Stewart Island

On Thursday morning, I boarded the ferry to Stewart Island, where I wanted to hike one of the Great Walks in New Zealand. Stewart Island is an island south of Invercargill and is also mentioned as the third island of New Zealand in travel guides. The island is 85 percent nature park and is known for its many bird species, including the kiwi, New Zealand's emblem. Since Robin is not a fan of hiking, I went to Stewart Island alone.
The journey across the sea was very rough and unpleasant due to strong winds and the small ferry was shaking a lot. After an hour, I arrived on Stewart Island with a queasy stomach, where I picked up the ticket for the hut at the information center.
I decided to do the Raikuri Track, which is actually a three-day hike, but I had to do it in two days because one of the huts was fully booked and I didn't want to wait a week until everything was available. So on the first day, I hiked the normal 12 km to the first hut, along the coast in good weather. When I arrived at the hut in the evening, the rain that had been announced for the day finally started. Actually, I had planned to cook something in the hut, but when I arrived there, I found out that there were neither hot plates nor blankets to sleep on. I'm sure I could have read all this on the internet, but I didn't. So I ate bread with cheese, which was actually meant for breakfast, and then went to sleep with two pairs of socks and a second t-shirt with my jacket as a blanket.

On the next day, after a quick breakfast at 8:20 am, I set off to hike the next part of the trail. It was 24 km back to Oban, the small village on the island, mostly on a muddy rather than a solid path. When I arrived at the hostel, where I stayed, I was completely wet despite the rain jacket and the thick hiking boots because it had been raining all day. My mood was accordingly bad, but the hot shower in the hostel made up for it.

On Saturday, we returned to the mainland in the afternoon, when the wind was not as strong, and Robin was waiting for me with the car.

It was fun to hike, at least on the first day, even though I had hoped for a bit more. I only saw very few birds and no other animals. But that was probably due to the weather. In that case, summer is probably the better season.