Page 51 - 2008 NZ Subantarctic Islands

red crowned! Parakeets so near the Antarctic? How

incongruous! Our visit just had to be a marvel and it truly was!

Right away however I must admit to something pretty funny in
retrospect but fairly frustrating in the moment. Kay and I decided

to take the long birding walk which proved to be a trek around the
complete perimeter of the island—about 9 miles which took all of
us about 8 hours to finish. Why did it take so long to walk that

distance? It certainly wasn’t the terrain that was pretty flat.
Though it was overcast and chilly, it wasn’t the weather either.

And we couldn’t even blame the very strong winds because they
were pretty much confined to the headland areas and we were

not always hiking along the coast. No, it was the tall grasses and
the tussocks made of shorter, bunchier grasses that were the

problem. Since so few people visit these islands during the year
that there was no real trail to speak of—we were basically just
bushwhacking over most of the island. Only at the end of our hike

was there a boardwalk about ½ mile long. The long leaves of the
Poa grasses reached out from plant to plant creating “tangle

traps” which ensnared boots and pantlegs causing much falling
forward onto the knees (at least for some of us). When somehow

I would escape the grasses for a few steps, then a tussock would
reach out to trip me up and it was usually successful. I don’t think

I have fallen so many times on a hike in my life, maybe even on a
combination of all the hikes I have ever done! The good thing
about the grasses is that they created soft landings for sure

because the clumps and tussocks were so springy. The problem
lay in righting oneself after each fall. Sometimes I would even

“turtle” and have to figure out how to get off my back and return
to my feet. That was harder than just arising from a “forward” fall.

Kay said my trip (no pun intended) was probably much more tiring
than anyone else’s because I had to get up from being down so

often!
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