Coddiwomple Stardate 180313

After 4.5 months in New Zealand and spending so far 7 weeks on Stuart Island I finally did one of 9 New Zealand’s great walks. The Rakiura is only a 3-day hike but the most popular on Stuart Island. Another is the North West Circuit which is a 11-day hike around the top 1/3 of the island. There is a third hike called the Southern Circuit still in the top third of the island but is for the far more adventurous and experienced. You have to pre-book these walks because of limited accommodation available. The Rakiura will accommodate max of 24 people for the dorms and max of 6 tents or 12 people in the camp sites. The other trail varies between 6 – 12 bunks and no tent sites. I was talking to a group of people and they booked August last year just to be sure. Fortunately for me working on the island I had plenty of time available to book in for 2 adults. The second adult was Rachel who also works at the backpackers. Sharon didn’t want to go, she preferred to work to buy even more clothes from the only clothes shop on the island called Glowing Sky.

Rachel and I worked Saturday morning then drove out with Sharon to Garden Mound Trail which links up to Rakiura Trail. We had already walked this part of Rakiura which we would miss by going this way. After dropping us off at 1.30pm Sharon drove back to town which is only 5km away and is the longest road you can drive out to. After 5km’s in this direction there are no other roads.

The first camp site is called Port William Hut. It is only an 8.5km hike to there and we arrived just after 4.00pm. The hut consisted of 4 rooms. The Department of Conservation (DOC) staff have a full set up with beds kitchen and hot shower. They do a 10 day on 4 day off roster and have to walk back to the town after their shift. Rachel new both DOC workers and spent a little time with them on our stay. The other rooms consist of 2 x 12 bed dorms and quite a large communal area for cooking and eating. There are no cooking facilities, so your own stove is required. Sinks with filtered rain water is also supplied and no sterilizing of the water is required. A mattress is supplied, and you only need a sleeping bag and pillow.

Port William was originally planned to have a population of 1000. With many immigrants coming out from the Shetland Islands in the early 1800’s. A compound was built to house up to 150 people while they established their own land. The settlement was short lived. The only existing remnants of the settlement are a stand of blue gum trees. The Port William Hut is built on the original location of the compound.

Logging of Rimu trees then started in 1861 and the last mill closed in 1931. With most of the accessible timber gone what was left was to costly to cut down. When you look around it is hard to imagine all the lush forest you see was once clear-cut land. Although the large Rimu trees are gone nature has regenerated itself with vigorous new growth. There are a few places on the trail where you find rusting reminders of the days of logging.

There is a small wharf at Port William but used mainly for water taxies to drop people off to walk back into Oban. It is not used to resupply the DOC workers. Apart from Oban where supplies are ferried in from the mainland everywhere else on the island relies on helicopters. Fire wood and supplies are brought in by helicopters to the huts and all sewage waste is removed by helicopters. Gravel for the trails are also dropped by helicopters. It costs $24 a night to stay in the huts which sounds expensive but considering the cost to maintain these huts it is very reasonable. As I mentioned you have to pre-book to stay in the campsites. I asked the question if someone shows up who hasn’t booked what happens. The answer was they will try and accommodate you if any space is available if not you’re on your own with no shelter. If there is space, they will charge $48 per person a night. One elderly couple hadn’t booked and they were charge $96 for the night to share a single mattress. Apparently, they were grateful knowing the alternative.

The next day Rachel and I walked to North Arm Hut a 13km hike that took us 4.5 hours. Half the trail is walking through a lot of boot sucking mud. In winter it can be knee deep mud. The second half of the trail a lot of work had been done by bringing in what New Zealanders' call gravel which is more like our road base. Helicopters drop off large bags of this gravel and then is spread by shovel. Our walking pace was much quicker over these new areas.

North Arm Hut is on the other side of the island and the wind here was quite strong. The bay is a short walk from the hut but not as nice as the other side of the island. Again, the hut had two rooms each holding 12 people. 6 people on the bottom and six on the top. There is no space between the mattresses so very cosy for 12 people. That night there was nine people in our dorm. By the morning there was only 6 left the other 3 didn’t like my snoring and one was Rachel. They had dragged their mattress to the communal area for the night.

Monday morning, we left at 8.30am to walk the 12km back to Oban. I arrived at 11.40am just in front of the rain that was heading in. Removed my muddy boots and had a nice hot shower. Rachel was 20mins behind me and was caught in the rain. After feeling clean and fresh Sharon and I headed down to the South Sea Hotel for our weekly lunch and jug of beer for me.

If I had come to Stuart Island and went straight to the Rakiura track without staying in Oban, then left the island as soon as I had finished the track (which most hikers do) I would be very satisfied with what I would have seen. But having lived in Oban for 7 weeks Sharon and I have done all the day walks out of Oban and there are a lot. Anyone contemplating coming to Stuart Island I would say forget the hikes and spend your time around Oban doing day walks. The beaches, bays and forest walks are far superior than what I saw on the Rakiura Track.