West Coast

---

Luckily, the tsunami turned out to be little more than a high tide. We were a little worried as we watched the news report in a house sitting 4 meters above sea level. I am also lucky to have left Chile a month ago as I see images of places that I've been now destroyed. I actually felt an earthquake when I was camping a few weeks ago in Te Anau. Half asleep, I first thought that people had hold of my mattress pad and were rocking back and forth. Quite a nice experience in the forest without the danger falling buildings.

Along the way up the coast from Wanaka I met up with Vanessa again to do the 3-day Copland Track which follows a river up to the base of Mt Cook and rewards hikers with three natural hot springs at the top. Near the springs is a large hut which contained about 15 fellow bathers. You start in the coolest pool and slowly graduate to the hotter ones. Some went from the spring to the glacial fed stream and back again. It's best to go at night because it's just too hot in the day and the sand flies aren't as active.

I can't believe I didn't mention the sand flies last time! Worse than Maine black flies in the spring and sand flies go strong all summer. The itch of the bite may take hours or days to set in and it's similar to a mosquito bite. So many would be banging into my tent that I actually thought it was raining. Getting out of the tent is reminiscent of the ending to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They aren't the smartest fly though- walk away 10 ft and it takes them a while to find you. Also, when the inevitable few out of the thousands get into the tent they immediately try to escape.

Then I stayed for a week at a beautiful vegetable/flower garden on Sandfly Bay, upper west coast. The owners used to be restaurant owners and every meal is 10-course gourmet. They're house is pretty much a coffeehouse with visitors dropping by all day. The west coast looks much like California with its lasting sunsets over the Tasman Sea except behind the oceanside road is mostly parks rather than houses.

The fresh fruit is incredible, especially the apricots, plums, and peaches. Vegemite on the other hand is the worst thing I've ever tasted. It's malted yeast extract and I mistakenly took it for jam during one breakfast. A fellow wwoofer was dared to eat a spoonful of it for $20. It nearly killed her and definitely wasn't worth the 20.

All the way up the west coast drive you see anti-poison signs. The department of conservation is dropping a poison called 1080 all through the forests to kill the introduced possums. The estimated 20 million possums devastate bird and plant life and need to be eradicated. However, the poison is seriously worrying the local farmers whose produce and livestock may be subject to poisoning.

Some language differences; Shopkeepers ask "are you alright?" which I would take for 'are you sick?' in the US. People here say 'how ya going?' instead of 'hows it going?' And everything here is 'sweet as,' as in "that hike was sweet as."

I'm also learning about Permaculture which is a highly efficient method of agriculture that mimics a forest. Picture an orchard with legumes interspersed to replace nitrogen, food producing perennial plants that repel pests growing below, food producing vines climbing the trees, and chickens running around eating any extra pests. When designed correctly, the only work for the farming is harvesting. Very interesting stuff. Today I start on a blueberry orchard near Nelson.

---