Stewart Island - Day 3: 25th of April, 2022 (ANZAC Day)

My first morning on Stewart Island and I didn’t feel well when I woke up. I had one of my annoying headache’s. Nowhere near as bad as a migraine, but they do make me feel very drained, tired as well as headachy for the whole day. Julianne gave me a nice long back and shoulder massage which always helps along with some Panadol throughout the day every four hours.

The day was taken very easy, as the weather was still not great with showers and being overcast. We visited Oban even more fully with Stein during the morning. In the afternoon I simply went down for a sleep due to my headache.

On waking I felt better and I then explored the local beach by strolling up and down first with Robin and then with Stein which was nice.

Akomoana our holiday bach is at the far end of this picture, up around the curve in the road overlooking the beach

Later that evening I did feel quite a bit better, which was good as the Dark Sky Tour from the day before was back on! The clouds have drifted way.

We picked up dinner from the Fin and Feather Eatery which only has 2 – 3 items but they are wild venison pulled burgers which Stein and I had, and a kumara korma which Julianne had. They were Ok but nothing special in my opinion. Robin just had dumplings from the local four square which he wanted instead.

Having a car made it super easy as the dark sky tour takes place at a golf course which is around five kilometers away. The Twinkle Dark Sky tour was absolutely fantastic and a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The next several hours were spent with a very enthusiastic guide relaxing in chairs staring up at the stars with binoculars. We covered a lot, but what really stood out to me is that Alpha Centaury actually has two suns, and I could actually see them through the telescope. Who knew that if Alpha Centaury has planets they would be like Tatooine out of Star Wars! And being able to see the separate suns in the same galaxy was so cool.

In addition we could see the milky way, and the explanation that we were told, which I liked was that the earth is on the edge of a dinner plate that is it spread flattish out in front of us like a large band was really helpful in understanding what we were looking at.

Also hearing that you can see a lot more of the milky here in the Southern hemisphere was a surprise. All the star signs that were visible where identified, and of course were up-side down for us compared to those in the Northern hemisphere.

The guide was also really good at explaining that the names of the consultations change depending on the local ingenious culture and they do not have to be viewed as Greek zodiac signs. And we went through several Australian aboriginal Maori versions which was really interesting, such the Scorpio star sign is also known as Maui’s fish hook.

The Twinkle Dark Sky tour is my first Stewart Island activity to be completed, it was expensive but we all really enjoyed it and was well worth it – I would describe it as a hidden gem on the island which focuses on birds, hunting and fishing.

We then drove back to our lovely accommodation- Akomoana for a good nights sleep, with hopefully no headache tomorrow.