Our journals say very little about Bruce Bay, and all my pictures were taken within a few minutes of each other: I guess we didn’t spend much time there. That’s Pat and Jim up front.

November 9—An old Cattle Trail

A quick stop at Bruce Bay, and then a drive to the head of an old cattle trail, much overgrown but with all sorts of interesting things to get snapshots of.

It wasn’t the best light for photography, bright sunlight and fairly dark shadows, as you see in the early shot at top left, to the right of here (big image, small); but there was the usual riot of ferns and mosses on the steep banks along the path like ein the middle picture in the left column (big image, small). There were so many interesting things to look at that I lagged behind more even than usual, and I wondered on the walk back over these places whether I may have gotten off the path and chosen rather more difficult footings.

Sometimes I wasn’t so very far behind, as in the bottom picture in the left column (big image, small), where you can see the others of the group at the extreme left of the picture. But I did spend a lot of time snapping shots, like the two in the right-hand column (upper: big image, small; lower: big image, small)

As we walked, from time to time we passed close to a river, as you see in the top left of the group of pictures to the left of here (big image, small), and hardly a quarter-hour later, we had to cross it, on what Nicky called “a real New Zealand swing bridge”. It reminded me of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, except that this was made of steel cables rather than rope. In the middle picture of the left column (big image, small), you can see that there’s no proper flooring, just quarter-inch thick pairs of steel strips bolted together, about a foot wide, with a web of chain-link between them. And it does swing as you walk on it, though when Pat went across, there was hardly any motion at all, either horizontal or vertical. At any rate, Nicky went first, to be able to give us a hand when we got to the anchoring rock at the other end, and then Tom. Then Pat, and soon it was Mark’s turn. Vertigo, begone! He asked me to take lots of pictures to memorialize the event and the achievement; his distress seemed fairly clear to me, waiting behind, but he didn’t freeze, and he kept up a steady pace all the way across. He’s midway, in the upper picture in the right column (big image, small), and at the upper edge of the lower one in that column, you can see Nicky encouraging him on—may be better in the big image than the small.

Our objective was the hut you see in the bottom picture of the left-hand column (big image, small), and we rested there for a little, while Nicky went ahead to check that the path to the river not far away was clear. She came back, and we made our way to a bunch of rocks by the side of the swift-flowing water, and ate our lunch there. Picture of Mark by river’s side below: big image, small.

We stayed there for a pleasant hour, and then made our way back, by the path we had come by. I didn’t mention above that the whole route was mostly rather muddy, and that between the swing bridge and the hut was a little patch of deep mud, true quick-sand really, that we had to be rather careful of. Nicky told us that on a previous Country Walkers trip, one of the hikers had gotten in hip-deep, and then had fallen over to get himself covered in mud to the shoulder. Nicky very thoughtfully asked me to follow directly behind her on the return trip. This was more of an advantage than you might think: I watched where she was putting her feet, and so I got the most efficient path through the sometimes-difficult terrain. It was mostly level, but very overgrown and tricky in places. I had put my camera back into my pack, and as a result I was completely unencumbered. The sign at the head of the trail said that the walk to the hut was two and a half hours long, but we made it in each direction in just about two hours.

Into the bus, for a ride along Lake Moeraki to Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki, where we showered and sat down for supper almost immediately. Most of us chose lamb for the main course, and it was rump cut, all meat, no bones nor fat. And good! Afterwards, the manager of the Lodge offered to take people out to see the International Space Station go overhead, look for New Zealand glow-worms, and look at stars. The Space Station was pleasant, the glow-worms were interesting and plentiful, and Mark saw the Magellanic Clouds for the first time in his life, and was duly impressed.