New Zealand’s Rakiura Walk is a great walk located on Stewart Island. This 3-day walk explores native bush, secluded coves, beaches, and provides the chance to see Kiwi in the wild.
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience many of New Zealand’s Great Walks, including the Kelper, Routeburn, Milford, Whanganui Journey, Abel Tasman, and now the Rakiura. All of them are unique experiences that showcase New Zealand’s natural world. The Rakiura is the only one that explores some of the tracks on Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third big island. I really enjoyed our walk as the track passed through beautiful native bush with some huge rimu trees, and beautiful beaches. We didn’t see any kiwi on the walk, but saw some in Oban afterwards.
Rakiura Track Highlights And Logistics
Highlights – Native bush, remote beaches and coastline, kiwi spotting opportunities, and historical sites.
Location – Oban on Stewart Island
Length Of Walk – 39 km – Oban to Port William Hut 13 km; Port William Hut to North Arm Hut 13 km; North Arm Hut to Oban 13 km.
Difficulty – Moderate
About Rakiura Walk
The Rakiura walk proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. I guess everything comes down to expectations and I expected this to be quite easy, especially after already having completed many other longer great walks. This walk is not overly long, but the track is up and down most of the way and it was very humid when we did it.
We began from the Lee Bay road end and walked to Port William Hut in about 4 hours. The walk began by following the coast up and down as we made our way through the bush. There were some lovely views in spots where the bush opened up, but mostly we were just in the bush.
Half way along we stopped at Maori Beach and took a short respite for a snack and water. We would’ve stayed longer, but the sandflies came out so we kept moving. This is a really nice, long sand beach that the trail follows for about 15 minutes. I always find it super cool to be walking along an isolated beach with my backpack.
At the end of Maori Beach the track crosses a river on a swing bridge and enters the bush again. A climb comes to a junction of the track, with the side track to the hut and the main track continuing across the island to the next night’s hut.
The section of the trail from the junction down to the hut passes by an incredible grove of towering rimu trees that just feels magical. Somehow these towering giants escaped the saws of men.
Port William Hut has a great grassy clearing out in front of it and looks out over the ocean. At night this area was nice for exploring silently and slowly to look for kiwi. Nobody at the hut saw any kiwi that night, but I did see some deer and a possum.
The second day’s walk began by retracing our steps through the rimu grove and then we began traversing this narrow neck of the island to reach the hut on the other side. This track passes through pristine and second growth forest as much of the area was logged. The track passes a couple beautiful streams and then is a steep climb.
After the climb the track undulates until arriving at the North Arm Hut where you can see the ocean out the other side of the island. There are fun tidal flats that we explored in the area and we just chilled out around the hut.
Then at dusk we wandered out slowly on our kiwi hunt, but again nobody saw any. We spoke to others who saw kiwi during the day just an hour prior to talking to us, but we had no such luck.
The final day of our walk left the hut and followed a trail with some slight up and down through bush. The trail passed by some lovely secluded coves and bays. At one point we crossed a river and saw a huge jellyfish floating in the water.
The final stretch of the trail follows an old access road, so it’s wide enough to walk side by side.
My Insider’s Tips On Rakiura Walk
Kiwi spotting is one of the main reasons I wanted to do this walk. Stewart Island is the only place where you may see kiwi in the wild during the day. The island is home to tokoeka, South Island brown kiwi, which are nocturnal. However, they do come out foraging during the day. The trick to see them is to wander around very slowly in the evening/night with a red light. The kiwi wander around at night and you just have to get lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
Sandflies can be found along this walk so make sure that you come prepared for them. Check out my tips to prevent sandfly bites here.
The trail starts and finishes a few km from Oban. You can either walk from your accomodation in town or get a ride with a local taxi to the trail head. The walk to Lee Bay Road end takes about one and a half hours, and from Fern Gully Car Park is about 30 minutes.