Hikes, February 17 – March 6, 2010. Up, down and around all three islands of New Zealand, in mostly short hikes. About 40 miles total.
Part 3: 3/2 – 3/6. Over our nearly three glorious weeks in New Zealand (a gift to me – AND The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All – from Leisure publisher Richard Wells as a 25-years’ service pin!), we walked every day – through cities, along beaches and exploring small towns, probably covering 75 miles or more over the 18 days. The brief descriptions to follow are only of the more defined hikes – through the bush, up volcanoes, onto a glacier and to some of the most amazing vistas in the whole wide world.
March 2. Guided bird and nature walk on Ulva Island. About 1 mile.
While we covered very little physical distance on this small, predator-free island, we learned more about birds in the three or so hours than perhaps we had over our lives to that point. Ulva is a short boat ride from Stewart Island (which we had flown to on an eight-passenger plane the evening before) and our guide, Pete, has been part of the ridding it of predators for the past 40 years. There are still traps on Ulva, for stoats and rats, but they are preventative at this point, with island having been declared free of the European-brought animals that feast on bird eggs and birds. And so, as you walk the pathways through lush forest, the toutoutwai especially will walk up onto your shoes and eat out of your hand, knowing no fear of mammals as they sustain/revert to life where there were no natural predators, as New Zealand’s only native mammals are two or three species of bat. Also seen often and upclose: weka, saddleback, fantail, parakeet and New Zealand pigeons, which are larger, prettier and less aggressive than ours.
March 3. Loop walk on Stewart Island. About 2 miles.
After a run together along a bit of the coast of the island, over a hill and onto Ringaringa beach, we set out on a pre-flight (the eight-passenger, tossed-by-the-wind prop plane) loop taking us to the “back” side of the island. The walk was short and easy, taking us to Golden Bay and then back toward “town,” where the post office/airline station awaited, but it was an uncharacteristic walk for The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All, who in addition to being the fastest, most efficient hiker you can find, also never pays any attention to time, eschewing a watch and virtually never asking me for the time of day. But on the walk on this day (with the weather going back and forth from sunny to showery at least a dozen times before our 12:30 flight), she had some serious departure/getting lost anxiety despite our having the map, the island being tiny and the walk being pretty daggone short. And getting back in plenty of time to have TSA search us, inspect everything in our bags and examine our shoes; on Stewart Island however, we sat around for close to an hour as the security sequence goes like this: Get in the little van at the P.O./station, ride up to the little landing strip, where the driver turns into the pilot and you take off into the wind in a space as big as a small kitchen, with the control panel looking right at you and having the appearance of an old stove, and the engine sounding like a fairly old lawn mower.
March 4. Christchurch urban walk. About 3 miles.
Christchurch, by far the most European-feeling city (two squares, including one with street vendors and performers — we visited, has an inviting pathway along the Avon River as it flows through town, a path that leads also to the botanical garden and to Victoria Square. But the high point of the walk is Cathedral Square, a broad open space where singers and other performers compete with vendors of crafts and food for the attention of a constant flow of people across it. Whereas Auckland feels like a big city, Christchurch feels like a New Zealand big city – friendly, open and fun.
March 6. Hike to the rim of Rangitoto Island volcano, around the rim and back. About 7 miles.
On this, our day to fly back out (deeply rueful for The Day Hiker, as has been every day since in this context), we had enough time before our evening flight across the Pacific to ferry over the Rangitoto, a volcanic island that popped up out of Auckland harbor about 600 years ago. And these centuries later, the island still has spots where vegetation has not taken hold, and the appearance is of volcanic rubble. But for the most part, process of larger and larger vegetation making its way into healthy existence has reached the point of trees on much of the island, including around the rim and in the crater at the center. Short side trails took us to some small volcanic caves and a display on the short history of the island.
