Someplace hidden

A few entries ago I recommended keeping an eye on Barbara and Wally's Web site, a Canadian couple cycling recliners around New Zealand.

Their photos and experiences keep getting better and better, but what tickled me in their most recent entry (p12), is that during their tour around Stewart Island, NZ's "third island", they bumped into Tom Hennessy.

Tom, of course, is famous for his Hennessy Hammocks, loved by kayakers (and others) around the world. I have a yellow one - to match my boat - great for emergency purposes if waved about; probably not so hot for stealth camping.

An American transplant to Canada, Tom now lives half the time on Stewart Island during the southern hemisphere's summer and cold, wintry months of British Columbia, and heads back to BC for the northern hemisphere summer.

It's a small world.

Kiwi bird

I thought folks may like to see what a 'real' Kiwi bird looks like - the feathered variety with long beak rather than the one with the ski-jump nose (or Cape Cod look-a-like, as my 5th form geography teacher once described it).

The Kiwi's the sole survivor of the now-extinct moa - both flightless. If you'd like to read more on the moa, Mike Dickison, a fellow Kiwi at Duke, has an excellent web site.

The shot above was taken on Stewart Island, NZ's 'third island', right below the South Island. My brother-in-law, David, was on a deer hunting trip with a group of mates.

Here's also a shot of a local crayfish (kōura). You don't normally see them this size further up the two islands (the 'mainland'). What a feast that must have been!