Fri Nov 18 Pelorus Rural Mail Boat

Today was a lovely and relaxing day. I took the Pelorous Sound rural mail boat. It is a boat service that is almost 100 years old and has been delivering mail, groceries and the odd bit of livestock to people who live in remote areas of the sound.  Mail is delivered to their jetty once a week, and today was the long route, and we delivered to about 8 different places.  While the sound is beautiful and the wildlife is fascinating, and it is the perfect place to farm green mussels, I don’t think it would be the life for me.  Some places were working farms, sheep, cows, mussels.  Others were caretakers of high-end resort homes for people to come and get away and have a LOT of privacy.  We had magnificent weather and we did see some wildlife, a fur seal, the sea birds, etc.  We didn’t run into any dolphins, but it was a nice ride on a boat.  If I had to do it over again, I would have chosen a shorter route, or have brought a book, because frankly, you see it all on the outbound journey and it is a little redundant on the return, but it was still very calm and easy.  After getting back to Havelock, the port, I decided to try the green lipped mussels, even though I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t like them…I got the sampler plate because I wasn’t sure how I would like them. I had 10 of them, and was able to make it through 6 before giving in.  I just couldn’t do it.  Flashbacks of when I was trying so hard to eat Maryland blue crab filled my mind, and the thought of what innards, etc. I was eating turned my mind, more than my stomach, off to what I was eating. I retreated to fish and chips (which were yummy) and got on the Queen Charlotte road to Mapua, just outside of Nelson…quite a big city for these parts.  Tomorrow I am up early for a sea kayak and hike through Able Tasman national park.

   Havelock pier

The water of the sound farthest in from the ocean was really muddy due to the recent big rains and the mud which comes off the hills.  The hills are harvested for pinewood, and it is a really controversial topic; there is an organization going around killing all the volunteer pines which grow in the native canopy because their needles drop and make the soil acidic and nothing else can grow.  so there is a 40 year long project to kill the trees.  Meanwhile, our guide said that when all is said and done with the harvest each tree only brings $1 profit...which seems amazing to me. I am sure if i were to ask an owner of a logging company what the profit was it would be a higher number.  Still, it does some serious damage to the overall environment.  The mussel farms are affected and harvesting can't happen when the water is this filled with gunk.

A green mussel farm's floats

One of the stops

A fur seal lounging on the floats

One of the stops; this was a family run venture.  One brother looks after the mussel farm, one looks after the sheep farm and the sister of the family looks after the guest lodge.  The first brother and his wife have 6 children under the age of 9...and they live in this super remote place.  I think it would be quite the challenge to raise a family out there...but it is kind of like being on the frontier back in the day, it can be done.

Bindi, one of the mail women/tour guide/boat captain...super nice, bubbly and fun.