A Visit to Port Craig

This is the fifth installment of my post Slow Walking NZ’s South Coast Track. The second was Long Point Hut – A Hidden Gem, the third was Wonderful Waitutu Lodge and the fourth was Waitutu to Port Craig. After having walked further than we intended the previous day (32,000 steps rather than the 20,000 just to the Percy Burn) we decided to have a well-deserved rest and stay two nights in the delightful Port Craig school house.

We thought we might break the last leg of the journey back to Rarakau by staying on one of the two verandahs (one on the right and one on the left) at the Track Burn, but as it turned out we decided to push on and completed the 40,000 steps to Rarakau (about 25 kilometres) in one long day nearly eight hours (with breaks) – aged 76. We managed that in seven hours in 2016 (age 67) and five and a half in 2014 (65). ‘Time’s winged chariot’.

We walked along the Te Wau Wau beach as much as we could (through to Breakneck Creek) after leaving Port Craig, it being low tide. If you look out carefully you will find the old beach exit between stoat traps numbers 83 & 84. The way down is a little overgrown but still good. (Maybe bring a machete?). You should only complete the beach walk when the tide is quite low. It takes about an hour – but it saves n hour too. You don’t want to get caught down there on a rising tide with few exits for safety. At the end a rock-fall (just before the burn) has deepened the last fifty metres so you may have to wade (or scramble over the rocks – as we did)

Of course we stayed at the wonderful Port Craig schoolhouse a great reminder of times past.

Unfortunately you are now charged $25 a night for this so-called ‘serviced’ hut (with no firewood) but do not think of not paying as the Hump Ridge people will be over to police you. They have (similarly) locked the Percy Burn Hut so that there is no cheap/free accommodation in the area. You are (still) free to set up your tent on the lawn however – and we noticed (from the hut book) that many people preferred to do this rather than pay an exorbitant and swingeing charge.

The schoolroom (apart from the bunks – not shown) looks almost as if the children had just walked away a little while ago – instead of a hundred years as it is now.

There are some interesting historical photos on the chimney.

One showing the last class c 1928. When I was (first) here in 2014 I thought one of these children might still be alive as (then) my mother in law (same generation) had just passed on but I doubt any remain today. Interestingly on the second night we shared the hut with a delightful couple from Tuatapere. His grandmother had been the last schoolteacher at Port Craig.

Our fellow guests in the schoolhouse went and caught a magnificent meal of paua (abilone) which they delightfully offered to share with us. You would not get this sort of hospitality at the Lodge.

The environs are still strewn with mementoes of when the ‘town’ was a busy sawmill and port.

Unfortunately the Hump Ridge people have constructed a hideous and expensive ‘Lodge’ adjacent to the schoolhouse (but mercifully out of sight).

They ‘process’ around thirty hikers through here a day whose packs are flown on via helicopter. This is just not backpacking or tramping. I would like to see a lot less of it.

Ter Wau Wau Beach (which we walked along on the way out).

If you have a few hours to spare (we had a day) you can ramble around the many ruins and curios strewn about many illustrated by tacky information boards. The steps down to the docks are just what you need after having walked 32,000 or 40,000 steps to get here.

The loading area (for mainly sawn timber). There was a mill above those steps.

This was the winch which operated a crane loading timber onto ships.

This was one of the docks. They were burned down during WW2 (by the government) hoping by so doing to forestall a Japanese invasion. See,s to have worked. We did not see even one Japanese.

Another set of docks further along Mussell Beach.

And towering above whatt I take to be the ruins of the sawmill. You can’t get to it from below or above.

Looks like the ruins of a brickworks – anyway a large kiln of some sort.

Kiln again.

Bricks had names back then.

Old boiler.

Communal toilet.

And septic tank.

Log hauler.

The new DOC automatic possum traps. Ther are trap lines all along the South Coast Track with these beauties gradually wearing down the numbers of possums and boosting the numbers of birds.

Timber platform near the docks.

In the morning walking out.

After exiting the (new) main track between stoat traps 83 & 4 we walked down to Te Wau Wau beach. Note the signage still in place here but removed elsewhere. When I was first her in 2014 this was a well-maintained alternative route.

Walking along Te Wau Wau towards Blowholes Beach

There are some sandy stretches but much of it is rock-hopping.

With few exits should the tide come in.

You can see Della (at 72) is still enjoying it though.

Looking back after having scrambled around he rockfall at the eastern end.

Blowholes Beach.

An excellent overnight camping spot – obviously lots of Paua here too.

Shearwaters

There are a couple of other pretty beaches to walk along after Blowholes.

With interesting headlands.

A couple of walkwires.

And lots of wooden bridges. You will be getting sick of this hard gravel by now. I know I was.

This is what a track marker used to look like.

The Track Burn. There is a hunter’s hut on the right (with a verandah) . There were hunters in residence (as it was the roar). There is another hut with a verandah a couple of hundred yards further along on the left (at the intersection – where you walk straight ahead). No-one was home there.

From the intersection you can choose to walk along the road past the holiday huts or along the beach. We chose the road as the tide had come in.

Waikoua River bridge (and settlement)

The Rarakau cliffs loom over the river. You are going to have to scale them a kilometre or so further long up some very rickety steps (a really lot of them). You will be glad when you (finally) get top the top.