Stewart Island

Sitting inside a quiet hut while writing a blog and waiting until your meal is done, what else can traveller wants? We have just arrived into North Arm Hut on the Rakiura Track and writing a blog seemed to be the ideal thing to do right now (after eating of course:-). The long awaited trip to Stewart Island (SI) has become a reality now as we have landed by plane on the island's airport in the afternoon two days ago. It was just a bit 'bumpy' as the pilot said:-) due to rain and instead of airport terminal we had been awaited by a bus. It took us to Oban in Halfmoon Bay which is the only town on the Island.

There was a wind and rain throughout the night but by the time we woke up the sky was blue and we we sure that our timing was perfect. Firstly, before we headed off to a track, we had to book our hut in the nearby DOC office which costed us $84 making Rakiura Track one of the cheapest Great Walks in NZ. First 5km is boring and via the road, but we were lucky and bus driver gave us a lift to Lee Bay where the enormous Rakiura National Park covering most of the island starts. As we had less then 10km to walk to the hut and the weather was great we had enough time to get used to our 15kg backpacks and have a coffee near Maori Beach, former saw-milling settlement, on the way. Still we have reached Port William Hut relatively early and thus we have decided to try the feared North West Circuit. 

Stewart Island is famous for its muddy tracks and as we stepped aside from the great walk where most of the mud is removed by using gravel, it was obvious that paying extra for a great walk was worth it. The track was wide as people tried to avoid the mud. We have walked just 2km to nearby Sawyers Beach, but by then our shoes and my bum were brown from mud on the track and fall while crossing a small creek. On the other hand, you could immediately feel the wilderness of the track and the beauty of the deserted beach. When we returned we could enjoy the 'luxury' of basic great walk hut, ready prepared wood for stove. But our day wasn't over yet as we set us a task of seeing a Kiwi bird. Stewart Island is the best place to see kiwi as there are over 20 thousand of them and they are not as nostural as their mainland cousins. We were walking around the hut like crazy. We managed to see a possum, but no kiwis. We had almost given up when one kiwi just walked out of a bush. As we have disobeyed about three kiwi spotting rules, he briskly vanished. However, a minute later there was another one, much bigger picking her food near the wooden storage. She also got scared and run away just meter far from my leg. Hopefully we did not scared them too much, but it was a great experience to see one of the rarest bird in the world. Our mission was accomplished!

Today the track was very monotonous, walking though the forest and crossing many muddy sections. However, the rare views and birds makes even this part interesting. As it is our first multi-day trip in NZ, we were pretty tired today and side trip that I have planned stayed unfulfilled. On the other hand, we have met a Hungarian tramper that had walked the whole North West Circuit track and he gave us many tips on tramping around NZ and around the world.

The following day we headed back to Oban. Even though the last part of the track was also 12km, it was a short walk in comparison as there was almost no elevation and the track rolled nicely alongside the shore and milling roads. Once we finally arrived in Oban, the only thing that we could think of was hot shower, after the final picture of course:-) To my pleasure we have finished our trip with dinner in the local pub. I had their speciality, seafood chowder - a delicious thick soup, and Lucas bet on blue cod and chips. Just the perfect finish of the day.

Last day on SI felt like island hopping tour; from middle island (Stewart) to small island (Ulva), back to middle island and in the end a cruise to a 'little bit' bigger island (South Island, NZ). Ulva Island was recommended to us by a DOC ranger during one of our side trip in Canterbury.

And he was right. The amount of birdlife on the island was amazing. By the time we have finished, we were small NZ ornithologists - we were able to recognise about ten types of birds, maybe even more that I can do in Europe:-). 

The great thing was that they were not shy, once Robin even try to eat our shoes, that is how close they were! We have also managed to see Kakas, rare parrots that we were waiting to see all the time in SI.


And the tiny ferry to the island was also an entertainment in itself. The journey was short but fruitful with penguins swimming next to us and the ferry tickets were written on a leaf that was used as an official postcard until 1970s.

After a couple of short walks around Oban the only remaining thing was to catch our ferry back to Bluff and then bus to Invercargill. We were happy to find out that it was more like a cruise and that free coffee was included...