THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Its 12.30 am and its cold, there is a southerly blowing, and in two hours at 2.30am we will be off on the trip to our muttonbird island Just out from pegasus to the south east of stewart Island. The son and I are travelling on our cousins boat - the Awesome (spelt with an A) . We will be travelling west - about - in short that means the long way. Past Codfish. past Doughboy and Flowercast.

Then we get a bit of a treat. The  Stewart Island Helicopter piloted by Jason Wright will take us from the Big South Cape, and fly over Flowercast down Pegasus and land on the top of our island, which is pretty much half way between South Cape and Noble Island on the map.
Then the Awesome will arrive at the island a few hours later and the helicopter will return to Bluff to pick up ma and pa and drop them off and load our gear onto Ernest  island.  Which is not the Ernest Island outside Doughboy.

Then the fun begins.

This year the birds are big and plentiful.

Yum.