{"id":1824,"date":"2018-10-23T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skeptic.de\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2026-02-06T06:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:14:34","slug":"debriefing-stewart-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/?p=1824","title":{"rendered":"Debriefing: Stewart Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"opener\">Granted: The short stay on Stewart Island was designed for a kayak-in\/kayak-out version of the Southern Circuit in five days:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oban, Golden Bay \u2013 Rakeahua Hut (kayak, pick up by water taxi in the evening)\n<li>Rakeahua Hut \u2013 Doughboy Bay\n<li>Doughboy Bay \u2013 Mason Bay\n<li>Mason Bay \u2013 Freshwater\n<li>Freshwater \u2013 Oban, Golden Bay (kayak, delivery in the morning).<\/ul>\n<p>Whether or not that would have been realistic \u2013 especially from the kayaking side \u2013 is another question. The tides were right, but not spending a day on the water getting to Rakeahua would have meant hanging around a whole day for the water taxi to take me there.<\/p>\n<h5 id=\"topo\" class=\"special_section\">Topo Map with GPS<\/h5>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1837\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1837\" style=\"width: 840px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skeptic.de\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skeptic.de\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview-1024x392.png\" alt=\"Still plenty to explore: The land, and the sea\" width=\"840\" height=\"322\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview-1024x392.png 1024w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview-300x115.png 300w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview-768x294.png 768w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/Stewart-Island-Overview-1200x459.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still plenty to explore: The land, and the sea. <span name=\"dol\">[download id=\"1869\"]<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>In any case, having no partner for either kayaking arm meant doing a trip out to Mason Bay on foot, even if the last leg of the return journey could be undertaken by water taxi. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The track between North Arm and Freshwater is very tough. One bridge has been removed at the end of North Arm, but that is the least of your problems. The real difficulties were the extremely steep climb up to the ridge after the missing bridge, and the extended swampy section \u201cjust\u201d before Freshwater Hut. This consumed nearly all of the time estimated, so I would warn about trying to walk the whole way from Oban to Freshwater without an overnight stay in North Arm. Christelle also later tried the track back from Freshwater to the campsite at North Arm, and it took her all day.<\/p>\n<p>It was also on this section that most of the tripod, and my hat went missing. On the further track to Mason Bay, an exposed rubbish bag was torn apart by the undergrowth. A real effort has to be made to secure all items on the outside of the pack from a similar fate.<\/p>\n<h5 id=\"si_ss\" class=\"special_section\">Slide Show<\/h5>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><canvas id=\"kb_ltb\" width=768 height=432><\/canvas><figcaption id=\"kb_caption\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/figcaption><div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Click on the image to stop\/start the animation<\/em><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>That having been said, the \u201cday off\u201d in Freshwater allowed for some necessary cleaning and drying of some kit \u2013 that much would become clear on the Dusky Track a week later \u2013 and the day and a half in Mason Bay with possibly the most spectacular weather imaginable was a dream.<\/p>\n<p>The return via water taxi \u2013 which left very early due to the tides \u2013 also meant a \u201cdead\u201d day in Oban, punctuated with a bit of washing and chatting with the other inhabitants of the hostel. Of course, I would have preferred that day on the water, even if there would have been a bit of a hurry to get out of the estuary on the outgoing tide.<\/p>\n<p>The actual kayaking day was spoiled a bit by Phil insisting on such a high price for renting his boats. There had been one other kayak operator in Oban (and their website is still up, although it has a \u201cFor Sale\u201d notice on it, and a warning that they no longer do business), and their admittedly out-of-date prices for freedom kayaking were $50 for a half-day and $65 for a full one, an offer we would have gladly taken them up on. Phil\u2019s $50 an hour was very steep (but then he also charges $145 for a half-day guided tour, which comes to pretty much the same thing), and I\u2019m afraid I can\u2019t recommend him for either a guided or a freedom tour.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the future: Next trip to Stewart Island, 2021. Still have to get up Mt Anglem, so a combined North-West\/Southern Circuit seems tempting. An extended tour would, however, only be possible with a food drop\/rubbish pickup, and for this there are really only two possibilities: By plane to Mason Bay, or by water taxi to Freshwater. Mason Bay can be reached anticlockwise after seven or eight days, depending on whether a full day for Mt Anglem is necessary. From Mason Bay back to Oban via the Southern Circuit would be another six or seven days, depending on how many mountains want to be climbed. An exchange in Mason Bay could be done <em>en passant<\/em>; a swap in Freshwater would require one day for a return trip, and a high tide around midday.<\/p>\n<p>Stuff and time to think about it.<\/p>\n<p><script>\nsid = \"K6_Stewart_Island\";\n[i, j] = \"516-540\".split (\"-\");\nimage_ids = [Array (j - i + 1).fill ().map ((v, k) => j - k).concat ([492,488,486,485,484,483,482,481,565,564,563,562,561,560])];\n<\/script><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vg07.met.vgwort.de\/na\/c8b5739cf000483da302bd5f8a8c4841\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" alt=\"\"> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Granted: The short stay on Stewart Island was designed for a kayak-in\/kayak-out version of the Southern Circuit in five days: Oban, Golden Bay \u2013 Rakeahua Hut (kayak, pick up by water taxi in the evening) Rakeahua Hut \u2013 Doughboy Bay Doughboy Bay \u2013 Mason Bay Mason Bay \u2013 Freshwater Freshwater \u2013 Oban, Golden Bay (kayak, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/?p=1824\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Debriefing: Stewart Island&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,7,8],"tags":[85,147,163,164,211,215],"class_list":["post-1824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kayaking","category-topo-track-with-gps","category-tramping","category-travel-advice","tag-freshwater-river","tag-mason-bay","tag-north-west-circuit","tag-oban","tag-southern-circuit","tag-stewart-island"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2735,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions\/2735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi6\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}