Halfmoon Bay

This is one of the funny (hopefully?) signs we saw walking back to Halfmoon Bay. The people who live permanently on Stewart Island are a little odd.

And this is Halfmoon Bay! The town has a dairy/grocery, a hotel/pub and the marina...I think that's about it. The bay itself is pretty especially when we were there with all the sunshine.

There's the dairy and a tour company office; the road leading up the hill is where we started the hike.
And here we are getting picked up at the pub by the airport van. We checked in at the airport office and were told they would pick us up at the pub on their way to the airport. Granted, the office and the pub are like 100 meters apart. So we had a beer and watched the boats and then got picked up by the shuttle. Certainly there are some advantages to a extremely small town.
The plane ride back to Invercargill from Stewart Island was definitely more enjoyable than Friday's trip. We were so tired from the hike we weren't worried about the tiny plane, & pre-flight drinks probably didn't hurt. The sun was starting to set making the views amazing. Of course, once we got off the plane in Invercargill, my muscles were so tight I could barely walk.