Last Light Lodge

Before we left on our Port Craig hike, we’d gotten word back from our hoped-for wwoofing host in Tuatapere. He was full up, unfortunately, but had a “friend who just opened a backpackers” that needs lots of remodeling and TLC. Locals pointed us in the right direction in vague ways, recalling many a set of directions I’ve received traveling in Latin America — the place was “just up the corner there.” We manage to pay a visit before hitting the trail and decided we’d be down for a few days of work trade at the Last Light Lodge.

Tuatapere is the farthest south, farthest west collection of people on the south island, and so it is the place where the last wisps of daylight can be seen each evening. Craig, our host, is a laid-back music lover who manages to look a bit French with his gentle features, worn jeans, plaid overshirts, and olive green railroad cap. He’s also a chef, among other things. He’s talented enough not to have to throw in heaps of butter to get his creations past the taste test. I’m sure the cafe he is opening will be a roaring success!

We told Craig we’d arrive Saturday morning. Friday evening, however, saw us off the trail before sunset. Given the come-and-go impression we’d gotten when previewing Craig’s place, we turned up early to see if he might agree to adjust our arrival date. He welcomed us, and we cracked into a great evening with a few bottles of wine.

During our preview visit, Craig had given us a tour of the expansive property while explaining his many visions for improvements. He has a great eye for detail and overall flow — I’d love to see the place when it’s finished! We chose the “fence project” – a bid to narrow up one of the entries to the property and provide privacy for the main house. Instead of fence posts and cross braces with fence boards nailed on, this creation was to be panels of corrugated metal. I couldn’t see how we were going to get an attractive outcome with these materials, but I thought, “hey…. it’s not my fence!”

Pat and I set to digging post holes with a heavy pinch bar — pounding through the asphalt and digging down 500mm. Lots of measuring, concrete mixing, measuring again, leveling, wiggling, adjusting, and more measuring later, we had finally cemented in a respectable number of fence posts! It

was my first construction project using the metric system, and I would love to never go back. Measuring in millimeters (said “mils”) is where it’s at! At some point in our post-setting, it was decided we should start assembling some panels to be sure our calculations were spot-on. Craig borrowed a nail gun that would shoot galvanized nails, but the cartridge was the wrong model. Stuck with nails meant for a gun (no other galv available) we cursed our way through many bent nails and we put up panel after panel. As I should have know, the fence looked pretty sharp when all was said and done! (or rather, when we ran out of corrugated sheets).

Fun times at Craig’s also included excellent muddled vodka drinks, including kiwi fruit and feijoa, under the pretext of using up a failed jam experiment, several evenings worth of movies (to include Bruno), a night of pictionary, a Saturday evening on the town where a local rugby player took off his pants to show me his injuries, and getting to meet Craig’s brother and his son — in town on a deer hunting mission. They managed to spotlight five deer before having to head back north. Hopefully we’ll get to visit them as we wander northward!

Toward the end of our stay, we took the afternoon off to explore the local limestone caves — a favorite pasttime of mine. Managing acrobatic feats in the face of possible peril is great fun on its own, but the caving experience was topped off by a local natural phenomenon — glow worms! These larvae live on the cave walls. Sort of like a spider, they dangle a whole mess of sticky threads a few inches from their tiny

bodies. Then, a chemical reaction at one end of the worm causes it to glow an awesome, bright green — a pinpoint of light the same color as a traffic light. In theory, flying insects are attracted to the light, get stuck in the sticky threads, and are reeled in for lunch. In the dark, a ceiling full of these glowing pinpoints looks like a surreal night sky — very cool!

All in all, I would highly recommend that one and all will make or break a stop over in Tuatapere based purely on accommodation choice.   Last Light Lodge is where it’s at!

Photos of the red-head who took his pants off at bar (and other things) by clicking here.