Godwits and Other Things

I’m trying to figure out some way to make the photos in this entry relate more to the text. These blogspot people don’t make it too easy, although I expect a person a little more net-savvy could figure it out. If you’re like me, you probably only look at the pictures anyway.

Yes, indeed, the Bar Tailed Godwits have left the Farewell Spit in Golden Bay and are somewhere in the air on their way to the Homer Spit in Kachemak Bay. For those of you not hip to the habits of the Godwits, they are thought to be the longest migrating bird, covering 11000 kilometers and don’t stop much for refueling. Maybe it helps to have “God” in your name. If you see the Godwit from this photo on the Homer Spit, and can prove it, you will win an all-expense paid trip to New Zealand and a free car.

If you didn’t know about the Godwits leaving, you probably didn’t know about the Golden Bay version of the Worlds Naked Bike Ride either. And if you think this is a figment of my imagination, as my mother-in-law did, see the related photos, and if you have small children, you might want to drape a hanky over the screen. The local event drew about 100 people…pretty much all ages and stages of dress and undress.

As you can see from the photos, there was quite a variety of costumes, not to mention body styles. Most actually rode bicycles, but a small group just carried bike tires…not sure of the story behind that. This ride is part of a small-but-worldwide movement to reduce dependence on oil, promote bikes as transport and, I suppose, to just wander down the street naked in front of a lot of people without being arrested. No, Chris and I didn’t participate this year except as voyeurs, but no one seemed to mind. I actually had my bike there, in the car, but as it was last-minute, I hadn’t brought anything to wear.

For the Homerhoids that know Judith Rothstein, we’ve been seeing quite a bit of her. She works part-time at the same place as Chris. In fact, as I write this, they are together at a drumming, chanting, dancing, singing-thing, celebrating the equinox…either the vernal or the other one. One of the photos is Judith and Chris walking on a beach. Looking at the photo, the house Judith lives in is built in a cleft on the high rock at the left of the nearest ridge in the background.

Last weekend, the 3 of us took a tour of Farewell Spit, a 30Km sand spit that forms the northern boundary of Golden Bay. It’s a sanctuary, and private parties are not allowed to go on the spit without forking over a hundred-bucks-a-head to one of the two tour companies licensed to do it. They drive fat tire-d buses and only go at low tide so the next tide washes away the tracks. The $100 did get us a driver who is a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge of the Spit, having been leading/driving the same tour for over 20 years. Did you know that the Black Oystercatchers mate for life whereas the other Oystercatchers, which actually have a more specific name, don’t? I didn’t think so. We went out 26 miles to a lighthouse (see photo) for tea and back to an overlook which is the northernmost point on the South Island (see other photo). There's an interesting story about the trees around the lighthouse. It seems that a guy named Jim, who worked there in the 1800's, and whose job it was to ride a horse to town and pick up the mail once a week, thought it would be nice to have some shade out on the sand spit, so each time he brought the mail out, he would also bring a couple bags of dirt. After a few years, he started planting trees, which took off, and eventually, the needles began creating even more topsoil. So now, there's a pretty nice patch of forest. Jim was one of your long-term thinkers.

We’re still trying to make friends or at least meet people who will know our names so that when our real friends come here to visit, it will appear that we have Kiwi friends, too. So far, besides the people Chris works with, we’ve met several others including the 3 women who work at the hardware store, the guy at the bike shop and Peter who hands out free samples at the local winery…not that we hang out or anything.