16-30 March 2024

Leader: Peter Davis

In mid March a depleted group of three Parawais jumped on the plane from Wellington, bound for Stewart Island to tramp the Northwest Circuit.

We arrived in Oban and dutifully reported to the DOC office to find out what the state of the tracks was and to get some information on tides, and how busy the huts were likely to be. To our dismay we were told that the tracks were muddy and difficult, the huts would be absolutely bursting with big groups of hunters and lots of trampers and that we would need a tent, and on top of this the weather would be much the same as it was that day (dreary and drizzly). So we left, feeling a bit deflated and nervous about how the trip was going to go (especially considering we were tent-less).

The next morning was a bit chilly, but the sun was out and we set off in the shuttle to the start of the track at Lee Bay. We took a few photos at the chain link (symbolic of the Maori legend of Rakiura being the anchor stone of the South Island - Te Wai Pounamu) and then set off blazing along the Great Walk. We stopped at Maori Beach and took more photos of the old sawmill site - this was the last operating sawmill on Stewart Island - and then off to Port William Hut for lunch, congratulating ourselves on the good time we were making.

After lunch we turned off the Great Walk track and headed towards Bungaree Hut, greeted first by a whitetail deer in the bushes, and then the infamous Stewart Island mud. Walking poles were pulled out at this point, to use as a gauge for mud depth and also to help haul ourselves through the mud, and about four hours after leaving Port William Hut we arrived at Bungaree Beach, which we walked along to Big Bungaree Beach and Bungaree Hut at the northern end of the beach. Sandflies here were not too bad, giving us a misplaced hope that the rest of the walk wouldn't be sandfly-heavy.

The second day, the DOC employee we spoke to had informed us, was our hardest day. She also in her infinite wisdom, told us that if we got to the next hut (Christmas Village) and found that it was too hard - that we should turn back and walk the hardest day all over again to pull the pin! As it turned out, it probably was one of the harder days as there was a lot of mud and it was very sidley with lots and lots of ups and downs that felt like they would never end.

As the days rolled on, we got used to the mud because it was just everywhere - we got reasonably good at judging which spots were the deepest and avoiding them, although every now and then we might step into a bit that was deeper than we thought and have to wrestle our legs back out again. We also got used to the sandflies and worked our body and clothes washing routines around them.

We got good at washing our dirty clothes and getting them ready again for the next day - but we gave up on dry socks for the most part because they never stayed dry for more than the first few minutes of walking. We saw lots of incredible bush - big rimu forest all the way down to the beaches, massive patches of crown fern that you just KNEW were hiding lots of kiwi, fantastic little coastal grasses and flowers. We saw some deer, not a huge amount of birdlife but the odd fantail, kereru, robins AND A KIWI!!!

We climbed loads of headlands, strolled, hopped and clambered over lots of different kinds of beaches and fell or slipped over, most days. We met some absolutely stellar people, as well as a few less-than-awesome ones and stayed in some awesome huts on beaches, perched up on headlands, nestled into the bush... We ate paua prised off the rocks with our (Peter's) bare hands and had a go at fishing off the rocks for blue cod (less successful than the paua). We even got to stroll through kilometres of underwater track on the way out to Freshwater Hut and saw how quickly the track could become flooded and potentially impassable.

We managed to secure a spot on the water taxi a day early, after getting wind of the weather about to turn sour, then upon arriving back in Oban, found that all the accommodation was fully booked. However we were lucky enough to be offered beds in the bunk room of a hunter that we'd met in one of the huts. Also back in Oban we got to sample some of the local kai (pub food = not great, Kai Cart = fantastic but very generous servings) and walked out to Ackers Point to check out the oldest cottage remaining on the island. We took a trip to Ulva Island where a standoff with sea lions meant that we managed to walk all the tracks on the island except for the 50-odd metres where they were not allowing passage.

We found the walk to be very rugged and quite challenging, but such an incredible experience (with fantastic company and top-notch leadership of course). Lowlights were the mud and sandflies (and weird ladies with yoga mats and downloaded yoga instructional videos loud enough for the whole hut to join in). Highlights were the company, the stunning beaches and lush, practically untouched bush, the awesomely situated huts, the kiwi and the hot shower and pub meal when we returned to civilization!!!

Those on the trip were:

Julie James, Kylie Gilbert, Peter Davis