Stewart Island, New Zealand’s the third largest island of about 650 square miles in size and the home of Rakiura National Park, New Zealand’s 14th National Park which covers about 85% of the island. So plenty of room to move around, especially as the population of the island is around 300-400 people and mostly living on the opposite side of the island to where we were. Rakiura is usually

Old Island Hill Homestead.

translated as Island of glowing skies and I’m sure if this is so, it would refer to the aurora australis, the island being so far south. We stayed four nights at the Mason Bay Hut and explored some of the country nearby but alas, no aurora for us.

Mason Bay & Surrounds
About half an hour or so from the DoC hut, where we were staying, is the old Island Hill Run historic homestead. Now used for DoC staff but I thought it didn’t look right. It seemed to me that, although repaired, it wasn’t restored as such. A belt of macrocarpa, the traditional shelter belt species of the early settlers, leaned above the old implement shed.

The Old Woolshed.

Further along the track we came to the NZ’s southern most woolshed. Originally from the Orkney Islands of Scotland, the Leask family used to run up to 1500 sheep here from around 1922 and the sheep were shorn in this old woolshed. The bales of wool were taken out to the mainland by boat although by air was tried too. An old David Brown tractor sat nearby, quietly rusty away.

Gunnera prorepens.

At one spot along the edge of the track was a patch of Gunnera prorepens showing off its red berried fruit on upright stems. Another plant of interest was Myosotis rakiura and going by the name, probably only grows in this area. Nearly all the plants that I saw had finished flowering and had gone to seed though.

Hunters Hut, Island Hill.

We carried on towards a hunter’s hut. It was the time of the rut for white tailed deer on the island and there were a number of hunters about. The new hunter’s huts being built are a big improvement on some of the shacks of the past. Nearby the new was the old hunter’s hut and it was in fairly good condition too.

The old Hunter’s Hut, Island Hill.

Well, compared to what I had at Port William in 1962! The tent I took on that trip was made of a calico type material and when it rained, a fine spray came from inside the roof making all items inside the tent very damp after an hour or so. My Fairy Down sleeping bag soon got damp so I had bought a sleeping bag cover (or bivy bag they say now). This was guaranteed to be waterproof and no doubt it was too.

Port William camp, 1962.

The trouble was condensation and that made the inside just about as wet as the outside. It was always good to have a fine day now and then to dry things out. I never took a stove as didn’t own one. An open fire was used for cooking meals so one soon learnt how to light one in these wet conditions. We thought freeze dried food was pretty good when it first came out but I can assure you, it was much worse than todays offerings.

We climbed Big Sand Hill, of 156m above sea level, behind the old homestead for a good view of the surrounding area including the DoC hut in the distance and the sand dunes that crept in from the beach. Big Sand Hill seemed to be a large hunk of granite, mostly covered in sand but it also had a good cover of plant life too. Coming down, I was quite fascinated by the movement and patterns of the sand in our footprints.

Footprints in the moving sand.

Kilbride Hut or Homestead

Kilbride homestead.

From the beach at Mason Bay Hut to Kilbride took two hours walking along the beach. And then the return. After an hour or so, it is hard walking on the sand so I’m not sure which is worse; the sand or the mud? It was surprising to see pumice washed up on the beach. Some have said that a meteor splashed down into the ocean some miles south, causing a huge tidal wave and making a large crater on the ocean floor. Maybe some of that heat resulted in forming the pumice or maybe it just floated down from thermal activity up north? The Kilbride Run lease was given up in 1986 and the sheep removed during 1987. I do remember in the mid 1960’s a couple of mates had hunted wild cattle in the area and had filled up their packs with meat. They couldn’t lift their loaded packs of the ground, the meat being so heavy. There’s a lot more meat on a cattle beast than a deer!

The doorbell at the Kilbride Homestead.

The Kilbride Homestead looked a bit rough which was a pity. I couldn’t help wondering why did these people try to farm this area? Maybe there were no other choices? Alan and Karla continued on to have a look at the Gutter, about an hour return from the beach at Kilbride. The Gutter is a small gap between the mainland and an island. I had had enough of beach walking so turned around to start the two and a half hour walk back along the beach to the Mason Bay Hut.

When we returned from Kilbride, one of the hunters offered a red deer leg of venison. They had done quite well with their hunting having taken several animals both white tailed and red. From what I have heard, deer numbers were a little high and not being native to NZ, really need keeping under control, so the hunters were doing a good job.

Bird Life

Of the bush type birds, morepork were heard calling around the huts. Tomtits, the odd fantail, bellbird and tui were about all that was seen along the track. Maybe a flighty blackbird, thrush and dunnock around the Mason Bay Hut. A native pigeon frequented around the hut too, even flying into the ranch-slider glass once. We did see a number of Stewart Island Brown Kiwi’s nearby all huts but the low light conditions made it hard to obtain a good photo. Other trampers were lucky enough to come across kiwi throughout the day and were able to take some good photos. On the beaches we saw black billed gulls, white fronted or pied shags, black and pied oystercatches, and a banded dotterel I think. Overall though, the amount of birdlife seen was disappointing. I guess most of the birdlife would be on the more sheltered side of the island.

Tracks in the Sand

It was interesting to look for fresh animal tracks in the sand dunes, especially after light rain. There were Kiwi tracks, possum, deer – both white tail and red, and unfortunately, cat tracks. Mice and rat tracks plus what I think was a skink track. It showed tiny footprints each side of a wavy line in the sand. Quite delicate they were. On one occasion we were able to interpret a mouse going about its business on a steep sandy bank but then it seems as if it got too steep as the footprints turned into smudge as it rolled down the bank. When nearby the beach we caught very brief glimpses of skinks darting away into cover. One hardly had time to determine the colour of each though. From what I can remember, I saw greenish, grey and brown coloured bodies.

A NZ Spider-Scorpion.

A New Zealand Scorpion?
One day we walked back along the beach of Mason Bay and climbing around Mason Head on account of the high tide, we came across some interesting plant life. Some low lying clumped gentians were in flower with many bumble bees in attendance. These might have been G saxosa or maybe G grisebachii? I stopped for a photo and was surprised to see a strange looking creature moving over the flowers. It was only about 4-5mm long and had eight legs with long arms or feelers with nippers at the end of each. Actually, I only noticed it when I enlarged the photo to check if I had the focus right. It was a false scorpion, belonging to the spider family (arachnids), and apparently there are about 70 different species in New Zealand. The end nipper parts are used for defence and to capture prey. Some have venom glands at the tips of the pincers but they don’t have a sting in their tails.

What else do we overlook when passing by?

Tally’s uncollected rubbish.

Not Wanted Please!
What was not good to see was all the fisherman’s rubbish washed up on Beaches. Mostly plastic items, bottles, buoys, mesh, bins, trays, nets, rope. Fishermen? – come pick up your rubbish. Stolen? More like stealing the landscape from us. Not good at all. Most of the walking tracks near the beaches were marked with buoys that had been discarded and washed up and that didn’t seem too bad.

Night time at Mason Bay Hut.

Hut Life?
Hut life has changed over the years. Today, many visitors pulled out their iPads or Kindles but some used their iPhones especially to read the map of the area, which, no doubt, they had preloaded before starting their walk. I guess that’s okay but somehow it seems to be bringing the unwanted to the wildness areas. What do these people come to these places for? An overheard conversation between a couple of women – “There’s no microwave – or even a TV here!” These two had walked from Freshwater Creek to Mason Bay Hut (4 hours) and were to stay the night before walking back out the same way the next day. On the walk, one had her cheapish sleeping bag tied to the base of her pack, uncovered and walking in the rain. She seemed surprised that it was wet and complained that the hut wood-burner wasn’t putting out enough heat to dry her sleeping bag. Then one young female

Night time 1962: By the campfire.

had come the same way, who had only brought a tin of fruit but forgot to bring a tin opener – why didn’t she buy one of those tins that didn’t require a tin opener? She didn’t have a mug either but did have a small plastic jar that had held some nuts or something so she cadged a hot drink from another and was surprised that the hot water sort of collapsed the plastic jar!

Early morning flight, Mason Bay.

An Early Morning Flight
On the last day we had to be on the beach at 7am, waiting the arrival of a Piper Cherokee Six to take us back to Invercargill Airport. Rain wasn’t far away but we had time to boil the billy in a small sheltered gully in the sandhills before the plane arrived. As we carried our packs to the plane and loaded up, light rain began to fall but once we were flying over Mt Anglem the view out of the plane windows became clearer as we flew ahead of the approaching rain.

Pukeko footprints.

The Ascot Hotel
In the present world of money grabbing, it was a surprise to find a place who provided a service to their customers at no extra charge. When we arrived back at Invercargill Airport, the rental car was collected, then we drove back to the Ascot Hotel. They had stored our ‘travelling clothes’ and we were able to have a shower, even with soap, shampoo and towels provided, before proceeding on our way back home – all at no cost to us.

Back Home
It’s always good to get home and after nine days of hut life and it is much quieter at home with no continual sea noise of waves breaking on the beaches. We went for a local walk and came across some pukeko (a swamp hen) footprints cast in a concrete path. I’d rather be looking at wild kiwi footprints in the sand actually.

Rainfall at our place for February was 33 ½ mm. February last year’s rainfall was 34mm while this months average is 62mm.