Rakiura Track

Phew, I just came back from my hike and need to replenish my energy and caffeine reserves...

Where was I? Oh yes, Stewart Island.

After my first five minutes on the island, I knew: I'm in the right place. The hostel is great, the staff friendly and accommodating, and I even got to sleep in a super luxurious tent that was offered to me. We crossed over on the last ferry, so the day was already quite advanced when the whole bus settled into the hostel. But the best things on Stewart Island happen after sunset...

For dinner, I bought myself my first portion of fish and chips, and probably my last. I had completely forgotten how greasy it is! So after this huge portion, I had no desire to move at all.

The fries still weighed heavily on my stomach when we literally went on the hunt - the hunt for wild kiwis.
And this time I really mean the birds.
There are already known spots in town where these cute birds like to show themselves, and I was lucky:

Shortly after 9 pm, it was still quite light, I spotted a kiwi in the bushes behind a church with my hunting group. We were all very excited and tried to keep the noise down, but I don't think the kiwi even noticed. It was more preoccupied with rummaging through the leaves with its long beak and searching for food. It even crossed the path, through our legs!!!, and finally disappeared on the other side into the undergrowth.

Simply unbelievable!

Such an amazing experience.

When I come back, I will boast to everyone that I saw a kiwi in the wild. Sorry in advance for that :D

Unfortunately, unfortunately (and I'm still annoyed about it), I didn't have my phone ready and I didn't want to move too much, so I couldn't take a proof photo...

But then the real night began and we went to the other spots, but were less successful. Here and there you could hear rustling in the undergrowth, but we didn't see another kiwi.

Instead, we started looking up more and more, because, man, the starry sky is simply amazing! Since there are hardly any streetlights in Oban, light pollution is very low and I don't think I've ever seen so many stars at once...
Unfortunately, I couldn't take a photo of that either, my phone camera is too bad.
But these are memories that will hopefully last a long time...
At some point, especially the female members of our group got cold, at night it goes down to 4 degrees, so we returned to the hostel. After all, we had been very successful...

The next day, I got up extra early (5 hours of sleep, phew) to watch the sunrise. But it turned out that the sun rose behind a hill, so I couldn't see anything. Well, great.
But I wanted to leave early anyway, hiking was on the agenda again.

I already mentioned that there is a 32km long Rakiura Track on the island. Hardly any differences in altitude and the path only leads through the forest. More like a big walk than a great walk, if you ask me.
But that will probably be the only great walk I will do in its entirety. And I can sleep in a hut once. Then I'm done with that too.

So off we went yesterday, fresh and lively. First, the path led along the coast, where I encountered the other end of the chain that connects Stewart Island to the mainland.
After 8km, the path sharply turned left into the forest. The passage was less pleasant to walk because it became muddy. Very muddy. Once I wasn't paying attention and almost sank up to my ankles...
Poor shoes of mine...

That slowed me down quite a bit because at some point I tried to find a way around the mud holes. Nevertheless, I reached the hut in the early afternoon.
According to what others said, it's the worst hut they've ever been in. Well great. But I have to admit that I was surprised: there are 24 bunk beds and everyone sleeps practically next to each other. At least we didn't get cold at night...

Of course, we went on another kiwi hunt, this time with 15 other people from the hut. That was a problem. If I were a kiwi, I wouldn't run towards a group of 15 people either. So we split up, but the success rate remained the same. However, we could hear the kiwis very well.
I don't know how you can hear the word 'kiwi' in their calls. To me, it sounded more like a heavily squeaking door that urgently needs some oil in its hinges.

Totally sleep deprived once again, I just wanted to get back the next day. So I set a fast pace, my legs protested, and eventually, we found a compromise. And I promised them that I won't go hiking for a while.
Around noon, I reached Oban again and finished my first great walk. Yeah!

To celebrate, I even treated myself to a bed for the night, I was tired of camping.
My feet should also get their break, so I didn't do anything noteworthy for the rest of the day.

Until it got dark again...

But that's a story for a new blog entry ;)