Twelve days of hiking. Sounds like a long time. Then again, we’ve met a lot of people who have hiked much longer then that, and carried much heavier packs. That one Bavarian guy from the Routeburn; he was a true hiker!
While on the NWC, Brent would often let me know how proud he was of me. Not because I was doing anything extraordinary, but to remind me that despite feeling discouraged from the back pain and how I’ve been feeling guilty for holding us back (ie: our hiking times not coming to par on this track), there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be out here continuing to live their dream if they had suffered the same injury.
I remember that first day hiking in South Auckland, when we both felt utterly discouraged that this concept of hiking the entire country wasn’t going to be feasible, but we still tried. The trip was altered quite a bit, but we didn’t stop. We feel happiest in the mountains, on the tracks, in the huts. This is what we came here to do. When we realized that this injury was worse then originally thought, a similar discouraging feeling came over me. But I am blessed every day to be reminded by someone who loves me that the effort we are putting forth is the most important demonstration of determination. I’m determined to finish this trip and get on all the tracks. Without trying, we would have missed out on the beauty that is hidden in these hills, preserved from the townships and the cities. The hidden treasures of New Zealand. It can take 11 hours to reach a clearing, and a millisecond to forget everything you just went through. That beautiful moment makes it all worth while.
Thank you Brent.
And from afar, I can feel my parents’ love as they encourage me from North Bay. I am a very determined person, and would probably continue this hiking trip despite the pain, however, their love and support helps me through every day. I’m very thankful for you guys. And for my brother, who I know thinks about me and is excited about this opportunity.
Every day, we write a new page in the story of our lives. Every day we wake up in a hut, a new adventure begins.
Evolving landscapes – the Stewart Island experience
A photograph cannot capture the verite of an environment you experience. Experience is sensing your surroundings. Smelling the trees, feeling the mud, the weight of a pack on your back, the uphills, the down hills, the taste of your sweat, the blisters on your feet, the sandfly bites on your hands, the war wounds. The triumphs and the tears. The life is never in the pictures you take. The sound is lost. Its how every step you take shifts the perspective and exposes a different shade or aspect of an unseen world. The evolving beauty of a special place.
DAY NINE – Thursday, December 11th – to Freshwater Landing Hut
Today’s hike was not a good reflection of what the North West Circuit entails. I’ll be perfectly honest, it was flat and boring. Quite frankly, we were shocked. And this is a stretch that a lot of people hike, flying into Mason’s Bay and only hiking out to Freshwater Landing hut before being picked up by a jet boat. They must think the hikers rounding the circuit are full of baloney when they talk about all the ups and downs and the MUD.
Today was a break from the undulating world of the island, but after eight days of it, you begin to miss it rather quickly. The ups and downs are a real challenge, and the effort is always rewarded. Whether it be a hot meal at the end of the day, a kiwi sighting along the way or simply a warm hut and sleeping bag to climb into at night. Today, I felt as though I didn’t deserve a reward.
There was no challenge. It was almost entirely boardwalked, and since there hadn’t been any rain in the last few days, the water levels were reasonable, so we weren’t negotiating any difficult flood areas. (The area is prone to flooding, which is understandable considering the type of soil – even just the mud takes a long time to absorb any water.) Apparently the water (which stood 3-4 feet below us today) can rise to levels leaving hikers on the boardwalks to trudge through waist deep water. I don’t know how it can get that bad, since the land is so flat and it’s a very, very wide valley, but maybe it’s possible. That would have been hilarious to walk through. Can you imagine the pictures?
The most exciting thing today was seeing a bird chase a moth and eat it mid air. He swooped right over our heads, and as we tried to figure out what he was doing, he perched himself upon a branch just in time for us to see a moth fluttering nearby. In one swift swoop, the bird flung itself off the branch and snatched his snack. It was quite fascinating.
I can’t explain how much we missed the physical challenge today. It almost became a huge psychological challenge, trying to encourage your body to keep on going, despite everything looking the same everywhere we turned. Long corridors of trees draped over a wide cleared path. You could see a good kilometer down the track in both directions, and it looked like a mirrored image. You were moving forward with every step, but you felt motionless. Every step was rewarded with a repetitive perspective.
At one point we were atop a high boardwalk, surrounded by tall grasses and low water levels. This was in a clearing surrounded by small hills. That was nice. The muddy parts made the walking interesting, and I laughed thinking about those who might not be expecting (nor come prepared for) this type of terrain on such an easy walk. Along the river, there were eroded parts slipping into the waterway, which were the first signs of slips we noticed on the island. Maybe we should walk along the edge, slipping into the river would be funny.
Another highlight of the day was spotting a skink in the bush near Mason Bay hut earlier. I went for a walk alone to look for kiwi, and after stopping to listen to a nearby bush rustling, I noticed a motionless skink. He almost looked like a snake, but they don’t have those in NZ. As I stood still, I noticed his feet slowly start to crawl around. It was wonderful. No kiwis today, but there are still a few more days left to spot another one. I did spot a few more footprints in the sand, but they were all empty leads. No treasure.
The track was a fluctuating combination of a flat root system, mud, flat and compact dry land, boardwalks, and puddles. You walk through the repetitive patterns of the track counting down the minutes. We spent our time playing I Spy and the country alphabet game. Oh, how we spend our time wisely. The hike was simply too much of a cake walk. Suddenly, we came upon the hut. It was like it appeared out of thin air. One minute we’re trudging along, the next minute there is a swing bridge just around the corner and suddenly the entire landscape changes. That might be why it felt so sudden. The vegetation and feel of the area shifted abruptly. The feeling of change could also be attributed to the presence of a defined river, since we had been walking through a wetland area for the last few hours.
Boy, did I ever want to jump off the jetty when we got to the hut. It was a warm day, and that water looked so refreshing.
We met up with Grace Tiao today, an American hiker who we’ve been following in the hut books over the last 8 nights. She works for a scientific organization in Antarctica and had two weeks to kill before her next deployment, so she decided to hike the NWC. She was really interesting to meet. An English and science major from Harvard University. We exchanged tramping stories and memories from back home. A bonus when we meet anyone from North America.
That night we hung out with Grace and the group of four from Auckland, who we shared a hut with the night before, but hadn’t really met until tonight. There are some nights where you don’t want to be social, sometimes it’s you, and sometimes it’s the other party. Then there are some nights when everyone just clicks so well. And FWL is probably the best hut to discover if you click, cause it is a wee little hut. There are bunks for 16 people, but the kitchen area and table could only sit 7-8 people max (comfortably). We all sat around and laughed the evening away.
Today’s hike was probably a nice break for our bodies, after two long hiking days, four hours was a blessing (we might have taken five hours due to our prolonged breaks – the track was simply too monotonous to hike through in one go). I had done some foot repair work with Duoderm (what a BLESSING!!!) to cushion my toes and my steps. Man, did that ever help!
With day nine coming to an end, we celebrate the NWC, as it is now the longest hike we have been on in NZ (however, Hollyford will always be the longest consecutive hike with no rest days – sitting at 8 days total). Tomorrow we will stay at this hut once more, taking in a side trip in the morning. Only two more hiking days to go after that!!
The reality of the hike coming to an end really started to sink in; especially since we started to hear the planes and boats once again today. That snapped us out of our wilderness isolation very quickly.
DAY TEN – Friday, December 12th - side trip to Rocky Mountain //another night at Freshwater Landing Hut
Late at night, I couldn’t get to sleep very well. So, I pulled out my iPod and started to listen to some music in the dark when an untitled song came on that caught my attention. It was one of the songs my brother had composed and passed along to me before I left Canada back in July. I loved everything about the instrumental song. The style of music and the instruments he used matched my mood so well. It hit me today how much I was going to miss being at home for Christmas. How much I miss people. Not enough to rush home or cry about it, but experiencing that feeling where you can’t wait to be around these people again to share in your smiles and each other’s company. To hear their voices and see their faces. How much I would miss snow. We still didn’t know what we were going to do for Christmas yet.
Listening to the music in the dark, I was thinking about how amazing this experience has been. Carefree travel. I can’t imagine that we’ll have a similar experience ever again. There’s so much to see and discover on this planet. I know that Brent and I both feel that we want to spend a lot more time exploring the world that was created for us to experience. I feel a great sense of wanderlust when I am back at home. Exploration is such a great blessing. If it’s meant to be, we will be doing this again.
Day ten was a day of rest. We woke up when we wanted to and organized breakfast (finishing off some porridge we didn’t really enjoy) before setting off for our side trip. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful morning, with a storm front moving in later on, so we hurried out of the hut to catch the sunshine. Since we missed out on good weather for the Mt. Anglem hike, we thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to see a mountain view of the island. We had already been so fortunate with some of the views we experienced on this track already, but were excited to spend some extra time (without a pack on our backs) and enjoy the scenery.
We hiked up to Rocky Mountain today. The view was nice, but not as spectacular as our previous experiences had been. (That one view a few days ago over the sand dunes was mint.) From the mountain peak we could watch the clouds and weather patterns moving around the island. It began to rain a little as the wind swept up with a mighty strength. The weather encouraged us to seek tree cover once again, as we quickly hiked back towards the tree line. A rather quick side trip sitting only at a 3 hour return time. Not a hike that will leave a tramper bored. It was an undulating and muddy track with a lot of climbing up and down tree roots and slick pockets. A welcome return of a challenging hike – oodles better then yesterday’s tramp. The outcome was as expected, a rocky mountain. : )
As we slowly made our way back to the hut once again, I noticed a rustling in the bush to my right. I thought it was one of those small green birds (that were flying around us) simply taking off from a branch. In my eye line was the area where the supposed bird flew away from. As I hiked down a few more steps staring at a tree trunk near the rustled branch, I noticed a shift in the trunk’s position.
Trees don’t move.
I had been staring at this trunk for a few moments, and then it moved along the track. That truly took me by surprise. Before us was a mighty large kiwi bird, like really big. We enjoyed this last moment with a live kiwi in close proximity. Noticing the little things about the way they sniff their nose, about their size and their feet and their beak, about the way they move through the thicket. About everything beautiful that makes them unique.
We returned to the hut in time to see the Auckland group off in their water taxi. At almost the exact same time, two older kiwi trampers made their way across the bridge to the hut. It almost looked like they took the water taxi in to the hut; however they had actually finished walking part of the southern circuit (a four to six day hike).
Tony and Paul, they put us to shame. Two Christchurch trampers well into their sixties. Two hikers who love being on the trail. Still hiking as often as they can in their later years in life. Both of them still hiking the trails in less time then the DOC times suggest. Yet they talk about hanging up their boots and retiring from the sport.
Maybe we should retire! These two gentlemen show no reason to hang up their boots. They are as fit as anything and love being in the huts and outdoors. And they are funny as. It was like sharing a hut with a comedy show, the type of humour that can only come from people who have known each other for as long as they have. Retiring. Please! I mean, we’re happy leaving the huts later then everyone else, in order to eliminate being bypassed by others. Otherwise we feel rushed. These two could run laps around us almost. It’s quite sad.
The evening was enjoyed with a Roast Chicken dinner, a few card games and puzzles. Tomorrow we hike to our last hut of the circuit.
DAY ELEVEN – Saturday, December 13th – to North Arm Hut
There was a great quote in the hut book the other day, written by a girl from Toronto. It went along the lines of “leaving your country and traveling makes you appreciate what you’ve got, does not apply to cities”. I understand where she was coming from. When you wake up in these huts to some of the most incredible views, you often wonder if you’ll be able to return home. Canada is fantastic and I love it there. I just wish they had a hut system like NZ is able to offer. That would be amazing! But leaving this world to return to Toronto will be challenging. You can breathe out here, you can move freely in the country. It will be difficult to say goodbye to the rolling hills of New Zealand.
Today was a longish leg from Freshwater Landing Hut. The two older gentlemen said they did it in less than 5 ½ hours. It definitely took us longer. Bummer.
Nothing too special to report. The day was undulating, steep and muddy as expected. Typical gullies awaited our arrival with mud to jump into. One unfortunate part of today’s hike is that for a portion of the track you are hiking alongside the North Arm water inlet, then suddenly you deviate onto this long detour hike uphill to the Rakiura track. The problem being that the hut you are hiking towards is around the bay/inlet that you were just hiking alongside, and suddenly you wander through the bush to meet the Rakiura track inland before turning back towards the waterway. It just doesn’t make sense.
Strange reasons that we will probably never know, nor understand.
We are tired and it’s beginning to show. We have reached a point where we just want to be done hiking. Could be related to our time prior to this hike and being sick for two weeks. We did hop onto this track immediately after the symptoms of our crypto faded. We were probably in need of a bit more time and rest before setting off on this type of journey. Our bodies are becoming a little sore from the hiking, which might be slowing us down a tad.
One more hiking day to go. : )
Had our first up close and personal experience with a possum at the hut today. Just after 10pm. Well, technically we did see one on the Forgotten Highway that one night in our head lights, but we didn’t know that their possums looked like cuddly mini teddy bears with furry tails. Very different from an opossum from NA. Anyway, our little possum friend was just down the steps from the hut’s porch. I decided that he looked like he would be soft to pet, so I chased him down the pathway to the beach, asking him to wait for me and explaining that I simply wanted to pet his soft fur. Didn’t work this time, but I’m sure I’ll have another opportunity.
No kiwis today, and we think that our chances of spotting one are officially behind us. We have hiked through the thicket of NWC kiwi presence, and were really lucky to enjoy the moments we did spend with live kiwis.
The last forty-five minutes of the track today was boardwalked, almost making it harder to hike, as the area presented a lot of stairways. It’s almost more comfortable to walk up and down the soft soil on the incline then use the hard stairs. The end of the day was a definite preview of what will be our last day on the Rakiura track tomorrow.
The hut was pretty empty. Four parties of two people each. Since we arrived a bit later then others, we were the only ones cooking once we arrived, so it was nice. We spent some time with Tony & Paul, who made the hut in under 6 hours (DOC predicts it will take 6-7 / we took somewhere between 8 or 10) – and they stopped for a 30minute cuppa AND an hour lunch. Oy. Why retire? They are certainly out-hiking us.
The North Arm hut was our first Great Walk hut, and no warden was there to check our ticket. Thus far, we’ve never been asked by anyone to see our annual hut pass. We were really hoping for a warden. Maybe one day.
Tonight is our last night on Stewart Island. Tomorrow, we cross the finish line and earn that certificate!
DAY TWELVE – Sunday, December 14th – the end of the NWC, return to HMB
We departed from the hut early in the morning. I think we left around 6.30am. The goal was six in the morning, but when others are sleeping in close proximity, we take extra care in being as quiet as possible. We wanted to get back to HMB as early as possible to try and get onto one of the standby flights back to Invercargill. We had the extra motivation of trying to avoid being bypassed by any of the other hiking pairs. When you are bypassed and you finally make it to the hut HOURS after that person, there are usually a lot of questions that make an appearance in the evening’s conversation. Sometimes I don’t want to have to explain that I was injured. I already have to live with the outcome, and I feel silly saying that I fell down a set of stairs twice. That seems so ridiculous. To avoid the big question and answer periods that might arise, we simply leave as early as possible or last in the day.
Today was not a day to be last. We had a plane to catch.
The great walk trail. A book ending hike. We started our first day on the first part of the Rakiura track, and we spend our last day on the last leg of the Rakiura track. A good portion of the trail was boardwalked, which was welcomed today. We were prepared for it mentally. Lots of bridges and stairs. It’s like a completely different hike. Today, the sound of the planes and boats were more predominant, drowning out a lot of the lovely melodies coming from the natural creatures of the forest. We were ready to be done. You were no longer one with nature. Everything felt different today.
The day was spent trying to find a rare kiwi so close to town (no dice) and trying to figure out how the DOC signs worked today. They were plagued with mismatched timing information. We simply just carried on, ending with a road walk back to Half Moon Bay, a road that led us straight to the DOC office.
Our time spent at the DOC office was a riot. There were two men who greeted us at the desk and it felt like they knew us from the moment we exchanged words. “You survived! How was it?”, one of them asked almost immediately. We had never met them, nor did we know if they knew we were on the NWC, but it almost felt as though they were old friends. I received the best compliment from one of the guys at the desk too. He said he couldn’t recognize our Canadian accents, and told me that I could be a kiwi. I mean, I probably couldn’t be – but he saw potential in me. : ) That made me excited. After spending some time chatting with the fine folk, we were on our way, laminated certificates in hand, off to the Stewart Island Flight centre to see about getting back to the mainland.
Well, there was a wedding on the island last night. And that meant that people wanted to fly back to the mainland today. Brent and I lined up at the office to speak to someone, only to find out that there was only ONE seat available to fly back to Invercargill today. A thought and possibility we hadn’t actually taken into account. What if we don’t fly back home today?
The gentleman informed us that we could see if anyone would cancel their flight today – which we were informed doesn’t happen often – and return to the office later in the day to see about any new openings.
We did just that, leaving our packs (thank goodness) at the flight center and hiking through town in our muddy Goretex attire. We stuck out like sore thumbs around the locals. Funny.
We had a ‘feast’ at the local fish & chip cart, with one order of chips, one battered blue cod and one cheeseburger – to split between us. It was an unfortunate disappointment. We had such a wonderful order of fish & chips from the local pub on our last night prior to commencing the NWC, yet this cart was supposed to be the best on the island. We just felt that the value was terrible and the food was mediocre. Oh well. We decided to have an ice cream to make ourselves feel better. : ) It worked!
We spent a good amount of time sitting on a picnic bench just outside the town’s Four Square. It was a cold and windy day, but we really had nowhere else to go. As the day progressed, we started to feel like locals. We actually bumped into two of the four Auckland people we had shared two huts with a few nights back. They were heading to the Four Square to pick up some items and came by to say hello. That was nice. We felt like we were from HMB once again when we bumped into Tony just outside the same store, after he finished the tramp. It was a funny feeling.
We did have an amazing offer today. Shortly after leaving our spot on our picnic bench outside the local market, we were called back by one of the members of the Auckland party we had hiked alongside. She wanted to catch up with us to let us know that if we didn’t make it out on the afternoon flight today, that we could join them at the house they had all rented. They had planned this trip a while back and rented out the house as part of a holiday in Half Moon Bay. She threw in a few selling points, including an offer of a hot shower. We were blown away. We were still strangers at this point in time, despite spending an evening chatting with the group. We were so grateful over their kindness and generosity. When she noticed how blown away we were, she humbly said: “You are visitors to our country; it’s the least we can do for you.” Those words really make me want to re-evaluate how we lead our own lives and hospitality back home. The kindness of strangers is incredible. We have been blessed with meeting a lot of amazing people in this country. These four people are amazing examples of kindness.
It was settled. If we were meant to stay in HMB tonight, staying with kiwis would prove to be a great experience. We settled on meeting at the local pub for quiz night should we miss out on the last flight.
For the rest of the afternoon, we did everything we could to kill time. Unfortunately, we had no more interest in walking around, so we read all the free local newspapers and simply sat and enjoyed the small harbour of the town.
We entered the Four Square once again and started to look around when we bumped into the gentleman from the flight centre. He came up to us and let us know that there might be an opening coming up on the afternoon flight. He couldn’t make any promises, but wanted us to know that there was hope. Again, we achieved the feeling of being a local.
Tired of killing time, we eventually made our way to the flight center once again to see about the potential cancellations. Getting on a flight tomorrow will be easy, but it would be best if we could duck out today. Low and behold, a few booked seats are suddenly available as those who attended the big island party the night before are no longer well enough to fly today. : ) Bad news for them, good news for us.
The only catch is that we would be on separate 1630 flights – both of which would be taking off around the same time, and Brent’s flight would have both our bags. We had our bags weighed (and ourselves – I think this is to evenly distribute people’s weight or something) before checking in. I believe my bag had come in at approx. 16kg. We unfortunately don’t remember Brent’s pack weight, but it might have been somewhere between 19-20kg. We both boarded our separate vans and were loaded onto our separate planes.
My return flight would put me on another six-seater (incl. Pilot) plane. My fellow passengers were two Philippino women and their hungry baby, an older woman and a young boy, and the pilot. We had quite a rough ride in our plane. Could be the clouds around the island or simply just a very strong headwind. None the less, I found great entertainment with the older woman sitting beside me in the middle row. She was holding on for dear life, clinging to the handles above the window, as the plane teetered around in the air. If I wasn’t used to smaller planes, I probably would have been freaked out as well, but I grew up around planes this size and smaller. The view today was fantastic. Once we were airborne, we could see the entire island behind us. Stewart Island is so much bigger then you expect it to be. HMB is the only settled community, the rest is pure wilderness. Rugged and without equal in its own regard. The clear view from over Stewart Island was an excellent way to end the trip.
Brent on the other hand was placed in a ten-seater plane. The wings sit above the plane instead of below. He somehow managed to have a smooth flight. Could have been the bigger plane.
After hunting down our backpacks (they offload your bags near an easy access garage outside the building), I walked over to Sgt to say hello and bring him back to the airport’s entrance to round up our stuff (the flight centre had stored all of our extra gear to keep it safe from our vehicle over the last two weeks). The goal was to make it to the i-Site in time to find out about accommodation specials in the city.
Now, I was expecting the car to be a wee bit funny, because every time we leave it alone for an extended period of time, it tends to hiccup a bit when it starts. But it’s usually a simple hiccup. Today, it was a ‘hic’ and then a pffffffffft. Followed by a ‘click, click, click, click’. ‘Click, click, click, click’. I tried one last time before popping the hood open. Looking under the ‘bonnet’ of the car, I couldn’t imagine what could be wrong with the car. It’s a foreign world under there. Lots of connections and car parts that I understand, but can’t repair. I only prayed it was a simple fix.
Our wonderful car decided he was a little bit upset about us leaving him for two whole weeks, and he pulled the best hissy fit a car can have. A weakening grind, followed by a complete halt.
I met back up with Brent at the airport terminal’s entrance, grabbed the mobile and rung AA. This would be our first callout! They let us know that they would be arriving within the next 40-60 minutes. Our only problem is that we had already paid for parking and only had 20 minutes to exit the lot (you have to pay before heading back to your car so that you can exit via the automated gate). And the airport was shutting down. When I went inside to seek help, all of the counters were dim and vacant. I headed over to the canteen/coffee shop and spoke to the only people I could find. We were blessed to find them as they provided us with an ‘all access’ limitless parking ticket, in exchange for our $20 ticket. This meant that we could leave the airport at any time. Thank you!!
AA didn’t take long to arrive. Better yet, it didn’t take long to fix our dear car. Dead battery. Good times. We were instructed to let it run for at least 20 minutes to get the juices flowing again. So we set out on all of our errands, leaving our car running the entire time. Picking up our ubber cheap dinner at Domino’s ($4.90 Hawaiian pizzas), did a long drive around while waiting for the pizzas to be ready, swung by the Kelvin Hotel once again and booked a room for the night. They remembered us. That was nice. We were able to get a special rate. That was even nicer. Full tummies and a hot shower later, we were set to retire for the night, falling asleep to the films playing in the background on Sky Movies.
The next day, Monday December 15th, we were heading out to the Catlins once again to visit the McLay family who we missed dearly. Only Bluff, free hotel laundry, city errands, and one last trip to the hospital were left to do before setting off. We needed a written document with our diagnosis for Cryptosporidium to complete our insurance paperwork. Simply saying that we got a phone call wouldn’t have been enough. Besides, being sick cost us over $1,500.00 NZ. Being sick while traveling is NOT cheap!!!
In the end, we can reflect on the beautiful trip we were able to have on Stewart Island. A magical place. The North West Circuit is worth the incredible challenge. A hike that will be impossible to surpass in terms of diversity and texture. We ran a gamut on the island and on that track. It was worth every mud puddle. It was worth every uphill. It was worth every slip down hill.
It was captivating.
We’ll miss the birds, the soundtrack of the environment, and the ever changing faces of the terrain. We’ll always have the memories, the pictures, and of course, our certificates. : )
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