Rakiura - three day Great Walk

"We must do a trip to Stewart Island some time ... "  Those words have been hanging around for some time but with little to show for it until Mike and Angela decide to get organised.  They have both the three day Rakiura Track lined up and the Hump Ridge Track - I'm joining them for the former.

What:     Great Walk
Where:   Rakiura Track 
When:    23 -  25 November 2021
Who:      Mike, Angela, Stacey, Callum

The plan is elaborate - I join Mike and Angela in Queenstown - they have driven down from Christchurch in the van with the intention of Mike doing the half marathon.  That's been cancelled so we meet up anyway and spend a grey afternoon wandering the streets before a comfortable night at the Absoloot Hostel.

Yet another surgeons' conference in Queenstown?

The road trip south to Invercargill is uneventful apart from getting caught up in one of the protests that have been organised around the country.  It seems to be a confused mash up of the ill informed, conspiracy nuts and those out to misrepresent Government policies for their own ends.  There's anti-three waters, anti-vax, anti 1080 and every other brand of anti govt you can think of.  I find myself reminded of the climate change denial activities of Fed Farmers and others in the early 2000s and a complicit media more interested in trumpeting headlines about 'Fart Taxes' than engaging with the evidence.  Some gormless twat drove his tractor onto the steps up to Parliament at the time.   

We stop for a good lunch at Meccaspresso then wander the rainy streets looking at the strange juxtaposition of grand old buildings mouldering into ruin and a huge shopping complex taking shape.  A quick shop for supplies, then we follow the highway to Bluff.

We find the park for the ferry and hook up with Stacey and Callum.  The trip across to Rakiura in the cat is fast and smooth.  The weather isn't any better on the island but it is calm as a mill pond.

We're staying at the Stewart Island Backpackers.  The rooms are basic but clean and they are very hospitable.  It's quiz night at the pub so there is no chance of a meal so we head to the Kai Kart where we enjoy blue cod and chips - I figure the fishery here is sustainable.

In the evening, one of the available entertainments is to watch penguins swim ashore near the jetty. We gather with a small group, most of whom were on the ferry, and wait in the early evening.  Eventually a couple of heads dot up in the bay and then again closer, one forms a wee arrow of wake and comes in along the shore and disappears amongst the rocks - and that's pretty much all we see.  

We have hut bookings, and have allowed ourselves time to kick around before the walk, so the next day is free - we start by walking over the hill to Golden Bay to take a boat trip out to Ulva Island.  It's all of 15 minutes across and the boat ticket is a leaf.  

The boat drops us and a handful of others at the Ulva Island jetty and we find ourselves standing on a sandy beech enjoying the descending silence.

Ulva Island is a wild life sanctuary but being close to land in Patterson Inlet it is prone to predator re-invasion.  Deer have even been known to swim to it.  The jetty is in a bay on the north east of the island and there are public tracks crossing between beaches on the northern part of the island.  DOC has more information here.  

There are information boards and well marked tracks - we decide to do as much of the circuit as we can manage before the next boat. 

We follow the track to Sydney Cove, walk along the beach then follow another track across the island to Boulder Bay.  

At Boulder Bay, weka and a fluffy chick are stooging around the sands finding something to eat.

A short way along the beach the track heads inland again to take us west to ... West End Beach.  We can hear an airplane buzzing the island airstrip which is a little over 3km from here.  The day is still grey and threatening drizzle so there is little to see across the inlet.  But the birdlife is rich and it is pleasant to just let the group get ahead and to sit on the sand in the silence.  

Back on the track, we head east across the island and back to the jetty - on the way taking in a short rustic nature trail (a windy piece of track with some of the trees labelled), spotting some native orchids and a quick diversion up to the look out at Flagstaff point.  The high point though is seeing a Tieke in the wild - so much worth the price of admission.

We're back at the jetty for a short wait before the boat arrives to take us back. 

Back at Golden Bay we follow a track east along the coast and into Deep Bay then short cut across the golf/frisbee golf course to eventually join Elgin Terrace along the coast in Halfmoon Bay.  We follow this out to the road end and the track to Ackers Cottage.  

Stacey informs us that her forebears are associated with this site.  It's a pretty wee bay, the cottage has been restored but since being a family home it has been used as a smithy.  You can hardly imagine living in such quarters with nine children.

We continue the walk out to the lighthouse at Ackers Point with views out to the Titi Islands where mutton birds are still harvested, and SSE to the Neck which marks the entry to Patterson's Inlet.

It's a long road walk back around the Bay to Oban.

The morning dawns fine - we head to the pub for good coffee and breakfast then back to the Hostel to haul on tramping kit.  They are good about us leaving bags for collection in a few days and say we can also use the showers, even though we will not be staying another night.  A really helpful service!

Must be a pub - iced latte comes by the pint

It's another good long road walk to the start of the track at Lee Bay. We pop into the DOC office then knuckle down and plod over the first headland to Horseshoe Bay and then on to Lee Bay.   

The start of the walk is marked by a sculptural chain, the mirror of the one at Bluff - reflecting the mythology of Rakiura being the anchor stone for the waka Te Waipounamu.

We head along a good grit surfaced track through coastal bush.  The day has clouded over - perfect for walking.

It's a pleasant walk.  We are surprised by a sealion (or large seal) at Little River as we shortcut across the sands.  Next is a stop for a break at the shelter at Māori Beach.  This would be a pleasant place to camp.

At the other end of the beach a swing bridge takes us across the dark tea-coloured waters of a sizable but unnamed creek.  We will be crossing the two main branches further upstream tomorrow.

 

On the other side the track climbs 130 odd metres to a junction, then drops through forest, and across wee streams to Magnetic Beach.   

It's then a short skip along to Port William Hut arriving around 2pm.  It's big with separate bunk rooms.  There's a lot of afternoon left and the sun breaks out.  We while away the time chatting to other trampers, doing the hut jigsaw, wandering along the beach, and lying about in the sun avoiding sandflies.  I have a fossick around in the surrounding bush discovering the water supply pipe which I trace back to source.  This turns out to be well over a kilometre away crossing two other creeks on the way.  I can't quite figure it, but guess some sources are less reliable in dry periods. 

Port William itself is an old European settlement but little remains apart from the gum trees.  The hut wardens give a talk, which I remember little of, but I think the settlement was established by northern Scots that were duped into thinking they were going to have a viable fishery with supporting farming - neither of which eventuated, given that you need a population close by to sell your produce to.  

  

Bits of the water supply

Sunbathing

The hut wardens give tips about kiwi spotting and we head out into the gloom with our head torches in red mode.  To save the suspense - I've been to Rakiura three or four times and still haven't seen one.  However, Callum has stashed a few nip bottles of various types in his pack and we use these to toast Stacey's birthday.

There's no hurry in the morning - we retrace our steps to the top of the hill from yesterday, then take the junction for the wild interior.  It climbs a little further then drops towards the stream past an old steam engine log hauler. 

The track drops and crosses a stream, then sidles and drops to cross another branch before climbing to flat tops that rarely get above 200m before dropping to the North Arm of Paterson Inlet.   

The track is in good nick with mesh or fabric pretty much the whole way.  It doesn't stop the mud but it's way better than the thigh deep bogs I remember coming through when I was a nipper (even allowing for my thigh height being somewhat lower then).  Even the DOC sign marking half way looks like it needs gumboots.

I'm being nosey, looking at what looks like side tracks, and discover a path to a clearing and an unmarked hut.  It's a good open spot so we stop for lunch.

Back on the trail, a hanging buoy indicates half way between somewhere and somewhere else - I can't remember what but the photo op is irresistible.  

The buoys 

At some point the mud changes to gravel and we meander down and along through sapling forest.

At North Arm Hut we are greeted with notices about bed bugs.  We had heard as much, but also that DOC had done a number on them including relining, spraying and trapping.  We follow the instructions and don't seem to pick up any unwanted ... itchhikers.  

Exploring the area around the hut we discover a camp site on the rise above the hut, a pretty wee bay below and some ridiculously unafraid white tail deer.  I haven' seen these up close before - they are small and elegant; the whippets of the cervine world.  They allow us to get within a few metres with apparent unconcern.

The hut warden pops by (there's a separate hut), and asks if one of our party has left a sleeping bag at Port William - someone has found it and taken it back to the DOC office in Oban.  I'm pretty sure not, but make discrete enquiries and discover that Mike has left his puffer jacket in its stuff sack behind.  In the afternoon rush, I may just have neglected to inform him that it was safely back at Halfmoon Bay already. 

I could get used to this type of tramping.  Again we have no rush in the morning and get up and out at a leisurely pace.  The track from here bobbles up and down along the coast of Paterson Inlet back towards Oban.   

We potter along in the sun crossing tea coloured streams.  The track to the old dam is closed but we potter down to the water's edge at Kaipipi Bay.  From here it is pretty much 4WD track up the hill and along to drop and meet the Fern Gully track.  

Passing the DOC office I encourage Mike to pop in on the off chance that his jacket has turned up.  Surprise, surprise it has and he is reunited with his errant kit.

By 12.30 we're sipping cool drinks at the pub.  I head back to the Hostel for a shower, collect stashed gear then off to the ferry.  A barge is unloading bulky items from the mainland and it's a good diversion watching proceedings as a procession of vehicles turn up to collect their orders from ride on mowers to green houses.     

Another calm crossing and I leave the others as they head for further fun on the Hump Ridge Track.

As for Rakiura - it's a good idea to allow some time around the tramping as there is plenty else to do, particularly if you're into diving.  And I definitely have unfinished business - not least the Tin Range and the North West circuit.