“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.” Albert Einstein

March 27

We had another wild night of stormy weather. I’m not used to weather waking me up in the middle of the night. When snow falls in Denver, it’s quiet!

The rain had stopped, but it was really windy when we woke up. We had a slow start to the morning, ate breakfast and debated what to do with our day. We walked to the kayak shop in town and got surprisingly good coffee.

Needing more of an outing, we decided to take a drive to Lake Matheson, about an hour drive back up the windy mountain road outside the town of Fox Glacier.

Lake Matheson was formed about 14,000 years ago when Fox Glacier retreated from its advance towards the sea, leaving a depression that filled with water.

It is named for Murdoch Matheson, a cattle farmer during the 1870s.

The walk around the glacial lake was an easy three miles through the rainforest with viewing spots along the way.

On a clear and still day with no wind, the views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman reflected on the brown lake are said to be breathtaking. On a partly cloudy and windy day, not so much. We waited at the viewing point for a while, hoping the clouds would move along. There were blue skies showing over the lake, but not the glacier.

We ate lunch and waited some more. We saw a long finned native eel and were silently annoyed with people feeding it pieces of bread.

We finally decided today was not going to be the day to capture that perfect reflection, so we finished the hike under the canopy of massive Rimu trees and other ferns and foliage and drove back to Okārito.

We ate dinner then Mitch headed out on a solo kiwi sighting expedition. Ian gave him insider info on another site to see them and Mitch set off on his own. I was content with my sighting last night and stayed back to do laundry and pack. Here’s Mitch:

I parked at the entrance to the Kiwi Nature Reserve and got ready to head up the Department of Conservation’s track.

I hiked about 30 minutes deep into the forest through streams, rocks and climbed over downed trees until I came to this clearing Ian showed me on the map. It’s the home of at least 3 known kiwi: Moss, Rico and their new six-month old chick.

I waited there. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited even more as the sun set and it got pitch black.

One hour in and without any sounds of movement, I gave up and tried to find my way out of the pitch black forest.

Luckily, I brought this red head light to help light up the path to find the way, but I thought a few times about news headlines that would read something like, “Stupid American tourist lost on solo kiwi expedition deep in the Okārito jungle rescued by helicopter.”

I thought I was in an episode of Stranger Things, half expecting the vines to come alive. It was a bit spooky.

I finally found my way out and back to the car at the Westland Tai Poutini National Park entrance.

I got back to Tui Cottage and decided that Ian’s magical radio detection unit is likely required for a successful mission.

Nevertheless I got to hear a few night owls and birds. Click here to have a listen. And I got to see some more cool stars again under a full moon.

It’s a good thing there are no predators in the NZ bush. No snakes, lions, tigers, bears or any other bad things that can eat you up. Now that would have made for an even better jungle book story.