I hope you all enjoyed Adelaide’s sea lion adventures. Happily, they all came back in one piece.

From Disappointment Cove, we made our way around Port Pegasus clockwise from south to north. There were lots of little nooks to explore and several hikes to take. We made it to the top of Bald Cone which was a great view. The hikes here are not well marked so we had difficulty finding the trailhead to Gog, a beautiful granite mountain which we will have to catch next time. We did however find the trailhead to the Tin Range Track. At the beginning of the hike, a prominent sign stated that this track was not being maintained and may not exist. Contrary to this, we found the track well maintained and reasonably easy to follow. The girls were a bit annoyed as it was Monday and we were taking them away from their school. That is not a joke, they were actually annoyed with us! But their spirits lifted when, in the middle of the hike, we got to see a Stewart Island kiwi lumbering along the track! Adelaide spotted it and cried out “KIWI!!! SHHHH!!!” after which we all silently stalked the busily eating kiwi as it made its way along the track and into the forest. We all felt very fortunate to see a kiwi in the middle of the day as they are usually nocturnal. The Stewart Island Kiwis are larger with a longer beak. This particular one almost looked like a porcupine from behind.

Our fresh stores are dwindling as we sail north along the east coast. We are almost out of eggs, the potatoes are gone, all fresh fruit and most of the veg is eaten up as well. We are also getting a little itchy to get some wifi, talk with family and figure out what our next few months – and maybe years – will look like. The next bay north is reported to have some cell service and a serviceable, if small, grocery store.

But, until we reach wifi, we are not worrying about it. We are enjoying the plentiful fish and the beautiful scenery. We also managed a little social time with our friends Robyn and Mark on Mintaka. We knew they were coming down this way and were really pleased to be in Lords River with them for a few nights. We had a delicious fish fry with them a few nights ago before they continued on south. We also ran into our friend Rodney on Strannik. We had the very good luck to meet Rodney in the Bay of Islands last winter and he gave us tons of information about Fiordland and Stewart Island. We’ve relied heavily on his guidance and it was so wonderful to see him again.

Tonight we rest in the Bosom of Abraham, a lovely anchorage with white sand beaches tucked up in Port Adventure. It’s a very fitting place to be as Holy Week begins. Cameron and the girls just came back from fishing and have caught dinner: a blue cod and a few wrasse. They bring tales of very curious sharks which we’ve seen quite a bit of down here. We are looking to stay here for the next few days as there may be some rain coming through. The girls will be happy to have a few days to finish up this weeks schooling and I’m sure Cameron has a boat job or two to keep him busy:) —–

At 3/26/21 19:31 (utc) our position was 47°03.67’S 168°10.22’E