Wednesday 23 April 2025
Rakiura Northwest Circuit
I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the Rakiura Northwest Circuit.
I’d heard how the track was notoriously muddy and rough. With the side tracks and without skipping huts it would take 11 days, which is about twice as long as the longest hike I’d ever done before. We’d have to eat dehydrated food almost the whole time so our packs wouldn’t be too heavy. We’d be at the mercy of the fickle Stewart Island weather. I thought it was well within the limits of what I could do, but perhaps not within what I would enjoy doing. But this year my son declared out of the blue that he wanted to do it, and that settled it! I couldn’t let him down.
So we flew to Bluff on April the 11th, and on the 12th took the ferry to the island and set off from Oban to North Arm Hut for the first day of our 11-day epic adventure. On the 22nd we left Bungaree Hut and hiked at great speed all the way back to Oban, in time for a well-earned pub lunch followed by three flights back to Auckland in planes of increasing size. In between we walked the track clockwise, we stuck to our schedule, we had generally excellent weather, and the trip was as challenging and rewarding as expected, with many highlights.
We were so fortunate that it only rained on one day — the 14th, when we had to walk from Freshwater Hut across the swampy island interior west to Mason Bay Hut. There was thunder and lightning as we set out, plus the pouring rain, but we hurried into it in case the rain increased and the water level rose to block our path. In fact the rain stopped along the way, but we spent our three-hour walk sloshing through knee-deep puddles much of the time.
Generally the track lived up to its tough reputation. In some places, it’s flat easy walking among the trees and on beaches. In other places, it’s boggy mud or intertwined tree roots or both. Sometimes we spent hours stepping carefully through the bush, with regular scrambles down into steep muddy gullies and up the other side. In many places the track is overgrown or interrupted by fallen trees. The maximum elevation on the track proper is only 400m, but there are many steep hill climbs and equally steep descents. The beaches are generally good walking but in places there is energy-sapping boulder-hopping or climbing dunes of soft sand.
The mud! You never know quite what you’re going to get — sticky but firm, or soft and deep; smelly, slippery, splattering, sucking, squishy. You can probe ahead, you can step around, you can leap between rocky islets or half-buried branches — but beware, because most surfaces are dank and slippery. Gaiters helped, even the small ones, but wet boots and soiled legs are to be expected.
The huts were generally excellent. We only had one overfull hut, at East Ruggedy where seven hunters were staying for the week, and I had to sleep under the table. But having a clean, dry, sandfly-free space every day and not having to carry a tent was priceless. My favourite huts were right on the beach at Yankee River, Christmas Village and especially Bungaree Hut where by the grace of God the wind drove away the sandflies.
Everyone doing the Circuit wants to see kiwi, preferably during the day — because unlike most kiwi, the Stewart Island subspecies is diurnal. We saw glimpses of a few birds but then on Thursday, stumbled across one next to the track and watched it for a few minutes. That was very special.
We did the side trip from Christmas Village to the summit of Mt Anglem, the highest point on the island at 980m, on the day we’d set aside for it — and I’m so glad we did. The peak often has a cloud cap, and it did on Sunday, but we got great views near the top looking around the north coast of Stewart Island and across to Southland. The track’s not great, but it’s no worse than average for the Circuit.
On the track my son and I seldom saw anyone else, but in every hut but Freshwater we met other trampers. It turned out that we were in sync with two couples walking the same direction as us. We met up with one couple for the first time at Mason Bay Hut on Monday night, and then were in the same hut every night, except for a couple of days when they spent an extra day at Long Harry and caught up with us at Christmas Village. We met another couple at East Ruggedy who then stayed in sync with us for the rest of the trip, including the walk up Mt Anglem. Spending several hours a day in the same hut for nearly a week with hitherto strangers turned out great — they were nice people and we got to know each other a fair bit.
My son and I are reasonably fit and experienced, but given we were not entirely sure about doing the Circuit, it’s not surprising that we were near the minimum level of fitness and experience we encountered. For example it was humbling to meet the woman of “nearly 80” who was doing the Circuit “for the last time”. It was humbling to meet people skipping huts, for example the middle-age woman traveling solo at great speed and planning to complete the Southwest Circuit in the same trip. It was humbling to meet the young woman who had just finished running all the Great Walks in a single summer. Sometimes non-trampers assume tramping is male-dominated — that’s far from the truth!
I had wondered how the length of the trip would affect me. The monotony of the food was unpleasant but not major. My body held up pretty well — I got some bruises and scratches, but nothing serious; my legs felt tired, but were as good or better at propelling me up hills as when I started. We spent a lot of time in our bunks — typically going to bed in the dark around 7pm and then rising at dawn around 7am. Bedtime passed in a mixture of sleeping and dozing. Overall I didn’t feel that different as time passed, but when I got back to work it was quite hard to readjust, so I guess there was a mental shift.
Overall — a good challenge and a great experience. For those who can do it, it’s well worthwhile.
