We woke early and counted the hours till we would fly out to Invercargill. It had been cold and wet in Stewart Island, especially in the place that we had been hosted in. Our flight to Invercargill departed at 0830, with a leisurely connecting time for our flight to Christchurch where we would connect to Auckland getting there around lunchtime. I was rather pleased to see Home Sweet Home even though we had been away only three nights.
I’m sure the visit to Stewart Island would have been much more enjoyable if the weather had been warmer. We were lucky enough to get standby staff tickets from Auckland to Invercargill and back. Otherwise that alone would have cost NZD1100 per person during the Easter weekend. The 15 min flight from Invercargill to Stewart Island and back was NZD171 per person with a 10% airline staff discount. Adding all that up, one could have easily gone to Phuket for the same amount of money!