North West Circuit
Day 4: Yankee River - East Ruggedy 18km 11hrs
- Hut nights: 7
- Solo hut nights: 6
- People in huts: 4
- Overall people: 6
- Kiwi: 1
Going by the track times I should do the double hutter today comfortably in the amount of daylight available. On walks and hikes throughout NZ I have always beaten recommended track times, often halving them. But Stewart Island times were hard to beat, in fact I was taking longer. It could have had a lot to do with the slowing effect of a heavy pack. Even so I was going at a fair pace, with few stops. The fact was these track times were just too damn short to cover the type of terrain encountered . The time today for two huts - 11 hours, equaled the amount of daylight. Would the track be good going, or would it be energy and time sapping mud the whole way? I got up at dark, took a pre-sunrise shot down the beach, and got going at first light, just after 7.30.
Smoky Beach
The first leg was straight up and over a 200M (500ft) ridge and back down to the coast. With a firm track I got to the downhill side of the ridge in no time at all. Through the sun dappled canopy I caught glimpses of a beach below. Coming into a stand of manuka Smoky Bay and it's environs came into view bathed in the glorious fresh morning sunlight . The crescent of the beach had a aesthetic and aurally pleasing 2 foot break lapping at the light beige sand. Undulating dunes lay behind the beach decorated with spiky golden grass. Forested ridges framed the beach and formed a series of rocky points where they met the sea. I grabbed the camera and shot through the manuka above the beach. I descended down onto the silky textured sand dunes. The scene looked so good in that light. Looking out to sea, to the north, the horizon was a line of snow topped Fiordland mountains . The camera was out again framing the dunes and then I continued down this beautiful beach. By the time I got to the end of the beach a layer of clouds had appeared from somewhere and the sun was again obscured. I entered the bush again. Determined to make good time I full steamed ahead to Long Harry Hut.
Passing Long Harry
This part of the track was an up and down affair: over a ridge, down to a stream, up the other side and down again. Still it wasn't so muddy and in a bit over two and half hours I was standing in the new Long Harry Hut. It was 11.30. The track time was 5 hours, I'd done it in four. Woohoo! The next leg was 5-6 hours. I had 7 hours of light left. It looked do-able. I left the rocky coast back into the bush. A couple of steadily paced hours passed and I stopped for some lunch at a vantage point looking out above the coast and towards Fiordland. The sky, ocean, and mountains had turned into a monochrome of bluey-grey. The effect was of looking at a canvas. I checked map and track guide. The next leg would take me down and along a rocky beach then maybe 2-3 hours of bush to East Ruggedy Beach. It was 2.30.
Scary Beach
I heard the ominous roar of a sizeable swell pounding at the shore before I could even see the rocky bay. The noise became thunderous as I got closer. I came out into a rocky open area, the eastern head of the bay, and immediately began to feel alone and isolated in an unforgiving environment. Directly below the point where I stood some defiant rocks jutted just out from the shore. Here the sea suddenly heaved up and first smashed against these rocks with massive white water and soul shuddering sound before exploding along the length of the rocky coast. Where I was supposed to walk over for the next thirty minutes was being pounded thus, leaving only a thin line of dry rocks before the steep banks of the hillside. I nervously laid my pack down and got my camera out, aware of the drop in front of me. I knew I had to get some images. I got down to beach level, I wanted some video of the impressive spray over the outcrop. Before I could set the camera up a massive swell came over the rocks sending spray my way. I waited for another massive swell but had to be satisfied with just big ones. I could have waited longer but I was apprehensive to get going and put this scary beach behind me. The sheer power of the swell as it hit the rocks had me worried about a monster wave obliterating everything. The sound of it was the most frightening thing. I thought of coming to a watery grave out there, maybe my body would never be found.
Keeping to the top of the rocks halfway along the beach I encountered another problem: a point created by a very large boulder that was being slammed by the sea. For a few moments as the swell receded there was enough space and time to get around it. I would have to rush around by judging the swell , or be soaked and smashed and possibly dragged out to sea. The adrenalin started to pump a little harder. The bone crushing swell and the cliff like bank above, the devil and the deep blue sea. I surveyed the land above me: thorny plants and cutty grass and unsure footing and hard rocks to cushion any fall. Another swell rushed up and slammed into the point, I had to try the cliff. I started up, grabbing onto any plants I could for balance, pushing through shrub, stopping often to gauge a route and catch my breath. There was about ten tense minutes as I navigated a way up and around the rocky point. The fear of losing my footing or meeting a dead end of dense bush or cliff was overcome by my need to get off that beach and to the next hut by nightfall. I was supremely glad when I realised I could get down to the beach again and carry on my way. I left the newly named Scary Beach and re-entered the bush.
Sublime Moments
I'd been going for just over an hour when with some relief I came to a sign to Ruggedy Lookout. I was standing on the ridge above the East Ruggedy Beach, my destination. It was 5pm, still over an hour of light left. I ditched my pack, grabbed the camera and made my way along the muddy path to the lookout. The lookout was a rocky platform a couple of hundred metres (500ft) above the coast. The view it gave was spellbinding. I looked at a panorama spreading from north-east of the compass through the sunset in the west to Stewart Island spread out in the south. I saw the entirety of the Rugged Range, what they lack in height they make up in series of steep, jagged and improbable ridges and peaks. The range abruptly met the sea at the end of East Ruggedy Beach and rose again just out to sea as the Rugged Islands. Right on the horizon, backlit by the dusk sunlight, another steep sided island rose from the sea. Directly below my vantage point the blue-green sea lapped at the golden East Ruggedy beach, behind the beach a series of dunes spread inland. The whole scene was in a subdued twilight. The sky dominated by an even grey let in a slither of bright light at the western horizon. It was one of the most captivating landscapes I have ever seen. (View the panorama in the image gallery)
The cumulative effect of the day washed over me.The continuous physical exercise since sunrise, the beauty of Smoky Beach in the morning light, the adrenalin of Scary Beach, the vista in front of me: I was lifted to a high water mark of emotion. I left this extraordinary lookout and made my way down to the beach. With the finish line in sight and my whole body buzzing I was light footed on the final downhill.
It was nearly an hour later by the time I was in the sand dunes. I was yearning to get to the hut in the last light of the day. The dunes seemed to be endless, my visage of spiritual purity was darkened by thoughts of where was the damn hut. And then there it was, set in the bush at the end of the dunes, and a nice new hut it was. After my shower and meal and lighting of fire I sat down and reviewed the day through the images on my digital camera. But the images still went through my head after I put the camera away. I couldn't read that night, I just stared mid distance with a glazed smile. Variations on the same thought played in my mind - that this day was a highlight of my life, an incredible day of dawn to dusk solo travel through landscapes both external and internal. I was truly under the spell of this island.
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