THE RAKIURA TRACK explores a small corner of New Zealand's third largest island. Stewart Island is named after one of its early explorers, but its Maori name Rakiura means glowing skies, perhaps either due to the stunning sunrises and sunsets experienced here, or due to the aurora australis due to this being the closest inhabited island to the south magnetic pole. The island's exposed and remote location has resulted in little habitation even to this day by only the hardiest of people. Starting and ending in the island's only settlement, it quickly goes into remote uninhabited country totally abandoned but leaving some remnants of a rich Maori history and a timber milling industry abandoned nearly a century ago. This rugged and remote outcrop jutting out into the Southern Ocean remains pristine with its cold and rainy climate keeping away all but the most hardy of people.
The trek starts at the Horseshoe Bay end of Oban, following the rugged northern coast of golden beaches on the exposed shores of Foveaux Strait. The track passes through the once industrious logging area of Maori Bay before crossing a hill to the abandoned settlement of Port William. The second day returns to the hill and heads inland crossing low hills and deep valleys of rainforest growing in saturated peat. Eventually the track descends to the the remote North Arm of the deeply penetrating Paterson Inlet. This inlet was once a large valley before flooding at the end of the last ice age now almost splits the island into two. After a peaceful night at North Arm the track follows the calm waters of Paterson Inlet above beaches and over rolling headlands back to Oban, reaching the Halfmoon Bay end of the settlement. |
