My favourite holiday spot is Stewart Island, our third Island, also called Rakiura (Glowing Skies).

          I have had about eight holidays on the Island. My first holiday was when my parents rented a crib, I even went there on my honeymoon.

          On a recent visit I got up early and was eating some toast when I noticed a Kaka, a native parrot, sitting on the rail watching me.  I went close to it and offered her my crust. She took it gratefully, examined it closely and started to eat it.

          Next morning when I got up for breakfast there she was waiting for me with her whole family. That’s the sort of things that happens to you on this special island.

          When I was a student at Canterbury College I went tramping and camping with two of my mates on the Island. We made camp at Maori Beach and walked on to Port William to inspect the remains of the Shetland Island fishing settlement that was set up in the 1820s. Fish were salted and sold in Australia but the venture failed.

          We were bitten by mosquitoes and sandflys. Even though I covered my head up I had a swollen nose in the morning.

          We watched some whitetail deer come down to drink in the stream near our camp.

          On an earlier visit I had seen a heavy whale trypot on the beach but it had vanished, possibly  to the museum. I was puzzled how it could have been moved. I was told they cover the top with heavy canvass and tow it behind a boat.

          One day I met a fisherman I had known in the Navy. He planned a picnic trip up Patterson’s Inlet as it was Christmas he was having a day off. We were invited to join him and his party for the day.

          On the way up he stopped to show us a strange bird he had found. It was perched on a low branch of a tree make strange noises. That would be 1947 and considered extinct on the South Island.  It  was a Kakapo.

          Subsequently they were rediscovered on Stewart Island in 1977.

          At lunch time we were fed a very tasty stew. After we had eaten we were told it was made from native wood pigeon – a highly illegal meal as it is a protective species.

          We camped in the camping ground in Oban , It was close by I saw my first wild Kiwi.

          On that trip we met a women whose  father  had a crib at Oban. She had been a class mate of ours at Canterbury College. She invited us to dinner one evening at a house on the outskirts of Oban, possibly at the Old Mill Creek. It was owned by a charming old lady.

          She had a beautiful garden and a house full of antiques. We had an outstanding meal.

          On our honey moon visit I thought I would like to introduce Joyce to this charming old lady.

          I found the garden but there was no sign of her house – it had gone. I presume it had burnt down. I was shocked!

          On another visit we had rented a crib and one evening we decided have blue cod meal in the hotel. Their blue cod meals were special.

          In the middle of the meal there was a man looking at us and banging on the window to catch our attention. I had no idea who he was. He was a policemen on holiday and a friend of one of our sons. He told me his mother knew me through the Speech Board.

          He had been canoeing in Patterson’s Inlet with a girl friend.  They had capsized and they were looking for some where to dry out and a bed for the night.

          We had a spare room in the crib and a wood stove for heating. We helped them out but I suspect we nearly burnt the place down drying out their clothes.

          Many of my family have worked on the island.

          David’s wife Bie helped to revamp the DOC (Department of Conservation)visitors centre and son David has helped with a whale stranding, and carried out lizard surveys for DOC .

          Daughter Robyn and her husband Charles Lambert have guided seven parties of American trampers for four day tramping on the island – about 120 people.

          One day Charles flew in and landed on the beach at Masons Bay. It took him four days to walk back to Oban.

          Son Graeme has been involved the most. For seven years he has flown down each year from Wellington to Invercargill to help carry out  an oyster survey from Bluff into the  Stewart Island area.

          Come to think of it I did the shortest family stint at the Island. When the New Zealand cruiser HMS Achilles visited  Bluff and Stewart Island, on its Victory cruise in 1946, I was the Rum Bosun aboard –  so“Up Spirits!”

          If you haven’t visited the Island I can strongly recommend a visit – it’s beautiful, full of bush, birds, bays and beaches with sun rises and sets sunsets you will never forget – the sea food meals are special as well.

Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates.co.nz)

“Life is a process of discovery.”