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26th SEPT - Ist OCT 1995 TF TRIP (Tuatara Fanatics!) (*Tut Pronounced “toot”, The Slightly Shorter Oxford)
Stephens Island (Takapourewa) is an amazing little island right at the top of the Marlborough Sounds 3km north of D’Urville Island and about level with Levin/Otaki. A perfect break away from work/study and city life. It is smaller than Mana Island (140ha), yet loaded with 40,000-odd tuataras (not that they were “odd”, it’s just that I don’t know their exact population!) so it’s understandable that we were feeling slightly outnumbered.’ The only permanent residents on the island are the DOC caretaker, his wife and their two small kids. Our party doubled the number of humans (‘Pooh’ being included in this category!), this still didn’t even up the numbers very much, but it certainly added to the feeling of being on a remote island.
You need a permit from DOC to be able to visit the island, normally for research, study or work purposes, but it helps if your brother-in-law knows the caretaker too! We drove to French Pass which is as far north as you can drive up the Sounds, then made use of the helicopter which was being used to unioacd-supplies onto the islanct from a DOC boat.
There are 3 houses, old barracks, and a lighthouse on the island, leftover from the days when the lighthouse was manned and a naval radar post defended the strait against the enemy. There are still a small number of sheep, but eventually they will all go, as the plan is to revegetate all the grazing land with native bush.
Not only are there ‘tuts’ on the island but also numerous types of skinks, geckos, wetas and insects, the croakless Hamilton frog (however do they find each other to mate?) and also various seabirds. Rough estimates place the seabird population in excess of 1 million.
The best time for ‘tut’ spotting is at night when all the wee chaps are out on the prowl for a tasty morsel. This doesn’t actually involve much effort on the part of the ‘tut’; a lot of waiting around until something edible comes close enough to eat. Some have called the tuatara an “ambush predator” - sort of like a downsized armchair version of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Be warned that fingers can fall into the food category, as we read (luckily not witnessed!) a story of a ‘tut’ gripping onto some poor sod’s finger for about 15 minutes until-it-finally-decided: to unlock its jaws ... oocchhh!! Don’t let this put you off or anything; just don’t stick your finger in their face! The great thing about ‘tut’ spotting on Stephens Island is, unlike “White Rhino spotting”, you are guaranteed to see Tuataras, and heaps of them. They are all over the place; you literally have to watch every footstep for fear of stepping on one of the wee critters.
Ifit’s a fine night, the Fairy Prions (cute little grey seabirds of the petrel family) will also be flying in to snooze for the night. They may be graceful in the air, but in the daze of a torch light, they crash in for a landing, scrambling around under your feet, into their dirt burrows. The ‘tut’ use these burrows during the day; I’m not too sure if this “home sharing” arrangement is such a great thing, as ‘tut’ have been known to dine on the Fairy Prions! A neatly dissected corpse served as a reminder of the somewhat less than mutually symbiotic relationship.
Only the northern third of the island is open to humans; the remainder of the island is reserve land for the wildlife. All the tracks can be explored in a day, so we helped out with a few “farming” jobs: drenching sheep, shifting sheep, shifting fences ... no easy task, when the fence runs straight down a typically steep Stephens Island hill —and-has. to. be-shifted_to._going..—___. across the top of the hill, all with the assistance of a southerly wind. We also went diving one afternoon; heaps of sea life, even a very cute seal which was keen to play and even came up for a nosy at those of us landbound and to get his chin rubbed! We dined on yummy
WIT8&NMC NOVEMBER 1995
(legal size) paua steaks that night!
Alas, we were stranded on the island for an extra day - hate it when that happens! Oh dear, how sad, never mind! as the sea had to be calm enough for the boat to pick us up at the primitive landing site. Standing out on the rocks as the nose of the boat comes in with a wooden plank and a ladder hanging off the end of it ... is not everyone’s cup of tea in high swells! This probably helps explain why the island remains rodent free.
So if you ever get the opportunity to visit Stephens Island,
take it! It’s arare chance to see “Club Tuatara” (Similar to Club Med, just with ‘tuts’ instead of humans stretched out on the ground, soaking in the sun!) and learn a lot more about New Zealand’s native wildlife.
Punters: Bro-in-law, Sis, Pooh & Jo.
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By Jo McKenzie