The Rakiura Track

Well, we promised to tell you how we slept. After having a beer with the locals and some of their great chowder, we retired somewhat early to our room. Although we could hear the pub, it didn't seem to bother us. We had noticed that the large balcony out front went right across in front of our room and seemed to be the only place people could go out to smoke without going back downstairs. We slept soundly. No ear plugs, either. However when we awoke the next morning and headed down the hallway to our bathroom, the first thing our neighbor said was, "well, we sure didn't get any sleep! How about you?" Maybe the Selby deep sleeping gene is a plus in some situations.

We planned to hike some on the Rakura Track, a 3 day tramp which is on the list of New Zealand's Great Walks (there are about 8 others). We had read in the Visitor Center that you could do this in one day if you were in good shape and left early. Although we were suspicious, when we asked the young girl (20 something) at the Conservation/Information Center if we could do it in a day, she said, sure, some people run it. Run it! Hmmm. About 30 km, so I guess it is less than a marathon. Still you do go up a MOUNTAIN. We tried to plan our stick and stick to our plan, no wait, what is that saying?!? And really, we did a pretty good job. Lynda/Mom made us wear no cotton, bring raingear, and she brought a torch (flashlight). And we set a turn back point for noon where we would turn around if we got there late. We did take off a little late - hey, we're Selbies - but were walking the first part on a road by 8:30 am. We had gone about a mile when a very old car pulled up behind us and rolled down their windows. It was Sue and Dennis! From yesterday, in case you forgot. They wanted to know if we wanted to ride with them. We told them our plan and figured this might be divine intervention to actually get us caught back up right from the get-go. We got in their old rattle-trap car (and that is being nice) that came with the little place they had rented. We then drove another mile to where the road ended and the real track began. They were driving out here to see a big anchor that connects Stewart Island to the South Island and keeps them from drifting away from each other. They had seen the other end of the anchor at Bluff on the South Island (we'll get there in a few days and we too will see the other anchor). It is a pretty neat sculpture idea. We talked to them for a while, took a lot of pictures, walked on the beach, and then, not having used up all of our advantage gained by the car, we took off with them waving good-bye.

This next part of the hike headed along the northwest coast with the Tasman Sea off to our right the whole way. The trees changed constantly and it really looked more like Middle Earth than I imagine Middle Earth really does. We were in good spirits, taking movies with our Flip camera and lots of still pictures with our regular camera. After a few hours we came to Maori beach. It had rained lightly off and on up till then, with really nice sun in between. But just as we arrived, the rain picked up and it even started hailing. We hunkered down in a shelter (what timing!) and had some lunch Lynda had packed. There was some sort of weird "shrine" centered on what we believe was a whale skull, so we honored it with a toast.
At this point the rain was letting up a little, so we took off along the beach (a sign said to take the alternate path at high tide, but it was low tide). Lynda found some nice shells and we passed some tents at a campsite. At the far end of the beach was the first of many swinging bridges we were to go over. Little did we know they put the best first, presumably so you wouldn't turn back. The first bridge actually feature in a little movie, Mom's idea, where I did the Cooper Rive ... er Maori Beach Bridge Run. This bridge even allowed four people to be on it at one time as it crossed over a river mouth at the far end of the beach. We then started a pretty steep climb eventually getting to an intersection where you either headed toward the Prince William Hut for the night, or you turned left and headed across the island. If you were doing the 3 day version, the obvious thing was to take the 45 minute walk to the Prince William hut and spend the night. But not us! Actually, this was our decision point. If we hadn't reached here by noon, we were going to turn around. But it was 12:04!!!! Close enough to noon for us! Plus we weren't tired much or anything, still had plenty of water and some food. We jointly decided to forge on, after all it was Mother's Day. In fact, I do believe Lynda was the main proponent of continuing on at this point. (Ed. Note: This may be a minor point of contention, but we should be clear that the Dad was not pushing for it. I was happy to go).

The next part continued lush and beautiful as we headed down a hill to the interior of the island. It did bother us a little that we were heading down since we knew ultimately we were going to climb another few thousand feet in elevation. But still, it was easy and beautiful. We stopped frequently (but not for long) for pictures and encountered a number of swing bridges. Plus, the path we very well kept and often had built in steps on up and down sections. Eventually the bridges started saying "Only one person at a time on bridge" and you really needed to hold on to the wire railings. I think this picture actually makes it look much more stable than it really was.

But it was safe! At least we presume it was. On one of our last bridges I noticed someone had been weaving heavy wire through some big holes that had somehow formed in the wire botton part.

And there were places were those cross pieces were non-existent for a few steps. But we motored on. After many ups and downs, we realized we were somewhere in the middle of the island and there really was no turning back. But we were doing well and it seemed there was plenty of daylight left. There weren't yardage markers on this course, so we were doing a little guessing between the huts. Then we came to what clearly seemed to be the final ascent to one of the payoffs for this trip - a lookout from the top of the island. It seemed to be the final ascent because we were just going up, up, up. It was somewhere around this point that Lynda said her legs were getting a little tired - rut, roh, as Scooby Doo would say. But she said it was no big deal. We did start drinking our water for the first time (hadn't really needed it up to now). We continued to experience intermittent periods of sunshine with light rain and about every third rain shower we would get hail. It was that neat kind of walking in the woods rain where you hear it coming through the trees long before it gets to you. We were nice and dry, still with plenty of supplies, and the light was good. Although where we were it was hard to tell exactly how high the sun was in the sky. I had described this hike as 3 Cooper River Bridge walks and we were now a little over 1 1/2 way through. The birds were singing around us and although the climb was the steepest yet, using tree roots as stairs now, it continued to be beautiful. Oh, and the trail had gotten muddier for reasons we never figured out. I think it is time for dinner here in real time, so we will complete the hike tomorrow. Or soon.