Stewart Island Circumnavigation February 2007

Expedition Report

Having survived the lengthy flight to New Zealand and purchased some transport (an 82 Nissan Datsun campervan) we set about picking up our equipment in Christchurch. First stop Canoe World, who were providing their new boat the Shearwater. Then onto Wrights Technologies who were supplying a Satellite phone, this was to be a god send. Modern technology is a great thing, imagine getting weather forecasts from Wales for the South seas of Stewart Island.

Having filled the van with provisions for the trip we set off south past Dunedin down to Invercargill and onto Bluff a small fishing / aluminium works town. To cross the Foveaux Straits we join the numerous trampers and bird watchers crossing to the island on the daily ferry. The crossing was nothing if not exciting with the boat plunging forwards and sideways at worrying angles sending large amount of spray across the decks. 'Was this what we were to expect on our trip?' I thought as another passenger headed off with a paper container in their hands!

Later that evening having found the campsite and having been introduced to the local sand flies we headed off to the pub to cross the T's and dot the I's before we finally set off on this long planned expedition. Here we encountered one of my original contacts on the Island, Liz Cave who runs a local kayak touring company.

Liz was a great source of information, knowing these waters as she did and having completed the circumnavigation herself. She kindly donated her own VHF to us as we had been told that coverage was extremely limited but this wasn't the case apart from the far South Cape area and pointed out some good camp spots.

Day One Halfmoon Bay / Xmas Village Hut (21km)

Wednesday 14th - Finally having managed to fit the proverbial quart into a pint pot we were ready to leave by midday. It definitely felt strange, here we were paddling out of Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island, New Zealand. It seemed like yesterday that Giles had first suggested the trip, not 14 months of long planning and wondering.

Off we paddled up the East Coast, passing wonderful sandy beaches and clear blue waters. If only the sun was shining and it wasn't raining! 

Where were we again, North Wales? After a few hours struggling into the winds, the rain had stopped so we decided a stop on one of those gorgeous beaches was in order.

Forcing ourselves to continue we paddled onto Xmas Village Hut. One of a number of Department of Conservation Huts throughout the island. Unfortunately the only hut we managed to stay in but definitely worthwhile if you get the chance to.

Day Two Xmas Village / East Ruggedy Beach (23km)
We woke up to a lovely morning, the sun was shining and the wind had dropped. It also wasn't long until our first encounter with one of the local wildlife. Just as we were passing Saddle Point I noticed this sole Sealion lying flat out on the rocks. It wasn't in the least bothered about our appearance and only sat up momentarily before continuing with its snooze.

The landscape right around the island was one of dense bush, often extending right down to the beachfronts. The further along the North shore we paddled the more impressive the cliffs become. Soon we were fighting temptation not to start exploring the numerous caves along the coastline. We were only carrying six days worth of food and we couldn't start playing with our progress until later in the trip.

We finally arrived in the Ruggedy area and headed in to the beach to be met by a tramping Scotsman. He was staying in the local DOC hut which according to him was a short trek back through the sand dunes towards the bush. I decided to trek up to the hut with some of our gear while Giles went fishing for tea. After 25 minutes trekking through the bush and still not there I decided that staying in the hut that evening wasn't going to be an option so I headed back to the beach to setup camp.

Everywhere we had gone previously they had mentioned how good Blue Cod was to eat, well we were about to see for ourselves. Giles had been successful in his fishing trip and fish curry was on the menu, plus the addition of numerous sand flies. These little creatures were definitely starting to play their part in this expedition.

Day Three East Ruggedy / The Gutter Mason Bay (34km)
Leaving East Ruggedy we passed some very impressive caves and cliff faces as we started our journey south. Again an important change in direction (south), we were now commencing what we expected to be the hardest part of our trip.

The west coast was prone to large surf, being in the path of the swell coming up from the southern ocean. Having spoken with a previous paddler who attempted this trip and got stuck in Doughboy Bay and had to be air lifted as he ran out of supplies due to the size of the surf.

On we plodded aiming for the headlands in the distance, West Ruggedy, Waituna Bay, Big Hellfire Beach and finally Shark Island, one by one we completed each section. We were now entered the largest Mason Bay. A gignormous  beach some 13kms long. We decided a lunch break was in order so decided we'd try our luck in Little Hellfire Beach. We soon saw why it had it's name! Coming in first I noticed the rocks scattered around hiding under the seaweed, plus this beach wasn't a sandy one but one made of pebbles which rose from the sea at about 45deg angle.

With the next surf wave soon approaching I paddled as quickly as I could and avoided the obstacles in the way and landed on the beach. Now Giles' turn, his timing wasn't quite as good and ended up getting stuck in the seaweed. Fighting through this he was now in position for his landing. Boats quickly dragged up the beach and soon our little stove was smoking away with noodles and brews to order.

The beach was littered with storm debris. The size of the tree trucks lying at the back of the beach and so high up reminded us of the beaches name.

Lunch finished we headed out into the surf and were soon pondering what it would be like to land on the main beach. We soon realised that it wouldn't be a great proposition as the swell rolling in was around 3 metres in height and we weren't that close to the beach yet. Deciding that it would be better to continue to the far end of the bay rather than risk the surf just to get a nights peace from the sand flies by staying in the DOC hut.

As we'd suspected the surf was nonexistent on the far end of the beach. We were also able to finally communicate with Maureen, a local lady who ran a VHF radio listening post and provided weather reports, to inform her of our whereabouts. She was more than pleased to hear from us.

Day Four - rest day (0km)

We'd decided the previous night to make the most of the forecasted strong winds and take a rest day. As we'd woken to find ourselves being blasted by the sand due to the strength of the wind and then having to dig the tent in winter climbing style to keep it from blowing away we agreed that we'd made the right decision.

Following a lengthy breakfast we heading off on foot searching for a water supply as we were running very low. A half hour later we arrived at a nice flowing stream breaking onto the adjoining beach. Oh such pleasures of finding an endless supply of fresh water, we even made attempts to wash!

As we didn't have to race back we continued our explorations and found a nice looking hut further upstream. Unfortunately this was obviously a private hut as it was all locked up apart from its quaint toilet hut. Again, small pleasures come in strange things.

Day Five Mason Bay /Tuperi Bay (35km)
We woke the next day to find a completely different scene. The wind had died away during the night to be replaced with a thick sea fog. We packed and headed off into the mist. We didn't want to follow the coastline as this would take us back into surf territory crossing Doughboy Bay so we paddled away on a compass bearing. An hour later we'd done it, we'd crossed Doughboy Bay and linked up with the coast again.

We could see in the distance, South Red Head Point where we'd been told were some over falls. This added a little interest to what had become a slog through the mist. This was obviously a good fishing spot as we paddled through an extremely large flock of Mutton birds. Boy can these guys fly. They are some of the best gliders I've seen, beaten only by the Mollyhawks (type of Albatross) we saw later in the trip.

The weather had cleared up nicely as we approached a number of small islands and our intended camp spot for the night, Easy Harbour. It didn't make sense to stop though as we hadn't even had lunch yet. So we decided to make this our lunch spot and then explored some of the caves we came across.

Looking at the map only two areas looked probable for camp. An unnamed bay or Tuperi Bay. The first one blanked out so we continued south. Tuperi Bay was like a maze of small inlets all leading to small beaches which unfortunately would be under water at high tide. Giles had decided to make the most of one of these beaches for a quick pit stop so I continued searching. Passing a ledge with a cave above I spotted something looking back at me. I quickly reversed and saw it was a penguin. Without getting out my boat I couldn't get to see it any closer but I didn't want to scare it. So that unfortunately was the only sighting we saw of one.

We were later told by one of the DOC workers that it was probably moulting if it was in a cave at that time of day as they normally fly out to sea very early and only return after dusk.

I continued back to where we'd entered the bay to some ledges I'd spotted coming in. These would be fine for bivvying on, plenty of space to get the boats up and out of the water and no sand flies, or so we thought! Giles soon arrived and gave his approval to our new bivvy spot.

Before we'd even set up camp a new interest had been found. Just below us hidden in the rocks on the seaweed was a new Sealion. We spent a good while watching and filming. David Attenbourgh eat your heart out. We left him enjoying the evening sun as we got back to camp life.

Day Six Tuperi Bay / The South Cape / Bens Bay (35km)       
Today, we headed for the cape. The weather was good, the tide and wind were running the right way, everything was set.

We soon left behind Tuperi Bay and entered the final stretch of land before the cape. As we grew nearer our excitement rose and finally we were running along the southern shore. Looking south we saw nothing but sea. We'd done it, we were going East and the feeling was great. We weren't even having to paddle. The wind was so strong it allowed us to use our paddles as sails, moving at over five knots.

   

At each headland we encountered a bit of rough water but on the whole this stretch treated us well. The distant scenery slowly began to change, showing the mountainous spine of the island similar to South Island. We continued paddling without stop until we reached Ernest Island. When researching Stewart Island I'd spotted what looked like a great beach via Goggle Earth. That beach had to be our stop.

We were now in the Pegasus area and closing in on our food dump which had hopefully been dropped off by a friendly fishing / hunting guide. First though we headed towards the Ernest Island beach and it looked as good as it did on the web however we didn't have it to ourselves.

Virtually on the beach this giant looking boulder raised its head and roared at our approach. A few more roars and the Bull Sealion decided he'd done enough to announce that it was his beach and returned to his slumber. Not wishing to cause an upset we headed further along the beach. We were more than pleased that the bull didn't seem to mind our intrusion on his beach.

Heading off with anticipation of new supplies we were more than surprised to find the hunters hut full of hunters. They greeted us warmly and presented us with our supplies, tea and biscuits. Only when they enquired where we intended camping next that we found that there was no room at the inn, so to speak so we had to continue further into the Pegasus area.

It wasn't long until we found one of their recommended camping spots and although we weren't indoors our travelling companions didn't seem too aggressive (The Sand Flies). It didn't take too long before we dined on our new rations. Onions, carrots, potatoes, fruit and even red wine, we were definitely dining in style this evening.

Day Seven Ben's Bay / Port Adventure (48km)        

By now camp life just seemed normal. Wake up, brew on and something quick to eat then back into the those old paddling clothes. They didn't even seem to smell or were we just used to it?

Off we paddled on what would be our longest by far. Each bay we passed we seemed to encounter more and more Sealions. I was just starting to think how different they were to seals back home, in that they never approached or seemed curious about us when this young Sealion slipped off his rock and headed straight towards me. He surfaced only a few feet from me then started swimming along side, diving from side to side under my boat. He then began running ahead of me continually diving then jumping out in front of me. I couldn't believe my luck, this continued for ages before he eventually headed off towards Giles. How wrong I could have been about these creatures.  

Following a quick pit stop at Kuri Point (30km) we continued towards the Lords River area. We had thought of staying around here but as the tide was still with us and the weather was great we just continued onwards. A chance to play occurred here and there as we passed between the islands around Owen Island. Then back to the slog, paddling across open water with the skyline never seeming to change. Eventually we'd passed the Muttonbird (Titi) Islands which meant that from this point onwards we were heading north. Oh this felt good, we were virtually on the home leg. One more night's camp and we'd be back to civilisation, well Halfmoon Bay.

Liz had told us about this lovely little bay but never mentioned the fact that there was a hut of kinds there. We couldn't believe our luck, another beautiful beach, somewhere to camp and a hut. This had according to the writing on the walls been built by a group of hunters who came to hunt, found nothing so decided to build a hut so they could return to it the following year. 

It had two tables a chair and best of all a fireplace. We decided we'd still camp as the floor was sand and earth but this became our base. We cooked in here in the warmth of a glowing fire (the hunters had even provided a stock of firewood).

We hadn't been here too long when a small inflatable roared up the beach. Out jumped a group of hunters who asked did we realise that we were right in the middle or a hunting area. We acknowledged this and said that DOC had approved our trip. They suggested to us not to wander too far from camp as we might be shot being mistaken for deer!

Day Eight Port Adventure / Halfmoon Bay (28km)

Waking on our final day we were excited that we were nearing the completion of trip. The weather couldn't have been better, hardly any wind, blue skies and the sea was flat. We were soon passing the East Cape and decided that we'd stop after the next bay for some lunch. We found a good spot in Lauras Leg and were soon up on the beach and couldn't believe what we'd found.

Paua shells galore. Paua is like a giant whelk. We'd had some way back at Xmas Village Hut when a French couple we shared with offered us some and told us how to cook it. A tasty morsel, we mentally added it to our cooking list but unfortunately we'd never seen it again. Now when we didn't need it, there it was in plenty.

Refreshed we headed off again but the weather had changed. Well the wind had, it had gradually picked up (force 5ish) and coming from the Northwest it wasn't what we really wanted. In front of us was about 15kms of sea. From here on we had to cross five bays each a kilometre or so long then finally cross the Paterson Inlet. With the direction of the wind this became a struggle of paddlers against the wind.

Ocean Beach, Cow Island, Back beach and finally Karimoni beach, each crossing becoming harder than the last. We now had to cross the largest stretch and we couldn't head inshore for any shelter as the nearest land was Native Island 3kms away.

The fight was on, what we had expected to be an easy last day was turning into a real nasty sting in the tail. Leaving Bullers Point it seemed at first as if we were going backwards never mind forwards. Our struggle continued for roughly an hour and a half before we finally made Ackers Point. The pain soon disappeared when we saw Halfmoon Bay harbour. We'd made it, paddling up onto the beach and finally stepping ashore, we'd completed our trip.

Now, where is that hotel bar!

We'd like to thank the following who helped in a number of differing ways
Emirates Airlines - extra baggage allowance for our sports gear
Max - Canoe World / Q-Kayaks
Lendal Paddles
Wright Technologies - Satellite phone
Bluff Vehicle Storage - free parking for our van during our trip
Stewart Island Ferry Services - free transportation of our sea kayaks
Liz Cave - Rakiura Kayaks; for her time, information, and VHF radio
Maureen - listening out for us on our trip
JKA - for his information and maps for the trip. Better luck for your next attempt JKA.

and finally my wife Karen and kids for putting up with me before, during and after the trip!

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