I have run out of time, and the lack of internet doesn’t allow me to post pictures, once I get to Napier I will sort all that out and there will be a ton of videos and pictures up to look at.

Matthew