Chris Pritchard explores two evocative national parks in far-flung corners of Australia and New Zealand

National parks are everywhere. Some are tiny, others vast; some are pristine, but others can be garbage-strewn. Some can get very crowded, while others remain all but deserted. Some – handily located near major cities – are effortless getaways, others far-flung but nonetheless memorable.

For instance, these two very different Asia-Pacific parks – one in the wild Australian outback and the other in southern New Zealand’s densely forested remote wilderness – provide unforgettable experiences against strikingly dissimilar backdrops.

Since each is deep within its country’s hinterland, though easily reached, overseas visitors often extend their business or leisure trips to explore them.

AUSTRALIA


KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

Australia gets no redder than this. A German couple, in white linen at breakfast, re-appear for pre-dinner drinks wearing the same clothes, only now they have acquired an unmistakeable ochre hue.

Fine red dust is unavoidable in Western Australia’s vast, empty hinterland. This is the Pilbara, producing much of Australia’s mineral wealth. The terrain is rugged – rocky escarpments punctuate sandy expanses where arid-area vegetation sprouts defiantly. Cubic rock clusters are so smoothed by Mother Nature that they seem dumped by long-departed mining projects.

The Pilbara’s Hamersley Range encompasses the 627,445-hectare Karijini National Park, where millions of years of unhurried erosion has created dozens of gorges. Chasms are commonly more than 100 metres deep – with rivers flowing far below.

Explorer FT Gregory stumbled upon the range in 1861, naming it after his friend Edward Hamersley, but aboriginal tribes have inhabited the area for thousands of years. Hamersley National Park was established 41 years ago, but in 2001 was renamed Karijini National Park. It is aboriginal traditional land, leased by them to Western Australia’s state conservation department, and the accommodation (40 luxury tents and a campsite) entrusted to eco-resort operators.

Guide Baz Ambler of Lestok Tours collects me at Karijini Eco Retreat’s restaurant, where the fare includes kangaroo steaks laced with indigenous Australian herbs and spices. He tells me visitors mostly explore the park’s northern extremity – where the most spectacular gorges are located – because the southern end is largely inaccessible. Options include staying aboard buses (except at boardwalk-equipped lookouts), easy 10-minute rambles and challenging four-day hikes. Or there’s a strenuous all-day hike up Mount Bruce, Western Australia’s second-highest peak.

Close to base camp, I peer from a lookout over Oxer and Junction pools into ribbons of gorges stretching towards the horizon. Similarly undemanding are strolls to Joffre Lookout, down steps to watch a waterfall cascade over rocks stacked like a giant’s dinner plates. Ninety minutes’ walk takes me to Fortescue Falls and back – including time for a rock pool swim (no crocodiles hereabouts), where I gaze at a rainbow in the plunging water’s mist-like spray.

After an hour’s drive I reach Hamersley Gorge, smaller than some, where an easy amble brings me to Hamersley Waterfall. Rocks on either side of me are an astonishing array of browns, greys, pinks, purples, reds and greens. Their bizarre chunkiness reinforces the erroneous illusion that they were hewn by humans.

Back near camp, we wander to a rock platform where the pools and waterfall of Kalamina Gorge stretch beneath me. A short trail leads me to Rock Arch pool where tourists are swimming. Erect-crested spinifex pigeons wander nearby. Small fish swim in rock pools. A metre-long goanna (a native lizard) soaks up the sun on a nearby ledge.

Continuing our drive, I watch red kangaroos bounding across the countryside, agreeing with my guide that they’re hard to spot against their background. Other wildlife I spy includes wallabies, bats, numerous avian species (including eagles) that attract avid bird-watchers, and several types of snakes (including pythons).

From high above one gorge, I see backpackers in T-shirts hiking far below, hopping between rocks in a stream. Ambler reveals many gorges have trails to their bases but, to prevent accidents and facilitate rescues, hikers are advised to tell rangers where they’re going or to join guided tours.

We pass a dozen reddish termite mounds, each more than two metres tall, sitting like abstract sculptures amid yellow grassland in an open space between clumps of eucalypts and mulga trees.

Karijini Eco Retreat’s permanent tents, externally unprepossessing, are internally opulent and furnished much like a five-star hotel room. This is what’s dubbed “glamping” (glamorous camping). My muscles ache. My bed is comfy. My shower’s hot water washes away a day’s red dust – but not memories of a unique national park.

Karijini Eco Retreat; tel +61 8 9425 5591; www.karijiniecoretreat.com.au

NEW ZEALAND

RAKIURA NATIONAL PARK

I’ve hit rock bottom – the bottom of New Zealand, that is. To my south is Antarctica, to my north is New Zealand’s South Island. New Zealand is commonly perceived as two big “shaky isles”: North and South. Stewart Island (population 450), 30km south of the South Island’s southern tip, is frequently overlooked.

Stewart Island was first inhabited by indigenous Maoris in the 13th century. Whalers and sealers arrived in the 1800s, followed by lumbermen and fishermen, but nature reserves were established as early as 1900. Eight years ago, these and government forests were combined to form 157,000-hectare Rakiura National Park – Rakiura is Stewart Island’s Maori name – which covers 85 percent of the island and boasts 245km of trails.

The park excludes pockets of private land and Oban, on Half Moon Bay, where most residents live and most tourist accommodation is located. Oban’s “downtown” comprises a few shops (including a good jewellery outlet), a museum highlighting local history, a couple of coffee shops, the hilltop Church Hill Bar and Restaurant (where I discover delicious roasted mutton bird, a tasty unprotected fish-eater blending flavours of duck and anchovy), tour company offices and a ferry terminal.

There’s also a pub, the exotic-sounding South Sea Hotel, where I nurse a beer while waiting to meet Furhana Ahmed. One of several guides, Ahmed is a Kenya-born Briton of Indian descent. After several hiking and bird-watching visits to New Zealand, she settled on Stewart Island a decade ago. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world,” she insists. Ahmed runs Ruggedy Range Wilderness Experience, personally conducting many tours.

Rakiura National Park experiences, I discover, run the gamut from 10-minute ambles to challenging Southern Circuit Track hikes taking six days – and much in between. Gear varies (it’s different, for instance, on Ahmed’s kayaking tours along the coast) but it always includes backpacks, sleeping bags, hiking boots, warm clothing and raincoats.

Stewart Island, often cold and rainy, is mostly covered by lush forest. “I tell people exactly what to bring, as do other operators – and we have some items available here,” Ahmed explains. “On overnight hikes, such as our three-day walk – typically with four to six people – we stay in government huts or tents which we supply.”

As I gaze across Paterson Inlet, where pristine forest meets glistening sea, Ahmed reveals one of her most popular tours is to 270-hectare, bush-clad Ulva Island (all but seven hectares within Rakiura National Park), reached by a 10-minute water-taxi trip from Stewart Island. Much of Stewart Island’s wildlife is seen more easily on Ulva: fur seals basking on rocks, glistening dolphins arcing in and out of the nearby sea.

Ulva’s tracks wind between giant trees, ferns and mosses. Birds – which I’ve already seen on Stewart Island but are more frequently spotted here – include the kaka (native parrot), kakariki (native parakeet), robin and bellbird. But most of the more than 30,000 visitors a year want to see the kiwi, New Zealand’s national (and flightless) bird and a symbol of the country. New Zealanders call themselves kiwis – and savvy marketers renamed Chinese gooseberries as kiwifruit, engineering an export success.

Kiwis in Rakiura National Park (including Ulva) are Stewart Island browns – but only ornithologists can tell the difference between these and those elsewhere in New Zealand. I hear kiwi calls, then suddenly spot three foraging where forest meets the sea. They’re odd-looking: bigger than chickens with long beaks poking from fluffy bodies. Shy and nocturnal, they live up to 40 years, and the dominant females are the biggest.

Most visitors base themselves in Oban. Three of the best places to stay, small properties furnished to five-star standard, are:

Stewart Island Lodge (tel +64 3 219 0079; www.stewartislandlodge.co.nz)

Rakiura Lodge (tel +64 3 219 1003; www.rakiuralodge.co.nz)

Kaka Retreat (tel +64 3 219 1252; www.kakaretreat.co.nz)

For tours: Ruggedy Range Wilderness Experience (tel +64 3 219 1066 or +64 274 784 433; www.ruggedyrange.com)

HOW TO GET THERE

Karijini National Park: Fly to Perth, connecting to domestic flights to Paraburdoo. There, rent a car at the airport for the 100km road trip to Karijini Eco Retreat – or arrange transfers with the resort. Alternatively, rent in Perth and drive just over 1,100km on asphalt via Tom Price (the closest town). Cars can be used within the park but most visitors prefer tours with driver-guides.

Rakiura National Park: Fly to Auckland, connecting to domestic flights to Invercargill (via Christchurch or Wellington). From Invercargill, it’s a short flight to Stewart Island. Alternatively, travel 30km by road from Invercargill to Bluff, where Stewart Island ferries depart. Foveaux Strait is sometimes rough, making the flight a better choice for seasickness-prone travellers.