Shadow lands cut short. In the days before we left home, to come to this place, we felt it coming. Not like a eerie premonition but more like an approaching inevitability. We had been playing catch me if you can for a while now and it felt like it knew all of our hiding places, our luck felt thin. Once down in this spectacular part of the world it was so easy to forget about it, as it truly was a place to hide. No phone, no internet, no white noise, indeed at first we thought we might even be able to hang out to finish our cruise on Saturday and then head back to the real world. Silly people on a boat in Dusky Sound thinking they have escaped the real Covid world.
We woke to a beautiful dawn where the light was stunning. It was fitting for our finale as the skipper said eat your breakfast and hunker down. He suggested we ate only a piece of toast or some cereal as we were headed up the coast to Doubtful Sound and the helicopters were booked to take us out to Te Anau at 3.30. He also mentioned there was an nice 5-6 metre swell up the coast but it was a following sea and it would be fine. I rushed back to my cabin and grabbed a seasick patch and whacked it behind my ear, even though it said to put it on the night before.
Leaving Dusky
I was sad to leave this place that soothes the soul and cleanses the mind even more so as there was no soothing waters outside of the her embrace. We headed up the coast in the rolling sea and I lie on my bed watching the ocean pitch and roll out of my window. I decide that’s not a good idea to look out so I get my iPad and turn on a a downloaded Netflix and watch the time away whilst sucking ice cubes and breathing 4 in 4 out.
The skipper says we have twenty minutes for a quick fish and only those who have good sea legs are allowed forward. (I know seriously!!) Of course I stay where I am. I get up to take a photo to see if I can capture the swell as it feels enormous and I am envious of those who are able to stay upright, let alone fish. The following photo is taken out of my cabin window with the Molly Hawks and pelicans trailing the boat and I wish I could show perspective of this swell heading towards my window and the feel of the boat rolling over it to sink into the trough of the next one. I go back to lying down.
The sea feels worse when bopping around and I wish we would get moving. The fish are caught quickly, and its go home stay home, so its time to move. I am pleased. We reach the calm waters of Doubtful Sound and I am very pleased.
We have time to make a quick photo op into Blanket Bay and Robb once again makes it come alive with its history and stories.
We keep moving and pass the commanding mountains and landscape which feels harsher than Tamatea and more domineering but still beautiful. The phones begin to ping as the world has chased us down and we begin the arduous journey of trying to get home.
We are all packed and ready to leave as the first of the helicopters descend to chopper us out. They have had a busy day. I am not a fan of helicoptering though the sleet and fog and am grateful when we land in Te Anau. There are no flights to take us home they have long disappeared so we refresh, and book phantom flights that pretend they will take us home but the reality is we can only get home if we live in Auckland or Wellington. Bugger.
I shall finish there as getting home is a whole other story that I don’t know if I can be bothered to write. Perhaps I will write it so it stays in the travel journal for 2021 and can be printed out and read with nostalgia at some other point in time. Perhaps I can find a way to make it amusing and light. Perhaps. For now though its day 11 of lockdown and Atawhenua is still easy to conjure in my mind and when I need to refresh I can look at my photos. It’s magical.