We had to move Motels this morning as when we were booking some months ago it was not possible to find three nights in one location and so hence the move.
The new Motel is Rakauira Retreat a little bit out of town but in a beautiful location overlooking the bay. The sun was shining when we left the Motel to head off back to the main wharf to pick up our trip on the semi submersible only to find it was cancelled for the day apparently due to water clarity reasons. So we kicked our heals for a couple of hours and then joined the Paterson Inlet tour which takes you round the large bay/Inlet and then finally to the 
called ULVA. There was about 35 people on the trip and so we split in to two groups and headed off the to see some birds, we hoped. I think somebody must have tipped them off tha group was coming and they all but disappeared apart from two.
However it was a pleasant way to spend 3.5 hours and when we got back to port we headed for the South Sea Hotel for a quick pint which we enjoyed in the sun so much that we decided to have another.
We had heard about the restaurant called Church Hill and so we had booked a table, the food was excellent and the views over the bay also great. Both Jennifer and I had the mixed seafood salad followed by Salmon (Jen) and cod for me. The Chef is French and the restaurant is owned by a German couple and the wife would not look out of place holding six steins of beer in a German Bierkeller.
The motel is a bit remote and to avoid having to ferry guests to much there were a couple of old banger we could use and so following dinner we did a quick trip down one side of the Island for about 2 kilometres and then ran out of road.
Stewart Island is has a population of around 400 people with one supermarket and about 3 other shops selling bric a brac.
The
