Punakaiki: The Inland Pack Track 1

Excited and relieved to be

leaving the city of Nelson

A calm sunny morning

and the bells chime

Now where are you going

Punakaiki? asks the driver

car on car unloads

and shoppers wake the streets

Outward bound my destiny

with rucksack on my back

Goodbye you starlings

and you trout

and wading pied shag

I left the Punakaiki beach hostel at 10am, all packed and ready to go. Carrying tent , roll mat, sleeping bag and pillow, water, tins of food, knife, matches, sun lotion, insect repellant, spare clothes. A good two-hour walk through subtropical jungle on a well-beaten path. Then into beech forest after fording the Poriraro river, and here I had my first encounter with a Robin who emerged from the forest as I dried my feet. I hear da flutter of wings and there it was, right up close to me, and hopping over my belongings and trying to eat my pack. Well it had a good look at everything I own before I saddled up and left for the next section of the walk.

The path was muddier and wound through the forest and into the hills. I came out in a clearing at 1pm where there was a crossroads and here I met a Swiss lady also doing the same walk and we ate lunch. Again came a robin and this time ate scraps from my lap. Walking together for a while we passed out of the forest and into farm land around Bullock Creek. There were fields and a 4WD track with great views of the Paparoa mountains. After fording the creek the path went into bush again and passed some immense patches of flax to the left and right, before rising slowly into podocarp forest. This section of the walk was the hardest going, so muddy and up-and-down and through thick jungle. Here and there the water courses cut sink holes and waterfalls in the limestones, sometimes quite precipitously and suitably signed with hazard warnings by the Dept. of Conservation. After a further two hours or so I emerged at Fossil Creek. Here the path ends and you must push through ten feet or so of bush to meet the water, and follow it down stream. The forest here is beautiful, overhanging the creek and the banks of rounded stones left behind by higher waters. Many trees beset the way, which took me across the creek several times, and I had to duck and climb to get through.

I knew I wanted to camp at the the confluence of Fossil and Dilemna Creeks. It was tiring for the last few kilometres and I was glad to see the Dilemna gushing down the hill to my right. I went upstream and made camp on a sandbank in the creek perhaps 80 metres by 10 metres in size. After lying down i nmy tent and then making dinner in the fire I explored a little, but was in bed asleep by 8pm.


The night passed well. I awoke just before sunset and then again just after. The sky was a light blue with stars; not black or even dark blue, but light blue, I was amazed. Later the moon came up and cast great shadows across the sand bank. I awoke at about 5am to the sound of birds (maybe Kiwis! I'm not sure . . ) on the bank, and a great mist had rolled down th ecreek, making everything quite wet. I secured my tent flat and dozed to the sound of the birds until falling asleep again and waking at 9am. I tried to bathe but was put off by how cold the creek water was, so I just plastered on the insect repellant because the sand flies were everywhere and made another fire to warm myself and my baked beans. I got going again at 10am and started my way down the dilemna.