The Road

It's been a while since my mind has been so free of life's obligations.  My best time for reflection on life has always been during quite times either in wilderness or on the road.  It's great to be able to spend so much time with my wife. 

We woke early and I run down to the service station and leave our tire to get it plugged, come back and head down for breakfast at our B and B pub...this was the heartiest and best breakfast we've had.  Big Boy real Bacon, two poached eggs, coffee, orange juice, toast....all included in the room price from Mag, the part Maori owner.

We clean up and leave.  I get down to the station and request to use a "proper jack".  They let me pull in and give me access to the shop...I think partially to see how I handle myself with their equipment....

Tire is changed and the service guys come out and start to bullshitting....we get told about the best coffee in the south and get wished well upon our way.  On the road we find an old abandoned part of a town.  Kristie takes pictures. 

An unmade bed in a ghost town.

We then find the coffee shop.  Even though I am full from breakfast I order a sausage roll.  Kristie and I have found so many things to do on this vacation that we have not spent any money on restaurants, so I need to make up for it, hungry or full I will do my best to eat.

The Sausage Roll. (i.e., mom's meat loaf wrapped in puff pastry)

Moment of anticipation.

The view is even more comforting than the sausage roll and coffee we enjoy. This weathered tree makes us grateful to be inside where it's warm and out of the wind.

We drive for two hours in what would be the Midwest of New Zealand...it is lush and green...the farms come slowly up, one after another in the rolling hills...there are many trees and many creeks...it is a soothing place to drive through.  It reminds me of a time long ago...a time when I could spend days on the lake swimming or I could drive for hours contemplating life without wondering what is the next move to get ahead.  This is very peaceful.

Kristie's stomach hurt a bit, probably from the milk in the B and B fridge, which I did not drink, so we pulled over by a river and I fished for half an hour.  I caught a small brown on a streamer, Kristie rested, it was good.  I came back and Kristie felt better so we kept going, down through Invercargill going to Curio Bay. We stop at a beach along the way in search of gifts from the ocean, and of course, jade.

Splish, splash.

Shameless warrior pose.

Boys will be boys, and gulls will be gulls.

Collecting gifts from the sea.

These last days decisions have been made by a coin flip.  Heads this, tails that.  We are satisfied with our trip so far, so neither one of us can make a good decision on what to see and what to skip.  The coin told us to go to Curio Bay, a bay which at low tide exposes a petrified Jurassic forest and is a resting place for Yellow Eyed penguins at night.  We make it down to porpoise bay, rent a quirky cottage right on the beach and walk to Curio Bay.  It is way cool - old petrified stumps and fallen logs.

Petrified forest as the tide recedes

Petrified stump

Black Stilt (I think?) forages in the ancient mineralized forest

Petrified log.

Petrified lovers. Aww

I imagine it must have been a big flood to suspend these trees the way they were. The sound of the water, the moisture in the air, the setting sun....everything is perfect.

The crowds gather for the penguins to come ashore.  I am way excited!!! We wait, people are loud, I bet the penguins hate it.  Finally one pops up.  A group of tweens, who previously were throwing rocks and bouncing them across the million year old petrified forest (poor parenting) make a run to the penguins.  They come to shore every night to clean their feathers and tend to their young in the nests.  All the commotion makes me feel bad for the penguins as they are now a spectacle and cannot just be penguins.  We view them from very far away, take a couple of poor photos and decide to beat the crowds and go back to the cottage.  I build a fire in the wood stove and we enjoy the night.  It is so nice to be on the beach.

Yellow Eyed Penguin emerges from the sea, making its way to the hills for the night.