Hike: 20.5km

Grrr - no Kiwis! But we did not give up hope, oh no we didn't. We now knew how to identify a Kiwi bird by its footprint, poo and call so were surely equipped to see one before we left Stewart Island.

Indeed, our first walking of the day was in the opposite direction to our desination in a futile attempt to spot the little blighters.

The walk back to Freshwater obviously retraced yesterdays steps but this time I went through (most) of the mud rather than round it in an attempt not to be quite so pathetic. This was the first walk where I have truly belived that boots and gaiters would be essential for a fun time. We got somer fun mud photos and stopped to watch a robin who came really close and even jumped on my shoe to see if I had any insects stuck on the mud there! We walked quicker than yesterday despite Scott having a very sore knee so that we would have time to climb up Rocky Mountain, right next to Freshwater Hut.

We dropped our bags at the hut and walked up Rocky Mountain with just the camera, again, certain we'd spot a Kiwi! The track up was a 'route' and was steep and tricky (a bit like the tracks we were taiking Mama B up at Christmas, sorry Mama B!) and the view from the top was an awesome one of the inside of a big, fat cloud. Boo. After a quick photo session we turned back to descend. On the way down we met the Finnish girl who chatted with us all the way whilst we were Kiwi spotting. Needless to say, no birds.

After cleaning our muddy shoes in the Freshwater RIver the water taxi ride back was dark so we couldn't see any views. The driver, Ian, dropped us off at Stewart Island Backpackers who, at 6:50pm were closed! This set us off on a wild goose chase via the grumpy staff at the South Sea Hotel bar, coffee shop, restaurant and finally back to the hostel where finally a happy surfer dude gave us our room key. Scared that everything in Stewart Island would shut at 8 we nipped over the road to get fish and chips from fabulous shack while I dropped off our check-in slip to the DOC office (so that they didn't send out a search party for us!). Back in the room we put the heater on full blast, arranged our smelly, muddy shoes in front of it and devoured our fish supper. After showers we collapsed into bed, surprisingly tired after our Stewart Island adventure.

The icing on the cake however was for us to get up at 3am after being woken by the screeching of a Kiwi bird. We went outside and stood on the freezing veranda, watching a bit of scrubland and waiting for the pesky bird to show itself. He didn't show himself but at least we'd tried. We'd tried very hard to see one. Anyway, Kingston said they look like chickens.