The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island is remote. The informational signs at pullouts keep referencing how much of the plant life here is unchanged since it evolved 200 million years ago when all of the continents were mashed together into a mass we call Godwanaland today, and as you wander around under dense rainforest filled with fifteen foot tall tree ferns and thousand year old moss-covered trees it’s easy to imagine dinosaurs roaming the forest. Meanwhile the Tasman Sea stretches off endlessly to the west, while the Southern Alps rise vertically in the east, and signs of civilization are few and far between. So far, I’m liking it.
The lodging for the night was one of my two splurges on the South Island. It’s located in a wilderness reserve, and I got in a few hikes tonight, including one with the botanist owner who was very excited to share all manner of details about the local plants, ranging from mosses without roots, to a 2000 year old tree, to the sulfur smell of the Easter orchid. Tomorrow I’ll do a few more hikes and some kayaking, and then Gerry is leading a nighttime expedition to see the local glow worms.
This lodge is all-inclusive, including a fancy dinner that is served in a communal dining room, so tonight, after two weeks incommunicado, I awkwardly sat down to eat with seven other people, four of whom turned out to be from Los Angeles. Thankfully I still seem to be able to converse with the humans in a semi-normal manner, but with four more weeks remaining until Audrey joins the trip there is a high likelihood that I may be fully feral by the time she arrives.
Watch out for the bitey sandflies!