Tui, Tui, Tui (Too'-ee, Too'-ee, Too'-ee)

Sat., Oct. 29
Picton is a working port town. Standing in front of the "To the Glorius Dead" arch, which honors the dead Picton men of WWI, looking towards the sound, to the left is the ferry which carries travelers from the South Island to the North. To the right are the tourist boats, rocking in the water ready to transport visitors to hikes, to kayaking trips, to dolphin/seal/whale watching tours (depending on the season), to taxi-on-the-water tours ("your itinerary is our schedule" -read big $$$$) and to private summer lodges/homes around the sound.
The other afternoon when I arrived, after checking out the tourist stores downtown, I heard some very loud laughs coming from a bar on that  street. Thinking that I could find some quiet local folks in the crowd sitting in a quiet corner to perhaps talk and share a beer with, I walked in. Uh, the entire place filled only with men turned toward the door and looked at me. Oops!
Yesterday, I made my way over to the Beachcomber Tour office to book a ride over and pick up from my tramp on the Queen Charlotte Track. Jason, the skipper, told us that he was a Maori (NZ's original people) descendent. When dolphins were spotted  (photo), he stopped the boat for picture taking. Jason said that only 'dolphin excursion' boats were allowed to do this legally, but since he is from the local tribe that believes they are descendents of dolphins, he would just tell whoever inquired, "I'm just out here visiting my relatives". Love it!  The five hour track took me six as I stopped a lot for water, lunch, snacks. Anyway that's my story - the first hour was all incline. (The skipper on the way back said he didn't know the exact degree of incline,but said it was what they call "bloody steep" here!) I guess you can tell by the picture and how glamourous I look in the photo getting ready to board the boat why the conversation stopped when I walked into that bar! One of the men at the boat office had a little dog, Tui, a Jack Russell pup who was as curious about me as I was about its name. This was Tui #1.
At the beginning of the track was a monument (photo) to Captain Cook who was the first Englishman to explore -and name- Queen Charlotte Sound. I guess Maori names were dropped as quickly as as the Indian names for things and places were when the Euopeans came to the US. I'm sure King George III's wife, Charlotte, was pleased, though. On the track were beautiful, almost ethereal, mystical views of the lands around the sound. The 'sounds' were made when rivers there were flooded during a teutonic plate shift between the islands. I  walked alone 99% of the day. There were even a few minutes to meditate in between dodging rocks, roots and low hanging branches and I said prayers for all the people I love, which is you, if you are reading this! After crossing one stream, I could not stop singing, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream." There wasn't much wildlife to scare off with my singing. Bears, wolves, foxes - none of them in all of NZ! There was a weka bird on the trail who paid a surprise visit. He was totally invisible the I popped open my plastic bag of chips! I saw another bird, Tui #2, on the trail flying overhead and I couldn't help, but wondere why that guy named his dog after a bird -?
Tui #3 put all the Tui's together. At the end of the hike, the boat pick-up was at a lodge. When I entered the bar area to get a bite, I saw four pull taps for beer and, you guessed it, one had a picture of a Tui bird on it, so I got to celebrate completing the hike with a Tui beer! Maybe that man will train his little Tui to retreive a Tui from the cooler!

Photos: 1-5 on the track; 6 - the ferry that has train tracks in it and trains just roll on board to go across the strait between north and south islands; 7 -Picton's harbor; 8 -dolphins in the sound; 9 -oops! 10 -  the John Deere label on the catarmaran dashboard on the ride back to town is for my dad who retired from, as he called it, "Deere John".