We’re just sipping our cuppa in the Shiny Paua hotel, trying to let our wary bones recover after a full day of tramping on the various tracks of Stewart Island. Some of the tendons/muscles can do with a bit of extra recovery time. I sprained my hand when sliding down a slippery slope and Quentin sprained his ankle when hot on my heels (I was worried the last track for the day might not get us back in “town” in time for our 16:50 hrs flight check in).
The bikes we’d rented for the day proved to be somewhat of a burden as there is only a total of 27 km of road surface on which you are allowed to ride them, of which more than half only seems to have one direction: up, and very steep at that.
Anyway, having given the cycling a bash and deciding that walking uphill is our forte, rather than climbing them on, (or was it with?) a bike, we decided shortly after lunch time to return the bikes. We had a quick beer and were off again for our afternoon hike. Oh, before I forget: during our morning hike we encountered what we initially believed to be a Kiwi. Very cute, brown, flightless and totally fearless bird. We were elated! Actually, we were over the moon, which I believe is higher off the ground than simple elation. Who would have thought we’d actually spot one of these in the wild? As it turned out (identified by the barmaid later that evening), we’d had an encounter with a Weka. No less special but this leaves the Kiwi still on the list to be ticked off as having “seen .that”.
Anyway, good day today. Started with a mild drizzle and ended up quite nice with again with plenty to look at and see on the way.
The flight back to Invercargill was uneventful although it left 5 minutes late. As Q and his Blackberry were uncontactable during our stay on Stewart Island, he’s currently catching up on all the missed fun in the office. I’d better have a quick shower and try to do the final washing before we head off into the wilds of NZ the day after tomorrow.
Tonight, X-mas eve, I’ll finally be able to give Q his present. I hope it won’t turn out to be a case of me as the giver liking the present more than the receiver. Right! Time for a shower so we can go out for dinner.
22:10 hrs now and just back from dinner (great again) followed by a stroll through a very drunken town. Don’t think we’ll make it too late tonight. Although.....
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