Rakiura Track: An NZ Great Walk

There are nine Great Walk's in New Zealand and are all run and operated by the Department of Conservation (DOC). They tend to be more expensive but the trails are very well maintained, the huts are exeptional and the number of hikers are limited. We decided to do the Rakiura Track because of its location. This track is on Stewart Island which is a one hour ferry ride south from the NZ south island (to NZ's "third" island). It sees less traffic which is what attracted us and there is a higher chance of seeing Kiwi birds in the wild (the sub-species here are active during the day and night here whereas on the north and south islands they are only active at night).

The track starts 5 km north of the town of Oban and takes three days/two nights for a total of 32 km. The route runs along some beaches (at low tide).

and through the Podocarp forest (what is a Podocarp forest? click here).

We did not see any Kiwi's but I did hear their calls our first night which sounds like "Kee-wee". We did see a lot of other birds though: Bellbirds, Tuis (I think their calls sound like R2-D2 from Starwars - click here for a video), Fantails, Kaka (parrot), Seagulls and Wood pigeons. We did see a few Albatross hanging out at the ferry terminal too. They are the worlds biggest sea birds with a wingspan up to 3.3m long!

Kaka

Albatross

The night sky from here is also very impressive. The stars are so bright and we heard that on a clear night you can see the aurora australis (the southern lights). I waited until about 10:30pm with no luck but Tom went out at 11pm and thinks he saw it; They're pretty faint... We did see phosphorescents in the ocean though, which is always fun to throw pebbles in and watch the green glow of the ripples.

On the second night (at North Arm hut) while on an evening expedition to try to find Kiwi, we bumped into a Possum on the track! Because we had our headlamps turned off, I guess he didn't realize what we were so he actually started walking towards us! Even when we turned our lamps on he didn't really hesitate. It was only when we took a firm step forward did he run into the woods. Tom went out later that night on his own for a bit more kiwi exploring and again found about six other possums! No wonder DOC have traps everywhere; they are serious pests.

When we got back we had some great fish (blue cod & elephant fish) and chips.

Overall the trip to Stewart Island was worth it. It has a very different feel and a lot less tourists. The track was well maintained and not more than 150m of elevation gain at a time. Since they were easy hiking days we ended up at the huts in time for lunch and spent the rest of the days reading, exploring and relaxing.

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Milford Sound

From Wanaka we next drove to Queenstown - the supposed adventure capital of New Zealand. The place was where bungy jumping was invented, but has since then expanded into every type of crazy activity you can imagine. Jet boats? Check. Giant swing with 100m freefall? Check. Zorbing? Check. Unfortunately, we had a terrible first night there at the Lakeside Hostel (do NOT ever stay there) and then a good second night at the Aspen Lodge Backpackers. Not really willing to shell out $200+ to get our adrenaline fix, we decided to instead opt for the free option and hiked up Ben Lomond Pk. which is right outside of town. It was a bit like the Grouse Grind in Vancouver at first with a 1400m climb from our hostel in town and then along a ridge with nice views of Mount Aspiring Park.

Other than that, this town is worth skipping unless you want to relive the early years of living in a University dorm room. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to be on our way.

We debated quite a bit whether or not to go visit Milford Sound next since we heard that the crowds were pretty terrible and the place has an endless stream of tour buses passing through during the day; however, we still really wanted to see the Darren mountain range in Fiordland next to Milford which we heard was pretty spectacular. As a compromise, we decided to brave the crowds and do the touristy boat cruise through the sound the first day, and then stay a bit off the tourist path in the Darrens for the night at the New Zealand Alpine Club's Homer Hut which is a hub for climbing in the area. The next day we would try and scramble up the Barrier Knob summit.

We opted for the last cruise of the day, and surprisingly Milford was relatively quiet with the cruise not even half full!

Just as we were getting on our boat, the majority of people were hopping back onto tour buses for their return journey home leaving the place really quiet (there isn't many places to stay IN Milford sound, with the closest town with accommodations more than 100km away).

The fiord is amazing with it's dramatic mountain relief and high waterfalls falling from the glaciers above straight down into the ocean. Fine - it was REALLY impressive. A bit touristy, but if you can see past all the iPad laden tourists snapping photos for their Facebook profile, there is something really special here.

To get into and out of Milford Sound, you have to drive through this impressive 1 km long one lane tunnel bored through solid granite that connects two steep glacier carved valleys (providing the only road access to Milford). Homer Tunnel has traffic lights on either side to control the flow of traffic as only one direction can fit at a time. The construction started in the 1930's as a make work project during the Depression and was completed in the early 50's. Funny thing is that the traffic lights only work until 8pm.... not sure what happens then. Must be pretty exciting.

The next day after sleeping at the NZAC's Homer Hut we hiked up to Gertrude Saddle. The hike is a steep climb up from the valley to the saddle and was well worth it. I was blown away by the sheer granite faces surrounding us on all sides.

Once we got to the top of the saddle, we got a taste for the famous Fiordland weather. Within the span of 10 minutes the weather changed from sunny skies to strong wind and snow! We decided to wait things out and see what would happen.

The views of Milford Sound were amazing from the saddle (at least what we could see before it started snowing)!

Once the snow stopped and the wind died down, we continued up the ridge to the top of Barrier Knob. The last bit of the climb was definitely a scramble with some exposed sections since we had to take a roundabout route to avoid the small pocket glacier near the summit.

The view from the the top was amazing!

The Darrens are beautifully dramatic and definitely worth the trip! I can't believe we considered skipping it.

Lessons learned: Skip Queenstown. Head over to Milford Sound, skip the cruise and hike up to the Gertrude Saddle and Barrier Knob (only if you're comfortable on loose crappy, crumbly rock)

After being in the mountains for a while, having an oven was pretty exciting. We earned some freshly baked scones and cinnamon buns!

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Mt. Roberts Ridge and Lake Angelus

After kayaking in Abel Tasman, Didier and Annie dropped us off for the weekend in Nelson (they were attending a friends wedding in the area, so we were on our own for the next two days). We spent Friday afternoon in the city, which gave us a chance to unwind a bit, have a flat white (or two), sample the local venison meat pie, and plan what to actually do for the next two days. After consulting our stack of guidebooks (which seems to be growing by the day), we settled on a loop track starting from St. Arnaud in Nelson Lakes national park. The round trip hike is about 35km - starting in St. Arnaud, it first ascends about 500m to Mt. Roberts Ridge, and then follows an alpine track to eventually reach Lake Angelus and another amazing DOC hut. From there the route descends back down to the Traverse river valley which eventually heads back to the top of Lake Rotoiti, and eventually to St. Arnaud after a nice (flat) walk along the shoreline. The plan was to catch a morning shuttle from the city which would take us the 2hr drive up to the Mt. Roberts car park in Nelson Lakes, and then Didier would meet us the next day at the track end in St. Arnaud.

The night before the hike we stayed at a hostel/motel called "Club Paradiso" - a hostel described by lonely planet as "club Med for the impoverished". Having a pool we thought it would be a great place to stay, however, apparently so did every other Con Tiki tour passing through the area. It felt more like South beach Miami meets a university frat house - quite entertaining, however one night was more than enough.

The hike up the ridge the next day was spectacular. After a few hours of climbing through beach tree forest we reached open ridge top and were greeted with expansive views of the surrounding river valleys. We couldn't help but hum a bit of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack as we went, with a few Frodo quotes thrown in for good measure.

After hiking for an hour or two we reached the Mt Roberts ski "resort". After later talking with Didier's mom, we learned that this was a popular place for people in Nelson to ski during the 60's/70's. She told us stories from her childhood where she would do the same hike we just did, BUT in the middle of winter, with skis and boots on her back, along with sleeping gear and food for the weekend. They would then spend the weekend up at the Mt. Roberts lodge where they would ski the surrounding bowl via rope tow. Pretty hard core - I don't think the gear back then was very lightweight...

After a few hours of up and down along the ridge, passing crystal clear alpine tarns, we reached the Lake Angelus hut. Another DOC wonder, this hut sits in an alpine basin surrounded by rugged peaks. One of the things I noticed about the mountains in the area is that they look like heaps of piled up rubble - mostly made of loose talus, but still spectacular. A lot different than the generally much more solid granite back home. From what I have seen, I can see why alpine rock climbing can be a bit dodgy here.

We woke the next day to a beautiful sunrise, and began the long hike back down to the Traverse river and eventually Lake Rotoriti. This hike was a knee knacker with a steady descent of 1000m down to the river, but once at the bottom it was an easy 10km walk back to St. Arnaud where we met Didier and Annie at the track end.

Another great NZ tramp!

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Mt. Owen and the Gates of Moria

Our first overnight backpacking trip into the New Zealand countryside was to the Mt. Owen massif - this impressive area of limestone carved cliffs and large alpine bowls was used as the filming location for the Gates of Moria in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

The amazing part of this climb was that it allowed us to see so many different types of forest. Starting in the lowlands we were in a tropical and lush river valley, interspersed with cattle and alpaca farms. After climbing for a few hundred meters we quickly left the grasslands of the farming paddocks behind and entered into old growth beech forest. Covered in black moss, these beech trees provided an ample supply of sweet honey dew to feed the raging wasp population.

There were such a large number of wasps in the forest that there was a constant buzz in the background - luckily, for the most part, the wasps did not bother us and minded their own business (until I had a run in with a particularly surly wasp who decided that my shin was in its way).

One of the most amazing parts of this forest was the number of songbirds - we were continually surrounded by fantails, and bell birds singing as we climbed. It's hard to describe what they sounded like, but the best analogy I could come up with was the "pew pew" of a sci-fi laser beam...

After about 1000m vertical of climbing we reached the valley containing the Granby hut. This backcountry hut was absolutely amazing by Canadian standards. Being in such a remote location I was expecting a tin can with a bunk or two, but instead we arrive at a backcountry palace. Building this hut must have been a serious undertaking - completely insulated with indoor and outdoor stainless steel cooking areas, a large covered patio, rainwater harvesting system with 4000L of storage capacity, and all double glazed windows. Wow. This hut had some serious thought and engineering put into it with all supplies flown in by helicoptor. The most amazing thing about this hut is that is it only one of over 900 managed by the New Zealand department of conservation (DOC)! Pretty much every tramp (=hike in New Zealander) here has some sort of hut for shelter - glad I didn't bring a tent! Being a weekday we even had the whole place to ourselves.

The next day we woke to a beautiful New Zealand bluebird stunner and set out for the summit of Mt. Owen. Climbing an old glacial morain quickly brought us out of the scrub of the valley and into broad alpine grassland speckled by limestone and marble boulders.

Hiking up to the summit of Mt. Owen we had to pass through a maze of water carved limestone and marble that formed the most impressive structures. The best description we could come up with was that it looked like a tumbling glacier ice-fall, but made of rock - smooth surface from glacial erosion but containing large jagged rock crevasses. It definitely made for some exciting tramping!

To reach the final summit we had to battle with Smaug, the dragon of Mt. Owen - luckily, Marie's super powers prevailed and we were able to enjoy a great view of all the surrounding mountains and city of Nelson in the far distance.

I can definately understand why the LOTR movies chose this area for filming - absolutely stunning. We will definitely have to tick off a few more of these filming locations before we leave NZ

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