The Rakiura Track is a 29 km tramping track located on Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. It is one of the New Zealand Great Walks. It generally follows the coastline for a large parts of its length, passing small inlets, large bays and mudflats, before crossing steep hills covered in bush (dense forest) during its middle section.
It lies within the Rakiura National Park and can be walked over a one to three day period. There are two huts on the track, at Port William and the North Arm of Paterson Inlet, and many people overnight at each. There are also camping sites available at Maori Beach, Port William and Sawdust Bay.
Large sections of the track have wooden boardwalks covered with wiremesh to protect the track from deterioration. Without these, the track often degrades into mud, as Stewart Island receives immense amounts of rain during the year. In general, the track is well-maintained, and of easy to medium difficulty. The given track length does not include several additional km sections of paved road at the start and end of the walk from Half Moon Bay.
The track is equipped with huts for the use of permit-carrying walkers, and the huts are equipped with firewood, which is in fact, often flown in by helicopter[1] as no roads connect to many of the huts and walkers are not supposed to cut their own wood. There are no cooking facilities in the huts so walkers are advised to carry their own stoves and cooking equipment. There is a supermarket in Oban where gas canisters can be purchased as well as other necessary supplies.
Walking the Rakiura Track also offers the unusual opportunity to see kiwis in their natural environment.
In order to get to Stewart Island walkers have the choice of a commercial ferry operator or alternatively Stewart Island Flights operates a service from Invercargill Airport to Stewart Island.
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