My kids just live this trip! Such a beautiful place to explore and our guide just amazing! 非常值得的一次旅游，美丽的小岛和沙滩，丰富的自然景观和野生动物植物，导游的解说也非常棒，我的孩子说他们上了一堂生动的自然课！
Beautiful island, lovely walk, great guides, but virtually no birds. Same thing happened here as other tourist destinations. It’s been loved to death. We were there on a Friday and there were people everywhere. Better birding in Oban, as they have been doing extensive pretty control. Saw parrots, parakeets, robins, saddle backs and even Kiwi while just wandering around away from the CBD. Try the rugby field at dusk. Save your money for the pub. Food and drink is amazing.
I joined two tours during my one day visit to Stewart Island. The Stewart Island Village & Bay Tours is a simple bus tour around the Island with road access and the driver, which doubled as our tour guide, was wonderful. Sorry I did not catch his name as I am not used to his New Zealand accent. He lived in Bluff with his wife and commuted to the Island for work. He shared many interesting tidbit about the Island and for those with limited mobility, this tour is excellent way to explore the Island without worrying about the walking and lack of concrete road access. Then I took the Ulva Island Explorer afternoon tour, and both tour guides gave us excellent commentary about the Ulva Island and both girls were lovers of nature and Stewart Island. They genuinely showed their love for conservation and showing us all those special birds. The weather was really nice during my day visit, which made the tour even more pleasurable. For first time Stewart Island visitors, RealNZ offers excellent tours that gives you a good idea about the Island and the guides are knowledgeable enough to give you good feedbacks on what to do if you are staying for more than a day. The only thing is that I hope they can coordinate the schedule a bit better with Stewart Island Flight, so I did not have to sit in the waiting room of the Stewart Island Flight depot for an hour or so. The Island sort of went into a break after 4pm before the dinner service began.
What a great trip. A boat journey with a great commentary and interesting things to see. The walk on the Island was amazing with knowledgeable guides. We saw some great wildlife, and learnt so much about NZ flora and fauna. Highly recommended.
My parents and I visited Stewart Island for a couple days, and both RealNZ tours we did were truly amazing. We were fortunate enough to have the incredible Karen as our guide (but all the other guides seemed pretty cool too), and her passion for what she does, and the beautiful environment we were visiting, was clear. I've lived in NZ for 10 years, but learned so much on Ulva Island about our native species. We got to see an incredible variety of birdlife and spend time just taking everything in. The highlight was seeing mohua/yellowheads and sea lions on the beach (and Karen's bravery ensuring the stroppy male sea lion stayed well away from the group). Highly recommend this tour! You'll gain so much knowledge and walk away happy with a few hours incredibly well spent.