My tribute to Lyall Campbell RIP

I've travelled with some pretty awesome people on my journeys, and one of the awesomest was Lyall Campbell of Hawea, who recently made the final journey exiting this realm.

At the helm of Elwing in Port Pegasus autumn 2006. She was in her element on this trip... the chance to realise another dream, another expedition. I took this shot just an hour after our return from a traverse of Bald Cone. Not a large mountain by any means but considering the latitude, the route and her age.. well it was a great day out...


Bald Cone...


The day before we'd been on Magog, and that was a long way! Here she is trundling along - the one with the stick...


Gog on the left, Magog on the right...


The view from Magog - our route from Port Pegasus. That's my son Dougal there age about 13 yrs. Lyall in her seventies was an example to us all of what a postitive attitude and a steady pace is all about...


I found her to be the perfect expeditioner: thoughtful, considerate, kind, witty and wise. When she spoke it was always to give us gifts and insights...


Many years ago this was the country, the Olivine Ice Plateau, she chose for her honeymoon with her late husband Bruce...


She squeezed in another expedition in 2008 to Preservation in Fiordland - here she is in the center seat flying out. She was so so delighted to have lived yet another dream - a bonus one I think was how she saw it...


Preservation Inlet - the landing beach that gives access to Puyesgur Point lighthouse. Fiordland National Park...


The view west from the historic Puyesgur Point lighthouse...


I first met her at the Snow Farm, where she was always a real "ski friend" to everyone, adults and children alike. She'd spend hours passing on what she'd learnt about the complex sport of nordic skiing, and being a retired teacher she knew how to do this. Here she is racing in about 2005...

Bye for now Lyall, and thanks not only for the times in the hills, and the inspirational way you grew old, but for the cups of tea, friendship, and home made bread. I for one am going to miss you

See more on Preservation Inlet here

Autumn - a time for reflection perhaps?

Yesterday I took a long walk on a new walkway that follows the Hawea River from Albert Town to Lake Hawea, and I marvelled at the far-sightedness and investment of a Trust that created it from go to whoa, inc. a very substantial swing bridge...


Yesterday was also the day our New Zealand National Govt. unveiled plans to mine in our National Parks. Predetermined plans at that, it seems!

Unlike Lake Wanaka I find Lake Hawea has a real sense of rawness about it. It maybe autumn though, but we're getting a lot of spring [Oct.] like gales at present...


I note that many local Bed and Breakfast operations promote this long walk/ride overseas. So I truly wonder what is going on if our Govt. thinks it can earn more overseas dollars by destroying our landscape, than we'd get from tourism, which is our biggest earner, and has been for sometime...




Today on National Radio this whole mining thing got examined again - I recall the last time was in the last century, and it was discarded out-of-hand. Yet this time it's spooky - it's the predetermined approach of our present Govt. that does this to me. The focus on the National Radio, of course is Great Barrier Island, that jewel in the Hauraki Gulf, and the nearby Coramandel Peninsula area, both close to our largest city Auckland.

But down here in the south we have a larger jewel and maybe the Govt. hope it'll be overlooked if the hullabaloo is centred near Auckland!

Since there is a following on my blog here of people who enjoy a virtual journey, lets examine Stewart Island / Rakiura, coastline and landscape of our third-largest island of New Zealand.

From Oban, the only town on Stewart Island, to get to Port Pegasus, the southern most harbour, is several hours at 8 knots - two thirds of the trip being in the true Southern Ocean...


This is the shoreline on this long and exposed leg...


There are hazards like Black Rock accentuated by wickedly strong currents, right where the naive would sail, ...


The entrance to Pegasus - a tricky harbour to enter due to severe currents, but once inside there is enough to keep adventurer sailors like Arthur here, and his mates [myself, son and others] busy for a month...


But wait... there has been mining here too. The Tin Range, for example, is not called "The Tin Range" for nothing, but back then the technology was quaint, so there is not much left behind...


And maybe real pirates did use this "Pirates Cove". But today's pirates, if they come, will come in more than rubber boats...


Port Pegasus is a beguiling place, full of history [like Fiordland it was populated early and then abandoned], and is rather ominously a good harbour too...


Ashore it is a wild windswept place of great beauty - essentially wilderness that contains low scrub [wind affected/stunted] and low mountains like Gog and Magog...


On Magog we can see the even wilder west coast - a glimpse to the right...


My son Dougal on Magog, and over his right shoulder.. that is Gog...


Dougal surveys northern Port Pegasus from Magog...


Gog and Magog from Bald Cone which is further south again. Check out the ice sculptured landforms....


And even further south [sth. west actually], there are even more isolated mountains and valleys evident in this amazing wilderness...


Bald Cone...


So this is our jewel of the south - Stewart Island / Rakiura...


Further north in Paterson Inlet there is Ulva Island. An outstanding success in terms of a bird sanctuary. So much-so that thousands visit it by water taxi every "season" [tourism], and many far-sighted visionaries are mooting the whole of Stewart Island / Rakiura be turned into a predator free zone bird sanctuary. I believe this is a possible and an absolutely stunning goal. Sadly though it could be that those who would desecrate that which is a spiritual landscape, will be the predators!

Ulva Island weka...


Govt. eyes up estimated 7 billion

So dear local readers and overseas lovers of NZ, what do you think about mining our National Parks?