So wow. This little island, in the middle of the harbour, is pretty neat. It was historically a quarantine island for animals, including Canadian elk, then an TB quarantine, then an internment camp during WWII, and now it's a scientific and nature reserve.
We got there on Monday, around 10:30 am, and had to go to the "Rat Shack" to look through our bags to make sure we weren't bringing in any pests like rats or possums or seeds. There were another ten or so people getting of the ferry who didn't have massive backpacks or tents, so they got out first, while the ranger, Matt, kept us behind to have a good look through our tents. The weather left something to be desired for, windy, grey, a bit rainy, just your standard spring Welly weather it seems, but we hiked thorugh it up the hill from the wharf to the camp site to set up our tents beside one of the old shower buildings. There are about 30 sheep on the island, used to keep the grass down and as a meat source, that get to eat anywhere there's grass on the island, including where we were to put our tents. I can't say I was thrilled at this, but, you know, such is life, you just deal with it. I was glad to have my tarp to lay down on the ground before setting up my tent, which didn't take too long to get everything sorted, before we had time to explore the island.
We each went on our own as Hilary is pretty speedy at doing things, then Ann is next fastest, and then me, as I am just a slow person, especially when it comes to doing things like packing or getting ready. The other two walked around the island, while I stuck around camp and poked my head in the old animal quarantine building. It was a little bit creepy, just a vacant building; the clang of the steel grates on the floor or the echo of your footfalls was immense; the silence was deafening. There were still some papers in the vets office from the times it was used, I took some pictures as I really like tangible history- it's so much more comprehendable when you can see and touch it for yourself. I am thankful that it was clean in there, however, can't say smelling between 30-130 year old poop is the kind of tangible history I'm talking about! I spent about 45 minutes/an hour wandering about the smallish building, I came across the skeleton of a small, maybe baby, bird in the boiler room at one point, poor guy. It looked like he had just kind of given up on life in that one spot. After I was done with teh building, I went outside and sat at a picnic table and just took it in, wind, rain, and all.
I returned to my tent to chill, ended up having a nap for a couple hours, then we made rice in chicken soup for dinner. As this was cooking, the ranger popped by the window and said that the ten other people, all part of a work group from the Interislander Ferry***, had invited us over to their house (there's a few houses you can rent out for a night or two on the island) for a barbie (aka BBQ) around 6. So we show up, and the first people we saw outside the house were kind of looking at us like we weren't supposed to be there, which was a bit like "Uhhh, the ranger said we were invited over?" We were sent inside to Ray, who as it turns out was the boss of everyone there and he was the one who had invited us over. We sat down with him, made introductions, then we got to to talking about our plans, and he basically wrote us an itinerary for the South Island that hits all the places, and more, that we want to go to! They gave us wine, they gave us food (steak, grilled chicken, bratwurst, and salad), they gave us good talk, hopefully we gave them some as well. The ranger stopped by for some grub too. After dinner, Ray got us talking to one of the Tonys (there were two, also would that be 'ies' or 'ys', it's a name so I'm a bit confused) who is an adventure guide, mostly around the North Island. He gave us a bunch of places to stop and check out here, though he did tell us to avoid the East Cape because it's apparently not the most safe (then the ranger Matt told us that's not really the case, it's just remote, but okay to go to). It's taken a bit of a load off, to be quite honest, what with us scratching our heads and trying to decide where to and how we're going to get there. Now we just have to decide how, which is a toss up between bus and car, though we're thinking bus for cheapness. The thing about the car is the freedom if offers though. Harumph. Anywho, so we were chatting with these people, started trading stories, eventually it was myself, the other Tony, some other people, Ann, and Hilary, sipping wine, having laughs. Around ten, ten thirty, Ann and Hilary went to bed, leaving me to chat with Tony and Johnson. Tony is a 64 year old Englishman from London who's been in NZ for 25 odd years, and Johnson is a 50-something half-Maori fellow. We stayed up until about 4ish, talking about a wide range of topics: government in Canada and NZ, Maori-First Nations, life, sports, food, beer, so many things. It was great! I felt a bit that I had over stayed my welcome, but they kept offering me more wine (I think I polished off 3 bottles by myself, the amount of booze they had, all for one night!) and asking me to stay. It was a great night, I was pissed drunk, but the happy wine drunk, the fuzzy and warm all over drunk, which considering the storm that was HOWLING and BLOWING (seriously, I have never experienced wind that bad; my tent was moved, and the tarp blew away!), it was very much so needed! So I spent the night inside, on a loveseat that was too small (how does this happen with me?), and consequently said "To hell with it!" and crapped out on the tenting and just slept inside for the three nights.
The second day turned out to be amazing weather wise. I walked to the top and around the island, snapped some great photos of the sheep and lambs. It was a super relaxed day, all in all, which I finished off with "A Bug's Life". Oh Disney :).
The morning of the third day, we volunteered patching up some pot holes and uneaven pavement with gravel, which the ranger, Matt, was really stoked about. There was also a group of about 15-20 people from the Australian-New Zealand Bank who were there to volunteer as well. We had thought we might mix up with them, but then it just didn't work out that way. In the afternoon, after the patching was finished, Ann and I decided to chill out at the summit and just appreciate the view and the sunshine, while Hilary, still keen to help out, went and pruned some vegetation along a path. Later, we passed a rugby ball around with Matt, who invited us over to make dinner, drink some beer (homebrew!), and just hang out. Which we did, of course. We looked in his fridge, and seeing he had many eggs and lots of veggies to be eaten, decided on an omlette with mushroom rice (this was our addition). Ann was in charge of chopping veggies, Hilary, the rice, and myself, the omlette mixture. Of course, in classic Alivia fashion, when I set the eggs on the counter to turn on the element, it fell to the floor, leaving a sad, slimy pool of former to-be-dinner. It was a laugh, though I felt silly obviously. Ah well, cleaned it up, and just chucked the veggies in with the rice and mushroom sauce. It was pretty delicious, and we sat by the fire place and traded some stories, and he gave us some more ideas of places to check out, looking at the map. He is a super chill guy, 34 years old, has dreads, and quitting his job as a Department of Conservation ranger to travel around NZ, and then I believe he's headed to North America for an undetermined amount of time. It's cool to see people travelling at all stages of life, keeps me positive that I can be on the road any time I wish :). Anyways, it was about 11:30ish by the time we said good night and headed to bed.
The next morning, I was up around tenish, and had to pack up all my things, which my backpack had vommited up. During this time, Matt brought around Kieth, an older Kiwi fellow who also works for DoC. Matt had told us the previosu night that if we were lucky we would get to meet him, which I've realized is so true over this past weekend. He's a short man, lots of stoires, easy going and extremely kind hearted; because he works at Catchpool Valley, the gent offered to give us a ride out there instead of us having to take transit (which, as it turns out would have ended up in probably 5km of walking with all of our crap!). Just to illustrate how kind this guy is Kieth had said he would try to set us up in a hut for free at Catchpool, and this was within ten minutes of meeting the man! He exchanged numbers with Hilary so we could get that organized when the time came. And then, it was back to the island after a rushed brunch of probably the most oatmeal a la PB&J anybody could ever eat in one sitting before we got down to the ferry and onto the ferry and back to the city.
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