Rakiura Track - Day 1

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WELL good morning friends. I'm out here at Lee Bay. This is as far as I got two days ago. But today I'm starting the great walk and just been dropped off here. Where I'm heading today, you see that little headland out there. There's a little dip there. Port William Hut is just in that dip. Apparently it will be about a four to six hour hike around the coastline up to the hut. I've got all day to do that so I'll take my time and do a lot of photography. It's actually raining today. It rains here two days in every three. I've already had two sunny days. It is supposed to be clearing. We'll see what happens with it clearing. Mount Anglem is kind of hidden in the clouds at the moment but I did get a very good view the other day. It's time to get started.

Well I'm just over half way to Port William. I'm at the Maori Beach camping ground and found a nice shelter here. It's a good place to let the camera dry out a bit. Unfortunately rain and electronics don't mix too well and I'm just cleaning up the lens protector. There's a lot of talk out there on whether to get lens protectors or not. They do reduce the quality slightly and the shops push them as an extra thing to sell and many consider them to be a rip-off. I do actually use them. Normally I don't use them but if it is either raining or I'm out in the sea, this is good for protection. On the way over the other day, the sea was quite rough with a lot of salt spray which got on the lens. When I arrived on land all I needed to do was pop off the lens protector and I had a clean lens. Then I could just wash the lens protector. It is the same today with all the rain drops and condensation. If the lens protector gets wet, it happens, but at least I can clean it when I get to a dry place like this and the main lens doesn't get wet at all. When I get to the hut tonight I can take it off and clean it then and let it dry. I can also dry out the rest of the camera as well. When the weather clears, I can just pull the lens protector off and just use the main lens which is still very clean. It looks like the rain is about to ease off. There was quite a bit of rain coming over the hills over the last half hour or so. It does look like it is clearing now. I can see the headlands a lot better now. Hopefully there isn't much rain. I've got quite a big hill to get over to the junction of where tomorrow's track takes off, and then down into Port William and along the beach to the hut. I'm doing pretty well and already over half way there.

I'm most of the way up this big hill and I can just see blue sky through the trees from here, just out that way. The temperature has really dropped off with the westerly now turning into a southerly and the rain has cleared. So fingers crossed it will be clear by the time I reach the hut.

OK this is the junction. So tomorrow I'm going to head up here to North Arm Hut and obviously have a look at the historic log haulers on the way. That's tomorrow, but today I'm heading to Port William. It is just under two kilometres. I'm at the top of the hill now having come off Maori Beach.

I've now arrived at Port William Hut. There is just myself and the rangers here. Everyone else coming tonight was sensible enough to wait until the rain finished. The sky is actually clearing quite nicely out there now so this afternoon I can just rest up. It's nice being first here at the hut. The previous three hikes I've done - the Milford, Kepler and Routeburn, all the huts have been really busy. It's a lot quieter here. I did stay here for two nights back in 1994 and I think it has been rebuilt since then. Over and out for today.