New favorite place!

I arrived yesterday in Stewart Island, and I've barely been here for 24 hours but I absolutely love it and never want to leave. It's the 3rd largest island in NZ (after the main two, the north and south), and it's basically the last stop here before Antarctica. It's a big island but only 400 people on it and about 15 miles of roads. It's gorgeous and quaint and tiny and I love it. It's similar to Great Barrier Island, which I wrote about before, but totally different eco system.

I'm staying at a backpacker's right now that is owned by a kiwi couple and is being run by a really cool young South African guy (Mark). Today everyone in the hostel got up at 6 am to go watch the sunrise (phenomenal!) and later in the afternoon Mark took me out fishing for blue cod. He only had one proper fishing pole, so we fashioned another one out of a stick, some line, and a hook. It worked pretty well! I caught two fish right away, but one was not what we wanted and another was too small, so we threw it back. I haven't been fishing probably since I was a little kid, so it was really great. I only lasted about an hour before the sandflies were terrorizing me (they are the most annoying bug on earth, probably worse than mosquitoes!). So I headed home. But as soon as I was walking down the wharf, Mark caught a big ol cod, so we're barbecuing that right now in rosemary and lemon butter, and I'm about to make some rice and also we're going to fry up some mussels and paua (abalone, which is delicious). Jack Johnson is on the radio, and life is great!

Tomorrow I'm heading to the hotel/pub here to see if I can possibly get work for the next couple weeks. They're hiring but I'm not sure if I can get enough hours to make it worth it. Here's hoping! If I can, I'll stay here for a couple weeks. If not, I have to leave tomorrow. :( Keep your fingers crossed for me!