New Zealand post 3: HUNKERING DOWN
Steve is studying the map and I lie down on the single mattress that we’ve decided we’ll both squeeze onto. That’s the last thing I remember. I awake sometime in the dead of night and it takes me a few moments to remember where we are. I feel around for Steve. He’s not there. Ah shame, he must’ve been crowded out and slept on the floor. I doze on and off, listening for the torrential rain that’s been forecast, but so far all is quiet. Maybe we’ll still get away in the morning…and I slip back into sleep, to be awakened next by thunderous rain – maybe not so lucky after all…and back to sleep, to be awakened in the early light by deathly silence – only the odd, fat drop falling from the trees. I look for Steve, who has laid down the blanket I had spied to do my morning yoga on, and blown up his thermarest. He is as still as a rock. I get up and look closer. No sound of air, no rising and falling of breath – shit, did I push him too far yesterday? I am aware that we currently occupy the “drop zone” – that vicarious age between 55 & 65, when seemingly perfectly fit and healthy people just depart suddenly – we have lost a number of friends recently. I peer down and eventually see an almost imperceptible rising and falling. Phew! Thank goodness, better go easy on him. I don’t want to lose my Love and traveling buddy – still far too much to do & see!!!
And the rain comes down again. It’s only 07h15, but I think it unlikely we’re going anywhere today…
08h15, it’s still raining steadily. I brew up some coffee in the jetboil plunger and we dunk a stale chocolate croissant – delicious! We sit in our sleeping bags, chatting away and solving the world’s problems…
09h15, it’s still raining steadily. Steve packs up his bed roll and heads off into the deluge to answer a call of nature. I retrieve the blanket and start my yoga regime…
10h15, it’s now bucketing down. We head to the campsite cafe for breakfast and a change of scenery. Watching the local news on TV, I see a crime scene taped off in a Wellington Park – a fatal stabbing. Hold on, that’s the exact path we cycled on to and from our Air B&B!! I recall asking Steve if he thought it was safe for us to head back through the park in the failing evening light and his answer was “of course, this is New Zealand, remember!” Maybe we’d best not be too complacent, thinking home is the only place where shit happens…
11h15, the rain has abated somewhat, but it’s very dark and the clouds look like they have a lot more to dump. We’re still in the cafe and on to our second breakfast, while we pore over maps and recalibrate our plans, based on somewhat more realistic distances…
12h15-14h15, indeed still lots to dump!!! Boredom is setting in. I try and sleep to pass the time…
15h15, fire up the jetboil to make a cup of tea. While it steeps, go for a pee. Apart from the rain, there’s nothing to see…
16h00, cafe closes at 16h30 and we have no more food, so best we have dinner now and buy some food to go for the road tomorrow, since we plan on making an early getaway…
While having dinner we chat to some locals gathered for a bat-watching barbeque. That’s not to bbq the bats, but to try to spot the bats, while comparing methods for killing the possums, stoats and rats that apparently feed on the bats. It all sounds rather batty to me!
18h15, the sun finally peeps through the clouds and we venture out for a walk in the forest. It is quite beautiful, but there are signs everywhere warning of traps and deadly poison – all this in an effort to exterminate all species not endemic to NZ and to try and preserve the rapidly dwindling bat population, which is ultimately endangered more by habitat loss caused by humans, than by the poor scapegoats that are taking all the flack for it! Yesterday we encountered something similar in the form of a hunter out shooting goats! “Really? Domestic goats ?”. ” Yea, they’re pests. Farmers let them free when they were no longer commercially viable and now they eat up all the natural vegetation. I’m doing me civic duty. I’m not paid for it mind you, but government sometimes gives me a few rounds of ammo…” ” What do you do with the carcasses?” ” Aah, I just leave them to decompose in the forest”. Something doesn’t sit quite right with me about all this, feels a bit like the Fynbos Mafia…One woman actually declares ” Oh I’m a vegetarian. I don’t believe in eating animals, but it’s ok to kill these ones, ‘cos they’re pests”
19h15, we make tea and massage each others feet…
20h15, “Let’s go for another walk. See what the Batty people are up to…” Seems they’re having a bat conference in the cafe, then later, as darkness starts to descend, they all congregate in the parking lot and stare up at the street light with radar detectors held high and cameras at the ready. We park on a bench and await the much-anticipated event, but alas by 21h15 it’s all seeming bat-shit barmy and I’m getting cold. I head back to our luxury suite and prepare to settle in for the night.
Steve is resiliently still out to bat in the parking lot, but my innings is OVER and let’s hope OUT at first light…!
