Cruising the South by K J Tesar - HTML preview

 

 

 

Chapter Six: The Wilds of the West

 

 

They had barely been back on the road for little more than an hour, when the signposts started. One undertaking of great interest had only just finished, and the next one was right there, just in front of them. Matt was hoping for a slightly less dangerous undertaking, not that they seemed to have much control over that which was constantly being thrown in their path.

‘Even been up on a glacier, Sandy?’

‘No, but I will be soon.’

‘That’s the spirit.’

‘What the fuck are we gonna do about those wet sleeping bags? It’s not really gonna warm up that much today.’

Matt pulled the van over to the side of the road, and stopped.

‘Yeah, you’re right. Hey, pass me the map.’

Sandy opened the map so that they could both have a good look at it. Matt traced the road with a finger.

‘How about this? We have a look at Fox Glacier, then stop for a good cook up. You know, that stuff you like so much. After that we can do a straight run up to Hokitika. We can get a room, or a hostel there. Something with heating, so we can dry out our sleeping bags. What say ye?’

Sandy was on board with the idea.

‘Brilliant! We can have a bit of a night out as well. We should at the very least celebrate the fact that we are still alive, which is by no means no little feat. A few beers could well be called for.’

Matt nodded in agreement.

‘I think I’ll join you on that one. We might even find some good tucker. Pies, anyone?’

They both laughed.

‘Yeah, fuck being a vegetarian.’ replied Sandy, through his laughter.

‘No need to be fanatical about these things. All things in moderation, my son.’

Matt engaged second gear, and pulled back out onto the road. They had hardly gone further than a couple of kilometres when they came upon the glacier. Well, the sign for it at least. Sandy pointed to an entranceway off to the side of the road.

‘Look. That looks like the car park for the glacier.’

Matt glided the van into the car park, and stopped in a spot where he couldn’t be blocked in. Not that there was much danger of that anyway. There weren’t many other cars there. It was definitely not high season for glacier visiting. Only fools, and the carefree, were out and about in such polar conditions. They both grabbed their jackets, and got out of the van, looking for the correct path to follow. A path which was not immediately apparent. It appeared that in general the boys had great difficulty perceiving the presence of the correct course to follow. It was becoming somewhat of a habit for them.

‘I guess we just follow the river bed up, Matt. I hope it’s not too far, my legs are still pretty sore from that bloody mountain trail.’

Matt winced slightly, and laughed.

‘Yeah, mine too. That was a pretty steep climb. The climb to nowhere.’

‘I’m sure that bloody cabin was just a bit further along. We just ran out of daylight.’

Matt eyed him whimsically.

‘Don’t get me started.’

They walked along the trail beside the almost dry river bed.

‘Hey, Sandy, check out this sign. ‘10,000 years ago’, I guess that means that the glacier came up to here back then.’

‘I guess we will soon find out how far it has retreated in the last ten thousand years, then?’

‘Yeah, let’s count the footsteps.’

‘You’re a bit of a smart-ass bastard, you know Matt?’

‘You’re just figuring that out now? Slow learner. No wonder I keep getting lost, following your bloody advice.’

The track went round a corner, with still no sign of the glacier Matt had been expecting to see.

‘Bloody hell, I thought it would be right here. Shit, my legs are killing me. Shall I go and get the van?’

Sandy laughed.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll find someone to help us push it up onto the glacier.’

By that time Sandy had taken as a given that he had completely, and unilaterally, organised the pushing brigade for the victorious assault on the Haast Pass. It had become an established undisputed fact. He merely asked for credit where credit was due.

‘I’m sure you would.’

Matt joined in the laughter. If nothing else it helped to pass the time, as they pushed on with their tired legs. Luckily, for those tired legs, they didn’t have long to wait. The view in front of them had been obscured by a great rocky outcrop, until they walked around another corner along the stony trail. Then the full might of the glacier came into sight. Both of them stopped in their tracks. Amazed. Stunned.

‘Wow, will you look at that, Sandy. Pretty impressive, eh?’

The might, and wonder, of the enormous glacier opened up before their eyes. A gigantic river, frozen in time. The sun, reflecting off the mass of ice, only added to the beauty of the sight. The enormity of how cold the past era would have had to have been to freeze such a mass of water totally overwhelmed them.

‘Matt, how the hell could people have survived in such a cold period? Man, were we ever born in the right period of history.’

‘That’s for sure. Back then it would just have been all about actually surviving. Having fun would have definitely been an unknown concept.’

Sandy pointed to what was essentially a small creek flowing out of the base of the glacier.

‘Look, you can see just a small flow of water flowing out of the bottom of it. It’s not exactly melting fast today. Looking at it, though, I must admit I sort of thought it would be like a big wall of ice, not just this gradual incline.’

The lower part of the glacier was like the smaller end of a funnel, gradually growing in size as it moved up higher.

‘Well if it’s been melting all these centuries it stands to reason that the lower part would be the part melting first. Anyway, instead of going straight up on it, why don’t we stay on the rocky bank at the side, until we get a bit higher up? It would make for easier going than trying to climb up on the ice.’

Sandy surveyed the options. That was definitely the best one.

‘With you there, brother.’

They stayed to the left of the glacier, and walked up the difficult, partly rocky, partly grassy terrain. When they were well up into the higher part of the glacier, they tentatively ventured out onto the ice. It was somewhat slippery, but with their tried and true bushwear approved boots, it was relatively easily navigated.

‘Wow, this is insane!’ laughed Sandy. ‘If the glacier was up to that point ten thousand years ago, I wonder how old the ice is that we are walking on now?’

‘Good point. I would guess hundreds of thousands of years. Maybe more.’

‘Actually it’s pretty easy walking. Quite solid underfoot.’

‘I doubt the temperature is much more than 5 or 6 degrees, so it won’t be melting much in that temperature.’ Matt waved around, with his hand. ‘It’s incredible isn’t it. There are a few people up there, another couple across there, and that’s all. We’re on a glacier, such a brilliant tourist spot, and nobody’s home,’

‘Yeah, if it was in America it would be packed. Thank God it’s not!’

‘Mind you,’ retorted Matt, ‘if it was in America there would be a burger joint next to it, so it wouldn’t be that bad.’

They both laughed.

‘Yeah Matt, every glacier needs a burger bar.’

‘Yeah? Well, tell me that in the same cynical tone of voice when you are eating your Mulligory delight.’

‘Hhhm, good point. Although actually, I don’t know why you always go on about that. I love that stew.’

Matt was never fully convinced of his friend’s true appreciation of his culinary abilities.

‘Well then, today is your lucky day. You will be wishing there was a…’

Just then their banter was interrupted by a piercing scream of pain. Both of them quickly looked towards the direction of the scream. They saw a woman, part of a little group further up the glacier, lying flat on her back, grimacing in pain. She had obviously had a bad fall.

‘Hey Sandy, check out her shoes. Remember those people who die in the bush because they aren’t prepared for the conditions? Put her name on the list.’

Sandy just shook his head.

‘So young, and yet so cold hearted. What did they do to you when you were a little kid?’

Matt ignored the taunt, and pointed down along the slope of the glacier.

‘Hey, shall we do some slippery-sliding?’

Sandy burst out laughing.

‘I can spot a set up a mile away. You would just love to see me fall flat on my arse, wouldn’t you?’

Matt put on the most innocent face he could muster.

‘Now why on earth would I take enjoyment out of something like that?’

Both of them cracked up laughing.

‘Listen, Matt. Let’s get a couple of photos of each other at the base of the glacier, and get the hell out of here. I’m freezing my bollocks off.’

‘Yeah, let’s find somewhere to have lunch. I need a nice hot bowl of the good veggies to warm me up.’

‘Yeah, me too. Shame there isn’t a burger bar here, no?’

Matt slapped his friend on the back, and laughed.

‘I’m sorry, but you’ve come to the wrong country, pal.’

 

With still a good hour of sunlight remaining, the van crossed the Hokitika river, and cruised into the town itself. Matt slowed down.

‘Why don’t we just drive right through, looking for places to stay, and places to eat at later on. What do you ya reckon, Sandy?’

‘Good thinking. Slow it down more, and I’ll keep my eyes open.’

Matt slowed to well under the speed limit as they entered the actual town centre, so they could take in fully the main drag. He assumed that most of the places would either be on the main street, or signposted off it. Sandy pointed to the left of the road.

‘Well, there’s a motel. It’ll probably be a bit expensive, but if we can’t find anything else we can have a look. Hey, slow down, stop! There’s a Chinese restaurant on the right. That would make a good change, don’t you think?’

Matt was in full agreement.

‘Yeah. Can you see if it says BYO?’

‘Hold on, I’ll shoot over and have a look.’

Matt had stopped the van in the middle of the road. It wasn’t worth going through the whole parking drama just for the time it would take Sandy to run across the road. Sandy jumped out of the van, carefully avoided the non-existent traffic flowing through the town, and crossed the road. Matt saw him go into the restaurant. He checked his rear-view mirror, and saw that there were no cars approaching from behind. Still, he wasn’t exactly thrilled about where he had stopped. He was blocking one side of the street completely. When Sandy didn’t come out of the restaurant immediately, Matt wondered if he might have been somewhat tempted to have a quick snack. His impatience grew. Just as he was considering different parking options, Sandy re-emerged, and ran back to the van.

‘Took your fucking time, didn’t ya? Have you already had dinner, mate?’

Matt’s tone of voice displayed all his disapproval. Disapproval completely ignored by Sandy.

‘Actually, I bring good tidings. There wasn’t anything written outside, so I went inside to ask about the BYO business, which they said was fine. While I was there I took the opportunity to ask about cheap places to stay around here. Guess what? There’s a camping ground, with bungalows, just outside town. He reckons the bungalows have wood stoves in them, and warm up pretty well.’

Matt nodded his head in appreciation.

‘Shit, nice one. Well done. Where is this camping ground?’

‘Straight along, just past the cemetery, first road on the left. Which actually also goes down to the beach, so you can have a swim in the morning, while I watch, and laugh.’

Matt again checked his mirror, and gunned the beast along the road.

‘Actually I’d have one now, if it wasn’t so late.’

Sandy just laughed.

‘It’s not as if the temperature of the water changes just because the sun sets.’

‘It’s a psychological thing. The warming power of just seeing the sun. You wouldn’t understand.’

Sandy pointed to the right.

‘Fish and chip shop there, if you want to change your mind, Matt.’

‘Very tempting. Is that the third, or fourth, pub we’ve passed?’

‘Yeah, we don’t need to worry about finding one of them. It looks like they like their beer on the West Coast.’

‘I think they like it all over New Zealand.’

They both laughed.

‘Even some of us Aussies like the occasional drop. Hold up! That’s the cemetery, next street on the left.’

Matt swung the van around the corner, and slowed down. Sandy pointed ahead, on the right.

‘That’s the entrance, there.’

Matt pulled into the camping ground entrance, and stopped in front of the office. He could see that the toilet block was up a slight rise on the right, and that bungalows were spread out here and there, leaving spots for tents in between. He pointed to a bungalow halfway between the van and the toilet block.

‘See if we can have that one.’

‘Why?’

‘Because its parking spot is on an incline, so…’

Sandy cut him off mid sentence.

‘OK, got it.’ he said as he jumped out of the van, and ran to the office.

‘Hey, I’m thinking about you, ya fucking prick!’ yelled Matt to no one.

Matt liked what he saw. The camping ground was well spread out, with lots of trees that would provide essential shade in the summer months. There were a few caravans dotted here and there, some of which looked as if they had become permanent places of abode. One even had a wooden deck built along the front of it. Matt warmed to the idea. It seemed to him to be a good alternative to the renting, or buying, a house dilemma. Shortly the passenger door opened. Sandy was waving a key in his hand, and grinning.

‘All sorted. There’s a good supply of wood in the bungalow, and if we need more there’s plenty just on the left here, after the office.’

‘We’ll be needing more.’

Sandy laughed along with him.

‘That’s for sure. We are gonna stoke that baby up before we head off to eat. Otherwise, we’ll be sleeping just in our clothes.’

Matt glided into the bungalow’s parking spot, and stopped the van. They both went straight in, without their belongings, to check out their new temporary home.

‘Nice one, Sandy. Well sorted. I’ll even let you choose if you want the top bunk, or the bottom one.’

‘After last night’s rock, I really couldn’t care.’

Matt went straight to work, getting the wood stove fired up.

‘Sandy, there’s a length of rope in the van, under my seat. Grab it, and tie one end up there on the bunk ladder, and the other end over there on that coat hook. Then we’ll throw our sleeping bags over it.’

‘On it.’

As the fire took hold, the bungalow, being quite small, heated up almost at once. After Sandy had tied the rope in place, he completely unzipped their sleeping bags, and threw them across it.

‘Actually, the sleeping bags are still pretty dry on the inside, you know Matt. It shouldn’t take too long to dry them out.’

‘Hey, what say we get all our stuff sorted out here, then pick up some beers, and head down to the beach. Before going for dinner we can come back, and throw some more wood in the stove.’

‘Yeah, but how about we do it all on foot? There’s a pub right on the corner, where we turned off, and the beach is just a stone’s throw away.’

‘I like it.’

After finishing sorting out things in their new lavish abode, lavish at least compared to what they were used to, Sandy and Matt walked up the road, back in the direction of the main street. Attached to the pub on the corner there was the usual ubiquitous bottle shop selling drinks to take away.

‘Listen Sandy, why don’t we just pick up half a dozen cans for now, and then when we head up to the restaurant we can pick up some more.’

‘Yeah, that makes sense. Saves us carrying them all over the place. Plus they will stay nice and cool.’

‘Yeah, we wouldn’t want them to warm up in these tropical conditions, right?’

Sandy smiled, and punched him on the shoulder.

‘Exactly.’

While Matt went into the shop to purchase their beer Sandy wandered around the corner, and looked further along the street at the entrance to the cemetery. The whole setting was one of great beauty. There was a tree-lined entranceway, surrounded by the greenest of vegetation, of all shapes and colours. He couldn’t help thinking that it would be a pleasant place for friends and family to visit their loved ones, and, why not? a nice place to spend eternity. It would indeed be the finest of places to rest in peace.

‘Thinking about your mortality?’

Sandy laughed in a slightly embarrassed way. He hadn’t heard Matt approach.

‘Actually I was.’

‘Well, while there’s still some life in you, let’s head down to the beach and get stuck in to some brewskies.’

‘Yeah, you never know when it might be your last one.’

Matt glanced at him disconcertedly.

‘Man, are you fun to be with. I must remember to keep you and cemeteries at arm’s length. They have a bad effect on you.’

The boys made their way back down past the camping ground, and further along the road to the beach. There they sat down on the sand, opened a can of beer each, and looked out at the dusk-filled sky, still emanating the day’s last shimmering rays, as it was disappearing over the horizon, sinking gracefully into the quiet depths of the sea. They were surrounded by almost total silence, broken only by the quiet lapping of the incoming waves. It was a scene not only of great beauty, but also one of great tranquillity.

‘Since we’ve hit the West Coast I think this is the quietest I’ve seen the sea.’ said Sandy.

‘Yeah, strange really. It has quite a reputation for being pretty wild, and stormy.’

‘Let’s drink to quieter times.’

‘Cheers. It’s just what we need, you know? We can probably do with a bit of a break.’ Matt laughed. ‘We’ve had a pretty wild ride of it lately.’

Sandy spluttered on his beer, and spat some out while he was laughing.

‘That’s putting it mildly!’

‘Mind you,’ said Matt, opening another beer, ‘that’s probably what they invented booze for. The perfect solution for everything.’

‘Too right, I’ll drink to that. Pass me over another one.’

The two of them were sitting there serenely, looking light-heartedly out on the ever darker sea view, when the first drops started to fall.

‘Oh, for fucks sake!’ yelled Matt, as he quickly jumped up. ‘Come on Sandy, move it! When it rains down here the floodgates bloody open.’

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the spluttering drops turned into a heavy downpour. The two of them ran back towards the camping ground. They had only been about a hundred metres from their bungalow, but by the time they got back inside, they were both completely soaking wet.

‘Can you believe this shit?’ said Matt laughing. ‘We can’t even have a quiet beer in peace.’

Sandy just shrugged his shoulders, and pointed at the fired-up wood stove, emanating a great amount of heat.

‘It could be worse.’

‘Just my luck, to be stuck in hell with a fucking optimist.’

Sandy was feeling pretty uncomfortable in his wet clothes, notwithstanding the heat in the bungalow.

‘What say we hit the showers?’

Matt was in full agreement.

‘Yeah, let’s grab out stuff, and drive up. Hey, you know what? Now that we’ve got to dry these clothes out too, what say after the shower we just go and get some fish and chips, and some more beers? We’ve got to get things sorted out here.’

Sandy was already pulling some dry clothes out of his pack.

‘Yeah, I’ve pretty much lost the celebratory mood as well. Plus it doesn’t sound as if that rain is gonna ease up any time soon. Remember to stop for some more firewood on the way back in. I think we’re going to need that potbelly stove to be fired up for a while yet.’

‘Yeah, that’s for sure. Like all night long.’

In the serenity and quietness of the early morning, Matt had got the stove fired up as quietly as possible, and was sipping on a nice hot cup of tea. Sandy was still fast asleep, sprawled with one leg actually dangling over the side of the top bunk. Matt had already taken down the dry clothes, and untied the rope they had been hanging from. Inside the cabin it had still been relatively warm from the evening before. Matt, even though he wanted to have a look at the map to plan out the day’s proceedings, was reluctant to open the door, guessing that the incoming blast of cold air would probably wake his friend. In any case he was more than happy to sit back with his cup of tea, and to delve into the book he had been currently reading. Ironically it was a story about a hitchhiking trip made by a couple of friends. A lot of it brought back memories to Matt, who had done more than his fair share of hitchhiking over the years, some of that actually along with Sandy. In fact, reading that tale, and remembering his past experiences, made him realise just how much better it all was travelling around in a van. Even if the van was a bit of a train wreck, it still afforded a lot more creature comforts than just living out of a backpack ever could.

‘What time is it? Where are we? Did we finally find that cabin the ranger told us about?’

‘Well, good morning there. It’s late, very late. I was just about to check whether you had fallen into a coma. Luckily there’s a very pretty cemetery nearby, so it wouldn’t have been all bad.’

Sandy sat up yawning, and stretching his arms.

‘Man, did I need that. What a good sleep!’

‘Did you hear the storm last night?’

‘A storm? Really? No, I slept the sleep of the just.’

‘It was actually pretty wild up until the wee hours, although it looks like we might be in for a nice day today. The sun’s out.’

Sandy looked with interest at the cup in Matt’s hand.

‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’

‘Yup, I’ve got the water boiling.’

Matt grabbed a mug, threw in a tea bag, and poured in some hot water from the billy, which had been simmering away on the edge of the stove. Sandy jumped down from the bunk, and sat down at the small table, just as Matt placed the tea in front of him.

‘Thanks, man. Have we got any biscuits?’

‘About that. What say we head into town, and have a decent breakfast? Probably we’ll be having lunch in the wild somewhere, so why don’t we do breakie in style?’

‘Yeah, OK. Nice one. Actually I’m a bit hungover, so a decent feed would probably do me the world of good.’

‘Brilliant. Let’s sort out everything here, pay the man, and shoot up in the van. We need to put in some gas, and pick up a few veggies as well. You can probably guess what for.’

‘Bring it on brother, bring it all on, but only after I’ve finished my cuppa. This is going down really well. Have I ever told you that you make a bloody half decent cup of tea?’

‘Thank you, kind sir, always a pleasure.’

After having finished their cups of tea, they had made all necessary arrangements for their departure, and then headed back up to the main drag. The tearoom they had found was nothing special. They had tried, in vain, to find a bakery with freshly baked pies, but apparently that trend hadn’t hit the coastal town of Hokitika as yet. Neither it turned out had filter coffee, so with their sausages and eggs on toast they had had to settle for tea. With great dismay for the both of them they discovered that the brand of tea they were served with wasn’t even as good as the one they had with them in the van. To a certain extent they felt slightly cheated, but at least the rest of the breakfast had been well prepared. After having tucked in heartily, and making short work of polishing off all that had been on their plates, they were both full, and in good spirits, ready to face whatever the new day would bring. Matt passed the map over to Sandy, folded to the relevant part of the country they were in. He pointed to where they were.

‘It looks like the road follows the coast up to that national park, which might be a good place for lunch, and a bit of a look around. Then it cuts inland all the way up to Nelson.’

‘Brilliant, let’s take it slow. I really love the coast down here. It has a real wild beauty about it. A special sort of ruggedness.’

‘Yeah, it’s pretty famous for that. With us Kiwis, anyway.’

‘OK, let’s pick up some veggies, fill her up, and hit the road. It’s gonna be a good one today. I can feel in in me bones.’

Matt laughed, as he stood up.

‘I think you might be right.’

The road north delivered spectacular views of the sea, which, notwithstanding the pleasant sunny day which had come out, was pretty rough, with monstrous waves rolling in, and crashing violently onto the desolate sandy beaches. After only a short period the road then briefly curved inland. Ahead of them was a junction. Sandy excitedly pointed at the road sign.

‘Hey look! If we go straight on we would head back to Christchurch.’

Matt, however, swung the van around the corner, going to the left.

‘That, my friend, is the road which cuts right across the middle of the South Island, coast to coast. Unfortunately for us, even though it is indeed of great and wondrous beauty, this van will never be in any condition to traverse it. Even if we had a first gear.’

‘Not even with me pushing?’

They both laughed.

‘Well, I hadn’t considered that. That could be a game changer. Maybe we should give it a try? Shall I turn back?’

‘Nah, I’ve eaten too much to be bothered pushing you and your bloody van. Anyway, how come I got put in charge of pushing?’

‘I tossed a coin, remember? You lost.’

‘You know, I don’t actually remember that.’

‘Oh yeah, that’s right. I did that before going to pick you up. Anyway, same result.’

‘Just lucky for you I have a particularly strong upper body.’

Matt looked across at his friend’s thin physique, and shook his head in wonder.

‘Oh yes, I’m lucky there alright.’

The van crossed a very sturdy concrete bridge, typical of the solidly built bridges they had seen all along their journey, and passed through some flat farm lands. They swung around a curve in the road, and came upon a classic country situation. One that you would only come across in the slow-paced lifestyle of the West Coast. Cows were filing out of a paddock on the left of the road, and were walking along the road in the direction that they were also travelling. Matt slowed the van to a halt, and the two mates jumped out to take in the scene, in all its other-world magnificent charm.

‘Welcome to New Zealand, Sandy. Where else would you come across something like this?’

They both laughed.

‘Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this before.’ laughed Sandy.

‘Actually it’s a bit of a first for me too. Not much of that goes on up in Auckland. Up there traffic jams are altogether another thing. Not too many cows involved.’

Bringing up the rear of the line of cows was a farmer, who, together with a couple of dogs running around, was keeping all the cows on the righteous path. The farmer casually waved to them, as if it was just another day. The two of them casually waved back, as if it was just another day for them as well. They absolutely loved it. To them it reflected the ways of life of a bygone era. By the time the cows had moved into the appropriate paddock, there was only another car waiting behind them, and just one car waiting at the other end. No one had been particularly inconvenienced. No harm had been done. The boys really enjoyed the slow pace of life in the area. Matt waved the other car past, then they got back in the van, and happily continued on their way. Sandy had been absolutely blown away by the whole experience.

‘It’s probably a pretty nice way to live, don’t you think, Matt?’

‘Are you kidding me? No freshly baked pies, no filter coffee. How on earth could anyone live like that?’

Sandy grinned, and flung his head back.

‘Of course, how stupid of me.’

The road diverted around Greymouth, and continued inland for ten, or so, kilometres, before finding its way back to the coast. A further half hour’s drive and they found themselves just where they wanted to be. They were in the lush, green growth of yet another National Park, with many creeks and small rivers flowing down through the valleys to cross over. To their right were the foothills leading up to the great Southern Alps, the mountain range that cuts through most of the middle of the South Island, and to their left there were beautiful sandy beaches interspersed with rugged outcrops of rocks, jutting out aggressively into the sea. They crossed yet a