I went down to Stewart Island with a few friends over Easter Weekend. We didn't really have any plans for once we got down there, but it worked out really well! We left late Saturday afternoon, and drove the whole 9 hours to Bluff, camping there overnight. We stopped on the way down, once to visit the Moeraki Boulders, which are just north of Dunedin. They are these huge, perfectly spherical boulders that were formed millions of years ago under the ocean. See http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/destinations/moeraki.html for more info. Here's a picture (of Emma's) of Cara, me, Emma, and Tina on one of the boulders...
We arrived in Oban mid-morning on Sunday, and after talking to some locals, decided to take a water taxi (basically just a little boat) up Freshwater River and from there hike across the island to Mason Bay (about a 15km flat tramp) which is on the west coast, spend the night at the backcountry hut there (the NZ Department of Conservation maintains a network of huts on most tracks), and then turn around and come back through Freshwater and continue up and over a ridge to the North Arm Hut, covering about 26km that day. From North Arm, we planned to continue back into Oban Tuesday morning (only about 12km) in time to catch the 4pm ferry back to Bluff. Things didn't quite go as planned, but I'll come back to that later.
Because of the tides, the earliest ferry we could catch didn't leave until 2:30, so we had some time to kill in Oban...we picked up more food, visited the DOC office, and then hung out near the little beach in the harbor. This wasn't just any beach though...the sand was gold! Unfortunately its not real gold...just Fool's Gold rocks broken down into sand:
Anyways, we caught the taxi up to the Freshwater hut, took a few minutes to pack up and snap a few photos, and we were off. Below is a picture of the footbridge going across the river, and another looking down on the dock and across the Manuka forest:
The trail from Freshwater to Mason Bay was flat, but beautiful. The variety of terrain on the island is remarkable: on the eastern side of Freshwater, it was a rainforest, while directly across on the western side was a manuka forest that continued for about 5km and then turned into tussock land, and both were laced with swampy areas. It's pretty much never dry in the area we hiked through, evidenced by the constant mud pits on the trail...at one point Tina and Dan took their shoes off and hiked for a couple of kms barefoot!
It was not all mud though...about 30 min out from Freshwater, we saw one of the closest-looking rainbows I've ever seen (notice how its in front of the mountains in the pictures below)...it seemed like we really could have found the pot of gold at the end!
We stopped a couple of times (the hike only took about 3 hours) for food and water, and were greeted pretty much everytime by a variety of birds. This little Tomtit was completely unafraid of us....I'm not even zooming in at all in this picture:
We camped Sunday night at Mason Bay, and walked out to the beach that night in the dark. Camp was about 2km from the beach, and we could here the waves from camp. As we approached , the sounds just got louder and louder. We were surrounded by sand dunes the size of houses; these eventually fell away into a huge expanse of sand, cut down the middle by a pebble-bottomed stream. What little I could see of the waves looked miles away, but sounded like they were about to crash down on top of me. I kept walking out, and before I thought I was even close to the water line, the Tasman Sea rushed in around my feet. Looking out into the dark ocean, not being able to see anything but a faint white line of breakers, hearing the pure power of the ocean, and knowing that I'll probably never see that stretch of beach in the daylight was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had.
We returned from the beach, and everyone else pretty much went to sleep, exhausted from a long day of travel. I wasn't tired yet, so sat out on the front porch for awhile, just listening to the ocean in the distance and the closer sounds of wind and insects. I'm also pretty sure I saw a kiwi...he was in the shadows, and so I couldn't see him too clearly, but it definitely the right shape and size!
We woke up early the next morning and made our way back to Freshwater through the morning mist. We had heard from a few people that the climb up and over the ridge to North Arm is hell--straight up, straight down, and mud up to your thighs was the description of the same trail that the DOC described to us as "moderate to hard"), and everyone was pretty beat from slogging through the mud (plus Tina, Dan, and Cara were in sneakers). So, we decided not to press on, and instead Dan and Tina caught the afternoon water taxi back to Oman (there wasn't room for all 5 of us) and Cara, Emma, and I spent the night in Freshwater Hut, taking one out the next afternoon. It was a little stressful at times trying to figure out if we were going to be able to make it back at all by Tuesday afternoon because the water taxi's have limited seating and can only come up Freshwater 1-2 times per day, depending on the tides, but luckily it all worked out, especially because Emma and I both had tests on Wednesday!
The three of us who stayed ended up having a great 24 hours. One of the other guys in the hut, Stefan, had been doing the Northwest and Southern Circuits combined with some of his friends, but blew out his calf so was heading in early. The good news for us was that he had lots of cheese and chocolate to share! Our other bunk mate was a kind of crazy German guy who had just come from the North Arm Hut; Cara saw him coming into camp, and he stopped and angrily flicked off the sign pointing towards the track he just finished...he told us later that it took him 11 hours! We definitely made the right decision to bail on that.
We slept in the next morning, and then did a short hike (about 1.5 hours) up Rocky Mountain, which is supposed to have spectacular views of the island...when its clear. We got up to the top and were completely clouded in! The summit cairn, and view of the ridge line covered in clouds:
We sat on top for 30 min or so, hoping it might clear up, but of course it didn't. About 15 minutes after we started down, however, the clouds started lifting, and we could see all the way across the island to Mason Bay! In the picture below, the sand dunes (the hut where we stayed is right next to those) and the bay itself can be seen:
When we were almost back to the hut, Cara somehow saw something big up in the trees...a Kaka! This bird is a parrot native to New Zealand, and we sat and watched him fly around and eat insects off the high branches of the trees for awhile before coming down. This is the best picture I could get of him:
We caught the taxi out that afternoon, caught the ferry after some much-needed fish and chips, and then drove the 9 hours all the way back to Christchurch...finally made it home around 3:30am. What a weekend!
