Rakiura Track, our Frist Tramp

On Wednesday 9 January, we set sail from Bluff, New Zealand's southernmost and oldest European city, for Stewart Island, the third and southernmost main island. We left Patty the van behind and geared up for two nights in the wilderness.

The ferry to the island crosses the Foveaux straight in the midst of the "roaring forties," a section of sea in the 40-50 degree latitudinal region that is relatively shallow (~30 meters) with no land to break the wind until South America. There are three seas that meet here: the Tasman, the South Pacific, and the Southern Ocean. All this makes this ride is notoriously bumpy. The captain told us it would be a calm morning. We looked outside to see waves 2 meteres high and cringed to think what it would be like on a rough day. I started to feel slightly sea sick and decided to lay down. It was 8 AM and without any coffee yet I was asleep in no time. Alex never felt worse than slightly queasy, but he only tried once to get up to take photos. Almost all of these passengers in the photo were on the trail with us for the next few days. By that night we considered the girl in the front, the couple behind her and the group in the back corner our friends.

We had a quick breakfast in Oban, the island's only city. This place has under 400 permanent residents, all of whom are there for the purposes of conservation or tourism. From there we headed to the trailhead of the Rakiura Track, a 32 kilometer trail with two overnight huts for us to sleep in. 

It rains 265 days a year on Stewart Island. We did not get one of the few 100. We set out with fresh new gaiters to cover our ankles from mud, and at the first sloppy section, we strapped them on...

The first day was 11km to the Port William Hut. A relatively flat, dry start, even with a few sprinkles.

We had a short break near Maori Beach. While I was hunting for sea shells, Alex spotted this oyster catcher family.

It did begin to rain just after we arrived at the hut. It proceeded to rain all night long. Even for Stewart Island, this was a big storm.  Several of us went out that night after dark (11:30pm, when it finally does get dark at this latitude) for kiwi bird spotting. We were completey unsuccessful. The sound of the rain in the forest is so loud that a kiwi could be just next to us snorting in the dirt and we'd never know it. 

There was a group of five kiwi people and one irish woman together on the track. They taught me how to play euchre, a card game I hadn't played since my summer job in 2000. Following that Alex and I taught a German couple and a single Japanese woman how to play Phase 10. We spent many hours in the huts over the two nights playing cards and mixing with cultures this way.

The Huts themselves are awesome. They are kept up by the DOC and rented to trampers to spend the night. Bare bones in terms of amenities, but in our current lifestyle they have it all: running water from giant rain catchers, counter space, tables, benches, candles, clothes lines and even a wood stove. The sleeping is in two big rooms with rows of bunks. 

The second day we hiked 13km up and down a couple of small mountains. We hiked along the beach and through both beech forests and podocarp forests.

A big portion of trail was initially plotted by Maori who used the camps as seasonal homes. Much of the land is owned by Maori today. All along the trail there is historical evidence of saw milling days when this track was used for comercial reasons, such as this steam engine abandoned in the river.

All the rain on that first night made the trail the following day muddy. We came to know just why kiwis call hiking "tramping." The mud adds a feeling of distance to the trek by way of extra gravitational pull into the earth...

By the morning it had cleared up for several hours but started to rain again in the early afternoon. We hiked the last part of the second day in a windy, sunny downpour. We were worn out and very happy to catch a glimpse of the North Arm Hut...

Our final morning we took it easy in the hut knowing we could make it back to town in plenty of time to catch the ferry back to Bluff.

The last day was 11km and ended on the old main road. Almost all the roads in New Zealand feel like "back roads" so this one is aptly named...

We were seriously exhausted by the time we got back to Patty. We will take this week to recover and prepare for the more challenging Kepler track that we have coming up on the 17th.

Be well, everyone! Thanks as always for keeping up with us.