We had a lazy start to the day as we didn't have to be at the office until 0845. It was a lovely sunny day and all looked good for our walk to Masons Bay hut. When Nicole arrived at he office we shared out the food between us and packed it into our rucksacks. Even though I only had a change of clothes and a few odds and ends - with the sleeping bag and the weight of the rucksack itself it was not a light pack!! Phil our leader - ex pat of 40years - now living in Invercargill and a big wig in the Ornithological society - drove us to Golden Bay wharf where we picked up the boat. Boatman Steve, took us the 45minutes up Paterson inlet and into the river to our starting point at Freshwater hut. This trip was scenic and a great precursor to the trek - as we left the harbour we saw little blue penguins and Stewart island shag......when we reached the river it was noticeably brown due to all the tannins being washed into it.
After a quick loo break we set off along the well marked and signposted track to Masons Bay it said 3-4 hours which without breaks and stops it would be. We left at 1115 and stopped every hour for 10 minutes with about 30 minutes for lunch. Lunch included a bush experience as besides our sandwiches we made a hot drink, hot chocolate made using fresh clean river water boiled in the billy! The packs were heavy and the sun hot so the breaks were necessary. We also stopped to look at the birds - one new one - the Fernbird - which was flitting through the bushes in the aptly named chocolate swamp. As we walked we were serenaded by bellbirds, brown creeper, tui, robins, chaffinch and grey warbler. We also saw parakeets and a harrier. After much talk about lots of mud the tracks had dried nicely and although there were muddy patches it was not hard to navigate through or round them. The walk was through Manuka woodland, marshland - with the wettest places eg chocolate swamp having convenient boardwalks and sand hills which formed the latter part of the walk and the walk from Masons Bay hut to the expansive 11km beach of Masons bay.
We passed the wardens hut and were grateful to see the sign 15 minutes to Masons Bay hut - it was a long 15 minutes but good to arrive, at about 1615ish, bag our bunks and take our boots off! There were not many others there - an older Canadian couple, a young Australian couple and a couple of men in their 20s - we had a bunk room to ourselves along with a bunch of mosquitos and sand flies!
Our boots were not off for long as we decided to walk to the beach - across the sandy terrain - for views that were not to be missed particularly in the warm summer sunshine. On the beach were an array of white fronted terns, red billed gulls, a white faced heron and a banded dotterel. You could see Codfish island off shore, where the last of the endangered Kakapo live....and we could also see cloud banks rolling in signifying the expected change in tomorrow's weather!
When we got back we had supper at 1900 - gnocchi with a pesto sauce - a bit heavy but quick and easy to cook and it filled the gaps! After speaking to the warden we decided to go out kiwi spotting at dusk - the sun set at 2144 so we had to wait a while. Even when we set off at 2100 it was bright but we were hopeful - we headed towards the beach first then retraced our steps to the old wool shed which was just past the wardens hut but with no luck. We decided to wait there until it was dark - at 2230 we set off in single file back down the path - Phil had a light with a red filter to minimize any disturbance. Not far down the track we heard rustling and snuffling in the bush - it must be a kiwi - Phil shone the light - it seemed an age before we finally spotted our first kiwi feeding in the undergrowth - it was totally unperturbed by us and we were able to watch it for ages in the red light - for me kiwis will now always be red!! We left that one and continued down the road where we heard more snuffling right by the track edge and there was a young male ( smaller that the females- she has to carry an enormous egg - 20% of her body) he again was unperturbed and came in and out of the undergrowth and finally he walked onto the side of the track inches from us - it was amazing - although photography was difficult tomorrow's picture is my best shot of a red kiwi! Today's picture is us tramping through the Manuka woodland - with those big packs!
Happy we all finally went to sleep at 2330, on an unusually warm Stewart island night - after a long, exhausting but rewarding day.