Stewart island/Rakiura - exploring the wild
Rakiura/Stewart Islands westcoast - Mason Bay
It took years living in New Zealand before I made it all the way down to Stewart island/Rakiura. It has always been a place I wanted to visit but I never wanted to rush a visit there, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time. That time only just came around last year and after lots of planning and researching, my partner and I decided to head over for about 10 days.
We were planning an extended road trip in August 2021 and Stewart was to be one of our first stops. As New Zealand went into a nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 at the time we had to put those plans plans on hold. But as soon as we got out of lockdown a few weeks later we quickly got our van ready and set off south. After a ski stop in Wanaka to spend some time with great friends we were on route to the island of Stewart/Rakiura.
There are plenty of longer hikes to do around Rakiura and we could not quite decide how we wanted to go about our hiking experience. There is 8-11 day Northwest circuit which can be quite challenging with lots of mud and slippery roots. Then you have an easier option of doing a Great Walk loop that will take you 2-3 days and big parts of this walk is on gravel paths. We decided in the end to do something in between and just go with feel and see where our feet took us. After a refreshing night in Oban at the South Sea hotel we took off with 6 days of food and walked north along the east coast. We started off with a short day and arrived at Port Williams hut (Great walk hut) after walking for a few hours in the drizzling rain. Since it was low season and parts of the country was still in lockdown we saw very few people on our journey. We spent our first night in the hut by ourselves, with a lovely fire from the fireplace, hot drinks, books (kindle) and our main entertainment - yahtzee! Most of our evenings ended up looking very much the same (great stuff). We got into our bunk beds and settled in for our first night.
I woke up at one point after 4am after hearing a loud noise which I could not place at first. My first thought was a car alarm until my senses brought me back and I realized that I was in a hut on Rakiura and there are no cars around. I then quickly realized that it was the sound of a kiwi screeching at night. I woke Allan up and told him that there is a kiwi outside. We made our way outside with a red torch (kiwi are sensitive to light, if you see one at night, make sure to use a red light only). After a slow observing lap around the hut I could hear something just next to a tree. The moon was shining bright and illuminated the whole area around us. I heard something breathing and once I found where the sound was coming from I was looking at my first ever kiwi, a Southern Brown Kiwi or the Southern Tokoeka! The bird was feeding along the open grass area and what I could hear was it's beak/nose digging into the ground and sniffing around. They are very noisy! For about 20 minutes we got to observe this bird as it was foraging in the early morning hours. What a great start to this adventure!
The next day we made our way north to get a taste of the NW circuit through Rakiura national park. This is when we started to come across the famous Stewart Island mud! We took it slow and only did a 6 km day as we made our way to Bungaree hut. We were happy when we arrived at the hut as the day had taken us up and down over hills, crossing creeks and walking over slippery roots. Exactly what we expected from this walk. Bungaree hut is nestled along the coastline and is extremely picturesque. The beautiful sandy beach is a great spot for an afternoon hang, if you can fight off the never-ending flow of sandflies.
Afternoon reading
Bungaree hut
After a great stay at Bungaree we got up early the next day to see what the day had in store for us. We like to start walking early, preferably at 7am but it was raining heavily and we decided to wait it out a bit to see if it slowed down. After a few hours the rain slowed but never stopped, but we got going and made our way further north. This was the biggest day for us so far and in the rain it got extra slippery along the roots and we took extreme care as we made our way along the track. We came to Murray Beach which is a stunning long sandy beach, but in pouring rain, it was now anything but stunning. Heading into the wind we pushed on and eventually found shelter in a Hunters hut at the end of the beach. A great place for us to rejuvenate. After a long break here we felt ready to move on and walk the last hours to Christmas village hut (not a village). We arrived fairly late, only about an hour before sunset. We decided to stay here for 2 nights to make the walk up here more worth it as we weren't planning on walking any further along this track.
There was plenty to do around the hut, several walks along the beach, a short boardwalk and checking out some parts of the track. This part of the coastline is a nesting place for tawaki/ Fiordland crested penguin and we could see several of them feeding just off the beach which was an amazing sight. The second night we were rewarded with a stunning moonrise which lit up the dark night sky.
After a great stay in Christmas village we stocked up the firewood in the hut for the next person, cleaned up the place, packed our stuff and started making our way back towards Oban. As we had already walked this way before and our backpacks being slightly lighter it was much easier and faster for us on the way back and we managed to have our first dry day with no rain. We stayed in Bungaree hut where we met our first human on the track, Esme was making her way north to do the whole circuit so we had a great night exchanging stories with her. We then walked all the way back to Oban in one day and had a lovely day walking back with patches of rain towards the end. The big reward was of course chips and pizza from the pub at the hotel once back in Oban!
Oban is a wonderful place to visit and if you don't have the time to do a few overnight walks you will get a taste of Rakiura while in Oban. There are several short walks to do around town and you will see plenty of native birds which are commonly seen in town such as kākā, kereru and kākāriki. After a day of rest and a whole day of pouring rain we got a water taxi with Rakiura charters over to Ulva Island. It is recommended to spend 2-4 hours if you do a self guided walk, but bird nerds as we are, we spent 7 hours which was a great amount of time for us. We were rewarded with a great number of birds on this predator free island. Many species have been released here and are now thriving. We were lucky to see two new species which were the mohua/yellowhead and titipounamu/rifleman. I can highly recommend a visit to Ulva Island, we absolutely loved it!
Once we finished our day on Ulva island, the water taxi came to pick us up and this time it took us up Freshwater river where we had planned our second hike for Rakiura. We have been very keen on making it over to Mason bay which is situated on the west coast of Stewart Island. The ride up Freshwater river is a thrilling one and the clouds and rain cleared for us right as we made it up along the river. We arrived at Freshwater hut around 6pm and settled in for the night.
Our next destination was now Mason bay and we made our way over the swampy and flat 15km walk. It was nice to have a nice flat day but as always, it was still muddy and wet but we made it over nicely to the hut after this long walk. We quickly set off on a beach walk along Mason bay for the afternoon. Luckily the weather held up for us for the rest of the day and we ended up having an exciting day exploring Mason bay amongst all the rubbish/plastic that unfortunately washed up on the beach. Met some of the local banded dotterels and some birds that didn't quite make it.
An unexpected visitor
As we were going for a late afternoon stroll along the path inland while on lookout for a kiwi we came across something we did not expect. Along the path walked a Salvins mollymawk albatross! Now albatross are pelagic and spend most of their time soaring above the ocean. They are not often found on land often unless they are breeding, most of their breeding grounds are found on far offshore islands. Albatrosses cannot take off from land very easy as they need the lift from the wind to aid them to take flight. It is possible that the bird got disoriented and accidentally landed inland. We found this bird 2-3 kms inshore and over the next 2 hours the bird slowly made its way back towards the ocean. It would stop at every turn along the path and consider which way was the oceans way. Just as the sun was setting it reached a slight opening towards the ocean and managed to get the running, flapping takeoff along Jacob’s river.
Night at Mason Bay hut
Clouds coming over the sky as the sun has set and the stars are just visible
We spent 2 nights in Mason bay and then made our way back to Freshwater hut. Around sunset while sitting inside the hut we could hear the now common screeching of the kiwi coming from the other side of the river. We quickly but quietly made our way over the bridge and searched the area. Allan motioned me over as he spotted something before me and not only was there a kiwi there, but there were two kiwi! Stoked to see kiwi while there was still some daylight left (but not enough daylight for a camera photo) we observed the kiwi as they were foraging noisily along the bush. When we ran out of daylight we made our way back to the hut and collected our head torches and red light to continue our observation. The next morning we left Freshwater happy and had a quick last look at a kiwi who was foraging amongst the ferns just off the track. We never managed to see this one out in the open but had a good time observing through ferns instead.
The common view of a kiwi
Watching the ferns move and catching the odd glimpse of a brown feather through the thick layers of fern.
Coming up to one of our last days we made our way to North Arm hut (Great walk hut), which ended up being a long and strenuous walk especially as we ended up leaving quite late due to kiwi distractions. That day there was a steep climb and once you get up, you have to get back down again. After walking in the rain along the muddy and slippery trail we were happy when we made it to the hut in the early evening. We weren't the only ones staying at this hut and it was lovely to be welcomed into a hut with the fire blaring and we could warm up and dry our clothes. After a pretty sleepless but still rested night we got up for the last leg into Oban. As we were now back on the Great Walk part of the trail we knew it would be easy going from here. We easily made the last kms into town and although we walked 13 kms it felt like like a walk in the park compared to the day before.
I absolutely loved our time on the island and I’m happy we took as much time as we did exploring the area. After almost 2 weeks on the island and 10 nights in huts (which we mostly had to ourselves) I feel like I a got a great taste of what Rakiura/Stewart Island is like. First visit but I am sure it will not be the last. Next time I will be ready and prepared for an extended walk and hopefully see more parts of the island.