Stewart Island
June 19th 2005
With this months trip again cancelled due to poor weather I will write about our trip over to Stewart Island this month. Bob and I were on tour following the British & Irish Lions around the South Island and had organised to meet up with Geoff Milne (Milner for those who went on the Fiordland trip 2 years ago) with the hope to get across to Stewart Island for a days fishing and diving. Being the middle of winter the weather of course was really going to play a big part. We also took some gear down for Monique Hardiman (founding club member) who was travelling around the South Island with her English companion (Frankie, & her fiancé Pete, a Welshman) and also following the Lions.
The morning dawned very threatening with strong winds and rain forecast for later in the day. With no call from Milner we met at Bluff as scheduled and loaded up Milner’s 7.8 metre hard top McLay and reacquainted ourselves with Lenny Ward (another Fiordland stalwart) who was along for a days fishing. It was quite a choppy sea and a slow trip across Foveaux Strait but once we arrived in the lee of the island the sea flattened out and it was rather pleasant. The sun even showed its face for a while. Straight into the fishing while we waited for slack tide and quickly we were into quite large spiky dogs but as we drifted some very impressive blue cod were pulled aboard. As expected Mon caught the first biggie and the banter began. Soon enough she was being surpassed by the boys and it wasn’t long before a very good haul of fish was in the bin.
Bob, Mon & I then suited up and it was into the water for our first oyster dive. Very similar to scallop diving at Okiwi Bay except the viz was over 15 metres!! The problem with this dive was that no swimming was involved as a gentle current simply pushed us along the oyster bed. This was great apart from the fact the water temp was only 10 degrees and we were not swimming to keep warm – Fine for Bob in his dry suit and even Mon didn’t feel the cold as much as me. Maybe this had something to do with the accumulative blood thinning properties of alcohol consumption after a few days on tour. After half an hour we had a reasonable catch and re-surfaced after a safety stop. I conveniently didn’t point out the reasonable size pelagic that swam below us as we surfaced – sometimes it is better not to have such good viz!! A hot cup of soup was shoved into our hands, and a bit more fishing was done while we had lunch. We had enough oysters for a feed for everyone so it was back across the Strait for a cray dive on the outside of Bluff Hill. With the warm shower on board not working I declined the next dive (must be getting soft in my old age) and Mon & Bob took to the water for what they described as a beautiful dive with plenty of colour and fish and plant life. Both were dark purple in the face when they returned with 7 good crays between them, so I knew I had made the right choice.
We returned to Bluff, divided up the catch and after a feed of fresh Bluff oysters (raw & cooked) and fresh blue cod; it was off to watch Southland take on the Lions. Great to be able to mix pleasure with pleasure! Thanks Geoff for your hospitality and a great day out. – John H
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