Out in the Wopwops, NZ - the Kepler Track and Stewart Island

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From Queenstown where I last wrote, I made my way south on the Intercity bus to Te Anau. Here I would wait for my friends Brian and Caroline to catch me up, for Brian and I would soon embark on the Kepler track together, leaving Caroline to watch movies, drink wine and kick back and relax. I spent a couple of days in Te Anau doing not much of anything, though this proved a profitable use of time come the walk itself. I spent the majority of my time in the YHA place in Te Anau which had a great range of movies for lending. One I managed to fit in was "Whale Rider", a tale about Maori in the present day which was deeply affecting and I recommend it to everyone (on a side note, watch "Once Were Warriors" too - on the evidence so far, Kiwi cinema is extremely dark in tone). The rest of my time was spent wandering about, enjoying the atmosphere and stocking up on carefully selected produce for my four days of walking.

We departed at 9am on Friday morning with a swing in our step and stabbing pain in our shoulders - Oh! for a pack-horse. The distance before us was somewhere between 60 and 67km (depending on which source you read) and would take four days of trudging to complete. Given my level of fitness and experience with extending hiking, I can honestly say that this was a real challenge for me to complete! Reading the free guide beforehand, I got the impression that I would need to climb only a few hills as I went and was thus shocked by the rolling hills that marred the final two days of 'descent'. I'm hard pressed to choose between Day 1 and Day 2 as to which was the most physically taxing. Day 1's walk to Luxmore Hut included a strength, will and life-sappingly steep climb through beech forest before finally emerging above the tree-line and providing a spectacular panorama of the Te Anau valley and the various snow-capped ranges thereabouts. However, Day 2 to Iris Burn Hut saw us scaling and descending a number of tough slopes and crossing some perilous Alpine ridges in fairly strong winds, before undertaking a seemingly endless number of switchbacks down through more beech forest, which left me with thighs and buttocks hewn from toughest granite. Worse than this tough, was the tough final day which saw us stumbling through persistent drizzle, clinging mud and more forests. Were it not the final day, I may well have killed Brian for food before drowning myself in a muddy pool.

Some readers planning a similar endeavour may be interested in some sort of 'Best Of' and 'Worst Of' with regard to the days. In a general sense, I want to call Day 2 the 'best' day because I'd never done anything of the sort and walking the ridges was a fantastic experience. Also, with anything other than our cloud-blighted day, the views would be phenomenal. The worst day was undoubtedly the last struggle from Motorau Hut back to Te Anau itself and the comfort of the YHA, though this was largely due to the miserable weather. Many people skip the third night at Motorau Hut and head on to Rainbow Reach where buses pick up and carry them home, thus only making a three day trek. However, they miss out on the beautiful beach by the hut. I insisted that everyone swim in the lake before watching the sun set over Lake Manapouri. It was a definate highlight, especially because the weather had cleared up from a miserable morning.

It's worth commenting here that back home in England I'd be exceedingly unlikely to do anything of the sort in my spare time. To the best of my knowledge, walking tracks at home are nothing like as well set up and maintained as over here, where tramping is truly an everyman activity. The tracks are clearly laid out and signposted and accommodation either by camping or hut is available throughout. The problem that arises from this, is the price of the activity itself. It cost NZ$40 a night to reserve myself a place in one of the huts on the track, which to be honest does not appear worth it for they are a pretty rustic affair. They did have flush toilets and cooking facilities (though this is not always the case on other tracks) but they also have 20+ share dorms, cold running water, no showers and often no heating. I can't help but feel a price of around NZ$25 a night would be fairer but what do I know. The money spent does apparently go towards all the upkeep required and paying the wardens that are resident in the huts, who give interesting talks and information in the evening once you have arrived, so I suppose it's not all bad. It just leaves a slightly bad taste - the taste of tourist exploitation - in the mouth.

Returning like conquering heroes from our trek, Brian and I gorged on chips and ice-cream from the local store (NB: NZ has fantastic TipTop cone ice cream, with the star flavour being 'Hokey Pokey', what we would call honeycomb). We then came home to find that Caroline had cooked us both a lovely roast (me just vegetables, naturally, with my very own mushroom gravy) and pear and apple crumble. I was so full of food that I went upstairs to pack and promptly fell asleep in my clothes, waking to find myself in the pitch black and quite afraid. The next morning, I boarded a bus to Invercargill, from where I took a shuttle bus down to Bluff, to catch the ferry to Stewart Island.

Stewart Island is lays about 26km (I think) south of South Island and a 1 hour ferry sees you over some reasonably rough seas (thankfully Caroline had kindly gifted me a couple of tablets after the Pusan Ferry Incident), into lovely Halfmoon Bay. The township of Oban (noticing a Scottish theme here?) consists of only about 400 very-friendly people, one backpackers, a variety of homestays and one pub. It's small to say the least. I spent three nights here and I have to say that is most certainly worth it and indeed you should try to spend some more time. Failing to get accommodation at the hostel, I was directed towards a place called The View, ominously titled, it did indeed require a steep ascent to be reached but it was certainly worth it. A reasonably-equipped, if eccentric place, it had much character and a beautiful upright piano in a large room with views over the bay. Playing the piano as the sun set, I suddenly rembered that I was living out my dream of having such a lounge in my future home.

There is a fair amount to do in Stewart Island, as long as you are interested in walking and wildlife. I originally intended to do the three-day Rakiura Track (another NZ great walk), though the weather looked like it was going to go bad. To my (muted) dismay, the sun came out, so I simply tacked together a few walks from the Day Walks brochure (available at the information centre) and took a seven-hour trek around the coast. The coastline is beautiful and the bush looks utterly prehistoric. The only problem is the mud that is EVERYWHERE. It became hugely frustrating stumbling through ever-larger pools of the stuff but it was worth it. Deep Cove Bay and Ringaringa are definate highlights for beaches and the walk out to Fern Gully was mysteriously beautiful. I met again with Caroline and Brian and we agreed to head the next day to Ulva Island, an island sanctuary where NZ's Department of Conservation (DOC) has spent the last few years exterminating every last rat in existence before moving a number of rare species of bird and plant life. The water taxi costs $20, which is reasonable and the experience is essential if you are on Stewart Island. The island is stunning, peaceful and interesting to boot. Even more so than the main island, Ulva really feels like something out of Isla Nebula, especially when you see the Weka birds strutting around like mini-Velociraptors. Returning from Ulva Island, I made good to get the ferry back to the mainland. I left Stewart Island without seeing any Kiwi's, a shame since they are at their most numerous there. It's getting rediculous - I left Australia without seeing a single Roo and now I've failed yet again to the NZ national bird/hero.

Stewart Island is becoming an increasingly popular destination for visitors and apparently the island is changing. However, I imagine the pace of change is going to be reasonably laid back and there is a definate focus on preserving the wild feel of the place. It is quite expensive to visit - a return ferry is NZ$94 and a return shuttle from Invercargill is NZ$28 - and there isn't really anything 'essential' to see there. However, for it's atmosphere and it's clean air, it's natural beauty, it's well worth visiting for more than a day trip. Visiting here as well, you also realise how hard the DOC works to maintain the 100% Pure NZ which is what draws all the thousands (millions I imagine) of visitors every year. With this realisation, it's possible to pretend (even if it's not the case) that your mildly extortionate NZ$40 a night trek hut fees goes to creating and maintaining a place like Ulva Island, which is doubtlessly a worthwhile excercise. I left Invercargill the next morning, stopping overnight in Christchurch before catching the bus to Bleinheim and the Marlborough wine-growing region. Until next time.

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Photos

Hoorah! We're off!
Do they know what they're letting themselves in for?

The top of Mt Luxmore
It was DAMN cold... not as cold as Mt Cook though!

Alpine Ridge
This is not the one I almost fell off...

That's what I think of you
I was relieved to be going home, you see

A good meal
Caroline & Brian - if you look closely, you can see Brian grit his teeth because he wants to start eating

Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island
Observation Rock is well worth heading to at sunset

Deep Cove Bay, Stewart Island
Probably my favourite of the beaches I managed to see while I was there

Post Office Cove, Ulva Island
Jumping of point of water taxis and beautiful in it's own right