As of today, our travel schedule has been completely changed. Since we had absolutely perfect weather in Doubtful Sound, there was no need to do the overnight camping in Milford Sound in hopes of finding good weather. We went to Milford Sound on the last trip anyway. Matt said he was “fiorded out.” So with that, I looked at the map and chose Stewart Island as our new destination. My plan was quickly shot down by the booking agent who informed me that there was room on the ferry going to Stewart Island, but no room for the return ferry and that we would have to spend the night. She also said that the weather would be “dreadful.” However, there was not a cloud in the sky and I could not image that in one day the weather could change so dramatically. We decided to call their bluff and drive to the town of Bluff to check out the ferry status and weather first hand. If it still did not work out, than we had no idea where we would end up for the night.
On the way to Bluff we stopped in Clifden to admire an old bridge, but the neighbor's pig got most of our attention. We arrived in Bluff around 2:30 and were told the same disappointing news. “I can get you there on a ferry, but you will be stuck overnight until the 8am ferry can bring you back…Emmmm plus the weather shows rain is coming.”
I was totally bummed out. Spending the night made the entire trip out of our budget. Back in the Camper, Matt saw an ad on one of the maps regarding charted flights to Stewart Island. He made a call and to our major surprise, a round-trip flight was only $50 NZ more than the ferry!!! The pilot also said that the stormy weather would not come until the late evening, so the island would be quite nice for the day. So we are flying to Stewart Island on a little plane tomorrow morning at 9am! After all that, we ended up a camper park in Invercargill that is close to the little airport. Today’s lesson: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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