....early in the morning, just as the day is dawning, he picks up all the mail bags in his van.

Today’s Tuesday;..... Tuesday’s soup! Is everybody happy? You bet your life we are! Sorry about that I just saw some new scaffold this morning and wanted to share it with you! Sorry! Scaffold was a group in the 60’s with Roger McGoff, and Paul Mc Cartney’s brother whose name escapes me. Sorry! Yet another senior moment. Where did I put those pills?
Probably in your left hand shorts pocket – with the lens cover you’re always losing..that’s where we usually find that! Have a look...got them? OK, take two now and then carry on....
We are booked on the Eastern Bays mail run. This post bus is licensed to carry and delivery post for NZ Postal Service and for the likes of DHL. It also acts as a School Bus, which is why it runs from town at 9:00am and not before. Robin (sorry once again, not Pat) is our driver and guide and he hates cats with a passion, hence we do not have a black and white cat aboard.
NZ as you may have already heard from us does not have any native land mammals except two small bats (the table tennis bat and the slightly larger cricket bat).

GROAN!

As a result the native birds don’t fly as they had no need to. When the Maori first came to Aotearoa (spelling might not be quite right; must do better) they brought with them the Polynesian rat and dogs. These found the native birds very easy game and so the Moa and Kiwi etc who for millions of years had inhabited these islands suddenly were up against predators including man and because they had no fear were easy picking. OK, it’s not bash the Maori day the Europeans did no better introducing rabbits and hare and deer and...do I really need to go on? So the rabbits get out of hand so the stoats are introduced. These are smart creatures! They were introduced to kill the over population of rabbits, but found the birds didn’t run, let alone fly off. As Robin, who worked for 25 years in DOC (Department of Conservation) puts it,” since man came to these islands everything’s turned to custard”.
Where was I? Oh yes, the tablets. No I’ve done that bit! This is why Robin hates cats.
The trip is scheduled to take 5 hours and will be delivering and collecting mail, over a distance of 120km. We will access remote bays and hillsides often on gravel or un-metalled roads. We are to see some stunning scenery once again and drive on the narrowest two tracks road without crash barriers (except in the worst situations 2x2 wooden posts with No 8 wire) and a precipitous drop that you can only imagine in your dreams! To be fair, until 1948 (when the mail boats stopped running), there weren’t the tracks which later became roads.
The Banks Peninsular was formed from volcanic activity. Wind and rain erosion over 10 million years has reduced the height of the mountains and we will be driving around the rim with Akaroa Bay the caldera. So the roads are hugging the side of the old volcano or the flows all the way. It is spectacular, if rather desolate of trees, leading to more erosion. And guess who cleared the trees? The Europeans! Well the natural bush is being allowed to grow back in some areas, so there is hope, but the cloud forest climate has for the moment been lost and along with it much of the flora and fauna.
We stop in a bay for “Morning Tea”. This is like evening tea but less sumptuous. Remember the green lipped mussels and the kayaking – that was morning tea. Today we have tea, tomato and pesto sandwiches, cheese and biscuits with cucumber and pineapple relish, or tomato chutney and plum cake, all made and hampered up by Robin’s wife. And guess what, she puts in a mug with cats on it which Robin some how gets!
We call at a number of places and this gives a chance to stretch legs and talk to the people where we stop. One such place was a stone Anglican church built single handed by John Menzie with some incredible stone and wood carving. When you try to imagine the toil required it makes you humble.
In a similar vein a Russian Orthodox church is being finished in Le Bons bay by a family who actually live in Christchurch. However, labour from Russia has been brought in to cut the wood in the traditional fashion for a 15th century Russian Church. There are apparently no nails being used in the construction.
We return to Akaroa at about 2:25pm, a little later than planned, but having had a fascinating insight to life in this tiny community of 2000 people covering 100,000 hectares.
A high tea was called for since we needed to have a drink, and some food in the shape of sea food chowder, and spicy wedges with cream cheese also arrived to share. We really couldn’t have managed one each.
Margery is sunbathing and also sewing just to prove she is still capable of multitasking, whilst I am sitting here exercising my grey cells and blogging. Tonight is our 41st night in a tent and we are expecting a fresh south easterly with rain to hit after sunset. Wind speeds are predicted to be in the gale force region so I hope our little tent survives. If not, there is a car and a TV room which will both be a respectable port in a storm. We’ll see! It is reasonably calm at the moment and the cloud is building in the south-west, so......”It’s good night from me”, and it’s “ goodnight from her”.
Oh yes, the washings almost dried. Sorry, I can’t tell you what the censored paragraph was that prefaced this statement, but Margery has a silly grin on her face when she thinks about wot I rit.
Mmmm..definitely not for public consumption!
Philias says he has had no input in this blog and is getting sidelined. He does not look very happy. In fact he looks like a bear with a sore head. That will teach him not to go budgie jumping!
Perhaps it will also teach him not to try and “jump ship” like he did yesterday..personally I think he might have been after a NZ lady bear...but I’m not sure that the nose dive onto a concrete wharf did him any good. Many thanks to the kind Kiwi guy who saw his efforts and returned him to us...leave the ladies alone, Philias!
No, Margery, that’s unkind! Philias doesn’t look like Pudsey, and you can see you’ve really upset him now after you said that nothing would be said about bear assignations.