Around Camp- Stuart Island

We camped on Stuart Island and it is a place I would highly suggest. Supposedly there are people living on this island, but as far as we knew, the boaters anchored in the bay and the few campers scattered throughout the camp ground were the only ones around. It felt so remote! There were composting toilets, which were very clean but very smelly. There were fresh water taps with drinkable water as well as fire pits and numbered campsites. We claimed numbers 6 and 7, which were the closest to the water and were close together with a fun layout and great views.

Our tent is the green one and theirs is the blue. We arrived at the Island early enough to set up camp and then jump back into the boat to see some sites and visit an island about 20-30 minutes away for dinner.

In the morning, this was the view out one window of our tent.

The view out the other.

AM Bible reading outdoors. "Thy testimonies are wonderful..." I couldn't help but think of the testimony of nature.

Sallad and Grace brought a campstove which made things a lot easier. Here Grace and Bri are making something yummy for us! Growing up my parents did most of the cooking and boiling over the fire while camping, unless it was raining of course, so I felt spoiled to use the stove. It was so nice!

The Mr. starting our fire. It looks like his hands are burning, but it's just a weird photo.

Breakfast anyone? This was so good. There is something about eating hot breakfast food when you are camping that is just so satisfying. I also brought bags of pre-cut fruit to eat each morning which was refreshing.

Each morning we set the table and ended up eating quite late, sometimes almost 11 am. It was fun seeing the boaters reactions and looks as they came up from their boats to use the bathrooms or get fresh water. We definitely had a relaxed schedule!

Thankfully none of our food went to waste, although these little paw marks were on all corners of one of our food supply tubs one morning! The raccoons were almost into our food! We made sure to stack our bins and slide them under the edge of the table each night after this occurred.

The dock. At night boaters tie up here for the night and everyone is usually quiet by 10:30. A couple of nights there was light music playing and my favorite was the guitar player that sang old country songs, it sounded so pretty with the waves lapping in the background.

Sallad and The Mr. used an Anchor Buddy to tie the boat but we didn't make it out early enough to move the boat before the tide went out. We were going to wait it out until the tide came back in, but The Mr. decided to see how far the boat really was from the water. He moved all the rocks from around the boat so that it would be sliding on mud. A few of the boaters on the dock came to our rescue and helped turn and slide the boat into the water.


You may think this is very strange, but this was one of my favorite moments on the camping trip. I almost would have been disappointed if this hadn't happened. Stop the music in my sidebar before playing this video:

Yes, it did rain one morning but I loved it. The way it sounds in a tent when it rains is one of the best sounds ever. Growing up it would almost always rain at least one day of our family camping trip and we would stay all cozy and warm in our tent trailer and read or play games. In this case, the rain stopped and everything either dried or was dried off fairly quickly. :)

Evening campfires were complete with S'mores and hot chocolate. There is something so special about camping. I love it so much! I could do this several times a year and not get tired of it. Thankfully it didn't get very cold at night, so climbing into bed was something I looked forward to. Next time I think I'll take a touque to hide my scary bed head in the morning though. :)