Trip Details
Dates
Sunday 4th – Friday 10th May 2019
Participants
Heidi Aarsen, Levin Coulter, Dave Duthie, Cam Edgecombe, Isla Edgecombe, Kevin Gray, Margaret Gray, Cheryl Haupt, Gerald Holmes, Neville Jopson, Ethan Moss, Jase Moss, Allison Paton, Mailee Stanbury, Evie Wiel, Rochelle Wiel, Steve Wiel, Tim Wiel
Links
Trip Map
Trip Report
Stewart Island was a dream trip to do for many of us. A lot of organising went into making sure we got as much out of the island in our time across there. It was also the biggest number of people on a trip yet … 18 of us on a tramp was a big undertaking.
Sunday
We left Waihola early to travel to the ferry terminal at Bluff. The crossing was not smooth sailing but not too rough either. On arrival at Oban we immediately transferred all our gear onto the water taxi’s that were to take us around the island to Christmas Village (note: no village exists at Christmas Village … just a 12 bunk hut). The swell was fairly gentle but it was overcast and cold as we travelled around the coast.
To get from the water taxi to the shore we needed to use smaller row boats and then jump ashore between breaking swells onto a bouldery beach with slippery stones. Unfortunately Cheryl slipped on the stones and fell back onto her wrists … resulting in what we thought was a bad sprain. We got ourselves to to the hut … lit the fire and dosed Cheryl up on some decent pain killers. For 18 of us to fit in the 12 bunk hut it was a bit of squeeze although Dave choose to tent so probably had the best sleep.
Monday
Early Monday the sunrise was pretty amazing. We packed up and headed on our way. The track was fairly muddy underfoot in places, lengths of beautiful golden sand beaches. We checked out a couple of hunters huts along the way and we stopped for lunch near Murray’s Beach – a stunning piece of coastline. Bungaree Hut was arrived at mid afternoon. I was fairly unwell that night so went straight to the pit and slept until about 10pm. I awoke in the dark refreshed and feeling better so went for a walk along the beach in the moonlight.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we awoke to warmer temperatures and we embarked for Port William. Along another muddy track mostly in the bush. Port William was arrived at just after lunch in some really nice sunshine.
Levin did some fishing of the wharf and diced with a baracuta snipping his line. Mailee and Heidi decided to go for a swim out from the Port William hut (yes a swim in May … it was that warm!) and had a run in with an inquisitive octopus.
Wednesday
We left Port William for North Arm Hut now on the Great Walk track. The track was better quality except for a few hours in the middle of the day where we hit great swathes of mud again. Features of our trip across involved a lost jacket involving Heidi, a dead possum in water tank that no-one drank from and unseasonably warm temperatures for tramping in May!
North Arm Hut was arrived mid afternoon where several of our group went swimming again.
Wednesday night our last night on the tramping tracks so many of us tried in earnest to find some kiwi in the bush but all we saw was australians (a couple of possums) and europeans (some rats in the trees) … just before heading in I managed to spy the butt of a kiwi running away into the bush.
Thursday
This day seemed much longer than it needed to be. We tramped out to the road end at Oban along Paterson Inlet. There were many good views along the way. At the road end it was still a bit of a walk down to Oban … then there was some confusion about the location of the car from the motel we were staying at. This resulted in some of us walking another 5km through to the motel to pick up the cars.
At the motel there were some kaka putting on a show which was cool to watch. Out for tea then back to bed.
Friday
Cheryl headed on the early ferry crossing back to Southland Hospital to get her wrist look at … having tramped the whole trip nursing it carefully and taking some pain killers along the way. The rest of us took the opportunity to head across to Ulva Island to checkout the birdlife and scenery. Well worth it. Back to Oban for the ferry crossing and to pick Cheryl up from the hospital. The result a compound wrist fracture … so not a good outcome but considering she walked the whole track with a broken wrist she had done very well.
But the epic tramp on Steward Island had not finished with some of us … later that week after getting home nearly ⅔ of our group came down with a nasty stomach virus. Cheryl got tested back in Australia and the diagnosis was Amebiasis and Blastocystis (both are waterborne parasites). No idea where we got it from and why some did and some didn’t.
