North and South

There is some truth to the fact that in all of the generations of Proctors
that I probably hold the record for having been the furthest north and the furthest south on the earth of any of the Proctor generation. Shayna
may have beaten me on the south trip but I know that I have the north
trip hands down. Having said all of that I must discuss the southern part
of my perhaps uncontested family record.
We have just finished three days on Stewart island which is an hours boat ride of the southern tip of NZ. Coming to the island was a step back in time. We arrived sunday evening and it was still light so we walked to the hostel which turned out to be a disaster and set up our little room. The room was so small that if mom stood next to the bed she had to move for me to walk around to the other side of the bed. Aptly put, the room was so small you
had to go outside to change your mind. The worst part was the 150 foot hike
to the restroom. Mom did not like that and even after I joked about it she was
not to be consoled. The final details on the room was a move to another hotel with a common bathroom but only steps away.
Sunday evening we walked until dark. There was a sign that said observation rock 1 km. That was an invitation for a walk which frankly turned out to be a bit of a hike with a 30 degree sloped road rising up from the sea to meet the sunset on the west side of the island. Our climb was
interrupted by the sighting of numerous birds. We are not referring to sparrows or robins we are talking wood pigeons, ka ka and all manner of
birds that would have sent John James Audobon jumping for joy. Mom loves the natural touch of our walks and almost has to be dragged away from a bird spotting, a clump of flowers or another scene with interesting or intricate lighting. Our arrival at observation rock produced a view of perfectly clear sky, a clear blue ocean and boats placed perfectly to make the scene appear almost like a set from an epic movie. We lingered at the top of the hill until almost sunset taking pictures and soaking in the sun.
Our next part of the walk took us across town (only hundreds of feet, this place is small, maybe 500 people tops.) to a soccer field, probably more
appropriately, a rugby field. There were birds everywhere and the sun was
still high enough that golden light flooded the scene and made it almost honey like. Shooting birds with my camera is a bit of a stretch if not an outright joke but the light and the scene was so intoxicating that the aforementioned
joke almost became funny.
Soon golden light gave way to dusk and we returned to our little room. We had eaten on the main land but had not brought any food with us except fruit so we both were starving with no way to ease our hunger except to sleep which we did.
I have to comment about shopping for groceries. On any given trip of say
1 hour or more in a foreign country it takes 5 minuted to buy the food and 55 minutes to read all of the labels. The session took about 1.30 minutes with some major compromises on sugar content that we will discuss later. again
10 minutes of the 90 was buying the rest of the time was reading labels. I am becoming a world class expert on food ingredients but still contend that
ignorance is bliss. If it tastes good and you don't feel sick after a few minutes
just eat it, throw the container in the garbage with no thought for what is
printed on the label. One caution, avoid the pet food isle when exercising
ignorance to content.
We had purchased a pound and a quarter box of muselli (NZ granola) and sat down to the table in our emaciated state and just about ate the whole
box with a quart of yogurt. Neither of us said a word we just ate. Oh how sweet it was, literally, this was one of the sugar content compromises mentioned earlier.
We hiked to the other side of the island after breakfast and caught a
boat to Ulva Island. Ulva was declared predator free in 97 (no animals that eat birds or destroy their eggs) but in 2010 a norwegian rat came ashore and now they are battling predators again. NZ had an interesting way or
dealing with non indigenous species, they just kill them and thats that. The world would be a better place without rats so I guess we have to let them
kill the few rats that have sprung up on Ulva.
We hiked all the trails on the island during the course of the rest of the day.
Stopping along with trail was like stepping into a classical concert of birds singing their best. We saw all of the birds that are in the brochure about the island except two. We even saw a Kiwi which is big deal, it was a fleeting glimpse but kind of a kin to seeing the almost famous, probably non existent spotted owl.
We met a few people on the trail, ate lunch on a deserted beach where I
had determined to take half a skinny dip, lower half to let me get deeper in the water to do some underwater filming. About the time I was ready to strip 3 people appeared on the beach, all women to be exact. Having to dive into the
water and swim for the seaweed to protect the hapless women would have
been an ugly experience (for the women). We walked around the point a little ways after lunch and I did take off my pants and walk into the water. It was
so cold I realized that a swim would probably have paralyzed me so I was
grateful I had exercised some caution in my water entry planning.
We took the boat back in the evening...this was a once in a lifetime day.
That evening we ate the blue cod at the hotel, please see my earlier treatise on that.
Tuesday we launched off on what turned out to be a rather long hike. We had determined to go to a shelling beach but when we arrived at the beach it looked like it had been shelled. It was covered with some awful plant life and there were no shells to be seen. I was high tide so they were likely underwater but it was pretty disgusting. To ad injury to insult we ate our lunch there on a clear spot in the sand. I noticed when I sat down that the sand looked like some one had shot it with a shotgun, there were little holes everywhere. During lunch a million sand flies exited the holes and feasted on our tender flesh leaving itchy bumps that will haunt us for weeks. This beach is most aptly described as a dog with fleas.
Rain had threatened during lunch so we had a protracted conversation about whether to head straight back or walk/hike around a point reputed to be one of the prettiest in the area. Mom won and we headed for the point. A never to be forgotten hike laid before us with trees bigger than houses at the base, water so clear it appeared to not be there and white sandy beaches that you only see in postcards, beeches completely free of people, where swimming would be world class were it not for the cold water, see previous
explanation.
We got back to the hotel about 6.15. We had changed hotels at this point. Sat up on the second story. watched the birds, had the sun be our alarm and watched three city guys do a one man job on a sewer ejector pump. I had previously made reservations for another decadent meal and we sauntered on down to the dining room about 7. The sun set while we talked, windows on three sides of the dining room exposed most of the world to our view. The sun highlighted the wate, then the boats, the tops of the hills and finally the clouds. By this time the sun was down we had chewed through 50 dollars worth of out of this world food. Blue cod, smoke salmon, potatoes of the day and steamed veges to top it off. We considered ice cream but managed to resist the temptation to save ourselves for Maurines birthday which was the next day.
We left the dinning room and waddled down to the dock where we took some more pictures and waited for the legendary blue penguins to appear. About 20 or 30 people had gathered and it was getting close to dark when suddenly two blue penguins swam up and came ashore Everyone was
quiet no flashes and were amazed at these birds. They are the smallest of
penguins and unusually cute.
The clock had moved fairly close to 10 by this time, a little light remained, must like you would expect in Donnelly so we waddled back to the hotel and
headed up the stairs to bed. We had walked 6-7 miles that day and had eaten more than our fair share of the world's food reserve so we were tired and ready for bed.
Wednesday started with the shopping. We did not have anything to eat from or with except our sacrosanct fingers so that narrowed our choices
considerably. Peggy had given me monologue about no more sugar as she was suffering a rash so i walked out of the store and let her do the shopping, finding something without sugar is like trying to find a diamond in a 10 yard load of concrete. Shopping and breakfast complete we hired a little three wheeled taxi outift that took us to the otherside of the island where we started another hike. The first trail was the wrong trail and it was pretty
muddy. The second attempt was the right trail which was an old logging
road from a hundred years ago. It took us through the jungle, up overa
hill and down into a bay thqt had served as the shipping point the lumber over a hundred years ago.
Back in town we brought some bread and an interesting can of tuna called tomato and basil. Dipping bread in the can and eating while feeding the
seagulls was an unexpected pleasure.
Back to the mainland today to start the trip north....more later.l


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