Speaker 0:00

Today we're heading to Rocky Euro Stuart Island for one of New Zealand's most epic coastal tramps. Let's talk about the Northwest circuit.

Peter 0:07

So

Jonty 0:14

Kira and welcome to the Tramping Life, a podcast about hiking in RO New Zealand, or as we call it here, tramping. I'm ch and in this episode I'll talk about a specific track or hut. I'll give an overview and share my experience along with the highlights and some practical advice.

Speaker 0:32

125 kilometer Northwest Circuit is a challenging tramp around the remote northern coastline of URA Stewart Island passing windswept beaches, rugged granite headlands, and dense native bush. It typically takes nine to 11 days to complete. The circuit begins from oban and passes through National Park, which was established in 2002 and protects about 85% of Stewart Island. the circuit links. A chain of huts spaced roughly a day's walk apart, many of these huts have origins connected to early farming, hunting, and government deer culling operations on Reo Stewart Island, for example, Mason Bay Hut sits near the Historic Island Hill Sheep Station, which began farming operations in 1879. The homestead was built in 1884 by William Walker, occur as part of a large scale sheep grazing operation along the west coast of the island. Although farming conditions were extremely difficult due to wetlands and isolation, the station continued operating until 1987. Remains of the homestead, Woolshed, and other farm buildings can still be seen near Basins Bay. Today I walked a hundred kilometer version of the Northwest Circuit over seven days in March, 2021, in a clockwise loop from freshwater hut to oban rather than the more common anticlockwise directions starting in oban. The venture started before I'd even left Invercargill when I discovered that Wellton airport security had decided that the three AAA batteries packed my head torch were too dangerous for check luggage, and had removed them, but only left a note inside my pack, which I didn't see until quite late in the day. So at 6:00 PM in cargo, I had to find some new batteries. My luck continued after arriving Invercargill Airport the next day at 6:30 AM to find my flight to Mason Bay would be delayed due to low cloud over both Invercargill and Stewart Island. There's a limited window to land on the beach there due to tides, which closed and the flight was canceled. I could try again tomorrow, but the forecast was the same. So instead I quickly worked out a plan B. Stewart Island Flights had one space left in a replacement shuttle bus to bluff to catch the ferry over to Oban. The strait is a notoriously rough structure sea, which had previously put me off the ferry, but thankfully, the low wind conditions that prevented the cloud from shifting help the crossing. It certainly wasn't smooth, but it was about as good as it gets. On average. About once a week with the New Zealand borders, effectively closed rack, steel Island was having a tourist boom. New Zealand's third Main Island is homed to about 400 permanent residents and about 600 cars, and it was busy. A relative term. The Rack era track, a great walk, flights and ferries and accommodation on the island were nearly all fully booked. Quite a contrast when I had last visited in 2014, also busy was the smart and well presented URA museum, which only opened a few months before in December, 2020, and was well worth the visit. Plan B involved starting the track from Freshwater hut rather than Mason Bay, adding an extra 15 kilometers onto my walk and effectively I lost a day. So a double hut day would be required. Not ideal on what I was expecting to be one of my tougher hikes, but it was the only way to do it. I caught a water taxi from the southern end of Oban to Freshwater hut, an alternative experience to the planned flight and landing on the beach at Mason Bay, it was a pleasant boat ride heading through Patterson Inlet and then a rather exciting high speed dash up the mostly tidal freshwater river, only accessible at high tide. I was dropped off at an empty freshwater hut, reached from the jetty by a rather wobbly bridge. After getting myself sorted, I started the track carrying my heaviest pack ever weighing around 28 kg. This was the longest hike I've done in New Zealand carrying everything I needed for seven days in the back country, including 14 dehydrated meals, 24 energy bars, and one and a half kg of oats and raisins. the 15 and a half kilometers to Mason Bay Hut was unlike the rest of the track being inland, flat, and basically straight. I didn't have to go far Before coming across my first patch of infamous Rack Steel Island Mud, I was lucky though, as the previous fortnight had been mostly dry, unusual on an island where it rains 275 days a year on average, meaning that the mud was about as manageable as it gets here. The track passed through the most extensive lowland area on the island. A significant part of the track runs along by a tannin color stream with signs saying not to proceed. If it is flooded, the bundles would suggest that it can get pretty muddy along here, but it was sandy when I walked it from here. The track turns the boardwalk understandable when you see how deep the bog is. There were some striking views after reaching firmer ground of hills in the distance and huge sand dunes ahead. A track passed an historic wool shed. Amazingly, up to 1500 sheep were farmed here. A tough part of the world for farmers to get their will to market further along was Island Hill homestead at once. Homes, generations of farmers now. Accommodation for dock workers. After three and a quarter hours of walking and a generally epic and exhausting day before I'd even started the track, it was a relief to reach Mason Bay Hut. 20 Bunk Hut was large and functional. It was expanded in 2005 to cope with the number of people flying into Mason Bay and walking to Fresh Water Hut to catch the water taxi to oban. Plus, the hut is on both the Northwest Circuit and the Southern Circuit. A couple of volunteer doc Waldens visited to collect hot tickets. They were 10 days into their two week stint and said there had been 24 people there on their first night. Thankfully, there was only four of us on the night. I stayed far quieter and more enjoyable. A couple from Dunedin had nearly finished the southern circuit. This is a slightly shorter but harder track than the Northwest circuit. Rougher and far more flood prone. Incredibly for the woman in the couple. The Southern Circuit Was her first multi-day tramp. The second more typical day involved epic beaches and grueling climbs up muddy hillsides. Although it was the same distance, 15 kilometers as the first day, it took me twice as long to reach big hell Fire hut as it had to reach Mason Bay Hut. Mason Bay was where I had planned to be dropped off the previous day, and a guy from the hut to hope to be picked up today by the flight. I didn't see a plane though when it was due, suggesting that low Cloud and Invercargill had canceled the flight for a second day running, so I'm glad I went for plan B. The mouth of the creek was pretty scenic. Although it was an unexpected location for a swarm of sand flies to attack me. Unusually I'd applied inset repellent that morning after being eaten alive on a recent hike along the Old Ghost Road. The repellent didn't seem to stop. The Stewart Island sand flies though. Mason Bay is the largest beach on the island. 12 kilometers stretch of sand backed with impressive dunes beneath epic skies. There was a substantial amount of driftwood at the high tide mark, unfortunately, along with a significant amount of washed up, rubbish, plastic, and ropes mainly. This seemed to be a west coast beach issue. Those on the northern eastern sides were fine, presumably relating to the prevailing currents. I time my trip around the tides as the beach is only navigable within three to four hours of low tide, and the alternative across the sand dunes is tough going, even walking within an hour of low tide. I was forced onto the rocks at the northern end. From here, the track went from fast, flat, and sandy, to slow, steep and muddy. It took a couple of hours to get over a 300 meter headland in hot and muggy conditions despite the cloud cover. Near the highest point I came across five people heading south. The older group of four had left big hellfire hut at 6:00 AM to try and reach Mason Bay in time for the tides, but they were cutting it pretty fine. Thankfully it was less steep coming down than going up. And I was greeted by big views and unexpected waterfall at Little Hellfire Beach. The hardest part was still to come though with another steep and muddy climb to the highest point of the track around 400 meters above sea level. I hadn't gone far up the hill before. A brief lapse in concentration resulted in my first dunked boot. Off the trip, There would be more to come, plus a couple of trips, cuts and falls. My pack was higher than my head, and the branches were often lower. After a couple of hours, my efforts were at least rewarded with some views. The bush was quite varied and atmospheric, but I was seriously flagging it, having pushed on without breaks. to reach the hut, before lunch, I finally reached a lovely big hell fire hut by half two, and basically collapsed before summoning enough energy to make any lunch. This is a great 10 bunk hut, which I was lucky enough to have to myself through gaps in the bush line were views of the 360 meter high Benson peak. Part of the Rugby Mountains Discovery heading to the toilet was that the hut is built on a 200 meter high sand dune, which opened up a minutes walk away from the hut to expansive views of the rugby mountains and lowlands in one direction, and incredible views of big hellfire beach in the other direction. I returned to the dunes to watch the sunset. I was probably the only person with at least seven hours walk. Moments like this are the reason I go tramping, as was the colorful sunrise from the deck looking inland across the island. The next section is known as the muddiest of an infa muddy track. It was just about manageable, but required concentration and care to navigate and wearing gators has definitely helped. I was glad it hadn't really rained for a couple of weeks. I had a fun amount of mud, if not really, the authentic rack or Stew Island full mud tramping experience. the track didn't last long on the beach at Tuna Bay, but it was a pleasant spot to wander along before returning to the mud and the unexpected remains of a plastic seat at least several hours. Walk from anywhere. I also managed to acquire a decent cut above my right knee on a broken branch whilst navigating the mud. Not ideal, but thankfully not too deep. West. Rty Beach was another impressive spot, although there was a bit of a slog getting up the dunes at the end of the beach after another six and a half hour hard day, It was a relief to reach East Rugby Hut, a tidy if rather dark hut in the bush. I had to placed myself for a couple of hours before a check. Couple arrived later. A Kiwi Hungarian couple and close to 8:00 PM a pair of Kiwi women. If the Czech couple had a bad experience crossing the nearby river, I'd need to cross in the morning. They were there close to high tide and crossed the narrowest I, the deepest and fastest point, and they got wet up to their chests when they hit quick sound. I had one of the worst nights I've spent in a hut when someone accidentally left the door open, returning from the toilet in the middle of the night, I was woken at 3:00 AM by a swarm of sand flies and mosquitoes by my head and shoulders. I closed the door, but they were persistent and putting a shirt over my head, brought little relief. By 4:45 AM I'd given up trying to sleep. I got up and left in the dark just after 6:00 AM I had planned in an early start, as I had two hearts to reach today, but not quite in this fashion. It was atmospheric though crossing the river in Threequarter Moonlight. Thankfully, it was close to low tide and straightforward to cross, although I did sink in the quicksand up to top of my calves after another hill. The track is basically 15% epic beaches and 85% muddy, hilly bush. I reached a stony beach. This requires some concentration to navigate with unusually smooth round boulders to rock hop across. speeding up towards the end, once the sand flies found me heading up the hillside again, I saw my first and only kiwi of the hike foraging just off the track. This is one of the 20,000 Stewart Island Brown Kiwis on the island, which unlike most Kiwis, are active during the day. then followed the worst part of the day with seemingly half a dozen steep descents and a sense across gallies and streams, both physically and mentally exhausting. After a solid five hours without a break, it was relief to reach the sneak Located long Harry Hut for welcome, lunch, and rest. I couldn't enjoy it for long though as I was only halfway through walking for the day. my canceled flight to Mason Bay. Put me a day behind schedule on the track, so I had to do a double day. Normally, I'd be okay with this, but not when starting the 28 kg pack. On a track where it is hard to beat the dot times, there are five to seven hours between huts, so two of them in a day makes for a long day. Thankfully the following section was the relatively second easiest of the track so far behind the flat and fairly mud free section from freshwater to Mason Bay hut To reach Yankee River hut involved a hill, a stunning beach, and another hill. It had hardly any of the exhausting undulating track that is frequent elsewhere on the circuit. It's a nice feeling knowing that once you've climbed a hill is basically downhill again. Coming out of the bush to Smoky Beach is one of my favorite views of the whole hike. This is a quite stunning stretch of sand, completely empty, other than for a pair of footprints, which headed towards the hunter's hut near the river. At the northern end, the track goes through impressive, exhausting sand dunes. It was then up and over the last hill of the day and a rather wobbly bridge. After nine hours of hiking, I reached Yanky River Hut. This is a lovely spot at the mouth of the river, and it was quite surreal to see the sea coming in to it. When the tides turned, even at high tide, the river is shallow, low enough to require lying down for quick wash. It had to be a quick wash though, as this was by far the worst place for sand flies, which is saying something on this track. The hut is in a wonderful setting, but it is also by far the smallest on the circuit, along with the neo identical Bungay hut. Despite the 12 bunks with six people, it felt full with all the seating taken and limited shelf space for cooking. It was the first hut I've ever visited that had a dartboard though. Thankfully I managed to sleep better the night before and set out just before 8:00 AM along the most boring section of the track So far, it was somewhat over muddy bush walking by this point, and had discovered another cut on my right thigh, presumably from a tree branch the previous day. Lucky Beach provided some variety for about 10 minutes before returning to the bush. And some unexpected boardwalk, which had been an uncommon site for most of the hike other than the first day, but it became more common as I got closer to ob. After just over five hours, I reached the wonderful Christmas Village hut, which along with big Hellfire hut, was my favorite of the hike. Having both huts to myself rather than showing with three to six other people probably helped, but Christmas Village Hut was tidy, and then wonderful location on the shores of a beach with various islands in the distance. It was a blue sky afternoon ideal for solar, charging my phone, iPad, and Kindle after five days of hiking. If I'd been able to follow my original plan, I may have spent two nights here and attempted the 980 meter high summit of Nui Mount Angela, the highest point on Ra Stewart Island. It's a six hour minimum trip though, so I lack the time to do it today. And to be honest, my body, particularly my feet, needed a bit of a rest. After yesterday's double day, it was calming listening to the crash of waves and an empty hut. As the day turned to evening, I spotted a couple of red build goals on a rock in front of the hut. After six days with a heavy pack, my body was starting to suffer, so it was a relief that the next day was one the easiest. Relatively speaking, it still involved a lot of tree roots, a fair amount of mud and undulating terrain, but there were also long stretches of boardwalk, easy walking along Murray River and slightly less mud. There was some lovely reflections on the Murray River after, which was the epic Murray Beach. The final stretch through Bush included towering tree ferns and rebo trees. Buny hut is near identical to Yankee River hut. other than being on a lovely beach, rather than buy an attractive river, I had the place to myself for a couple of hours before a female firefighter from Dunedin joined me for the evening. I was setting in for a quiet night when the boat appeared in the bay around 7:00 PM shortly, followed by a pair of guys walking up to the hut. They were the advanced party for a group of eight men who were unloading supplies for a 10 day stay at the hut. Among other things, they brought chairs, guns, fishing gear, lighting a generator, many bags of coal and endless cans of beer. It's a great annual event for them. They've been coming here for 20 years, but I was glad that I was leaving the next day. I didn't get a lot of sleep that night as they were up late unloading all their gear and then having a few beers to follow. I was up early and left at dawn with one full light on Big Bungay Beach, which I could just about make my way along at High Tide. The track was similar to the previous day, relatively easy by Northwest circuit standards with tree roots, boardwalk, and of course a fair amount of mud. In little over three hours, I reached a Port William Wolf scenic spot on a sunny day. The nearby Port William Hut was off limit to visitors during the day, though familiar to me for my stay there six years before. Doc was dealing with an outbreak of bedbugs along the RA track, one of New Zealand's great walks. It was more serious at North Arm hut, but they had bedbugs at both huts and they were asking Trampers to leave reasonably early so they could ate and clean before letting the next set of people stay. They'd been doing this for four to five days already and hadn't solved the issue, and there'd been reports of bedbugs back in Oban carried by people off the track. Thankfully, this is a very rare occurrence in New Zealand tts. My final couple of hours was spent walking along the Raia attract Lee Bay. The contrast with northwest Circuit was immediately apparent with no tree roots or mad to contend with just a well graded path weaving through atmospheric bush. It's still hillier than I would've liked by this stage, though with my hips and chest, particularly tender for my pack straps. There was some lovely coastal sections brought to life on another. Mostly sunny day and seven days on the track had only been lightly rained on twice. The start End of the Racker track is at Lee Bay, marked by a chain link sculpture, which matches one in bluff, the other side of the strait. From here I caught a $30 taxi, the four kilometers back to Half Moon Bay. I'd learned the hard way back in 2014, walking the RA Hero track that this final section along road is a soul and foot destroying experience and one that I didn't want to repeat. So highlights of the Northwest Circuit. This is a proper challenge due to its length and terrain, but incredibly rewarding and more varied than I'd expected with native bush coastal scrub wetlands, extensive dunes and coastal environments. Seeing a kiwi in the wild was a cool experience, although there was less bird life than I'd hope. And there was a notable difference between the relatively noisy bird life on the west coast compared to the rest of the circuit and the varied and well located a decent days walk apart from each other. To finish with some practical advice, there are a number of hazards along the track, including mud and slow travel. So deep mud is common along most of the route, which can significantly slow progress. River crossings, several rivers are un bridged, and Trumpers should only attempt crossings when conditions are safe. Tides, some coastal sections and river mounts may be affected by tides, and high tide detours may be required. So check the timings before you start your trip. Most people will attract in an anticlockwise direction, which starts with easier days whilst your pack is heavier. The downside or upside of this direction is that you may end up spending the next week with the same group of people at the huts as their spaced a day's tramp apart. So when I saw the three sets of people at East Rugby Hut, They basically spent the last week sharing the same huts together. You need to accept that you will get wet boots on this tramp, either from the mud or river crossings, or most likely both. Given that it rains 275 days a year on average, the rest of you is also likely to get wet, so pack appropriately. Hiking poles were particularly helpful on this tramp to help with the mud and steeper sense and descents over the headlands, as well as at the at times rough track. Only the great walk huts need to be booked in advance, but during popular times a year, it will be wise to take a tent finally, to shorten the tramp and focus on the best parts, water taxis can be caught between oban and Christmas Village Hut. port William Hutt, north Arm Hut and Freshwater Hut.

Peter 18:55

So

Speaker 18:58

Thank you so much for listening to the Tramping life. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast in whatever app you use. Tell a friend about it and consider leaving a rating or a review. It really helps more people discover the show. you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at the tramping life, one word@gmail.com.