Hiking in Okiwi Bay – Day 84

So today Ian has advised us to do a hike called Goat Hill Track.

Today we’re doing a hike in Okiwi Bay and as soon as we start the track we see a flightless bird called a weka.

But before we start the track we are opening a small green box that contains the visitors book. A lot of tracks in New Zealand have a visitors book and it’s just a good way for us to leave a nice note to the DOC rangers which are in charge of maintaining the track on a yearly basis.

We notice that this track is a little bit different from the tracks we have been on before. The vegetation is just taking over the track and we’re sort of wading through flax and all sorts of different ferns.

It’s a much rougher track than what we are used to but it’s really cool because we get to see much more plants and unusual features that we don’t often see on main tracks in New Zealand. Plus the views that we start getting through the forest as we start going up are absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to make my way all the way to the top.

Like many tracks in New Zealand there are signs along the way to show you different trees you’re looking at and different vegetation which is perfect for us since it’s all native New Zealand bush.

It took us only about an hour uphill to arrive at the top where the views are simply splendid. The view extending in front of us is seeing all the way up to D’Urville Island which is going to be where we are making our way tomorrow. There is absolutely no sign of life in front of us those islands looks absolutely deserted of humans. And simply filled of birds and native trees.

The weather couldn’t be more perfect to see this awesome view of islands out in the distance. We could spend all day here but we decide we should move our ass and continue on the track.

As we continue downhill on this track we notice there are a lot of fallen trees, a lot of tree trunks crossing the track and it’s really obvious that a storm must have been through here recently. I am incredibly impressed by first, the resilience of nature seeing trees regrowing on almost a horizontal slope and also the sheer size of the destruction. It looks like those gigantic trees only had very shallow roots and got completely knocked off by the strong winds.

The forest is also bustling with wildlife. So the Goat Hill Track is a one way track starting from the road into Okiwi Bay and it makes its way down towards Okiwi Bay you can actually access it from the little township itself.

The rest of the way down is pretty easy between maneuvering slippery mud and a few obstacles that nature left for us to tackle. But after only about 30 minutes we are finally back at the Okiwi Bay Holiday Park where we will be able to spend a nice relaxing afternoon. Laura finds us a nice little spot by the river and I found us a place to go buy some ice cream. This seems like a perfect combo to wait for the evening.

This evening we are invited by our awesome hosts, Ian and Pam, from the Okiwi Bay Holiday Park, to have a roast dinner with them which is such a treat considering we’re so used to having backpacker budget food. Yum, pork belly!

Tomorrow, we are going to do a drive beyond drives. All the way down French Pass which is in the middle of freakin’ nowhere on the very northern tip of the South Island, and then we’re going to get a boat go across some water to an island that is so off the beaten track that there’s not even a track to get there you have to go over water, which has whirlpools and all sorts of crazy stuff in the way. there’s probably like krakens there’s probably sea monsters when we get there. And then we’re going to go to D’Urville Island.