The memorial to Mackenzie and his dog. Fairlie.
This is Sam Mahon's art work.
Mackenzie was a sheep rustler who became a folk hero.
The sculpture captures him and his faithful dog stealthily shifting sheep
in the dead of night.
The wonderful Mackenzie country bears his name.
I recall too Sam Mahon's book
The Water Thieves
that tells of the effects of dairy farming in the south
causing rivers and water tables to suffer.
Sam loves and cares for this country.
At the beautiful Lake Tekapo there is another monument dedicated to
the faithful sheep dogs of the south.
The Southern Alps are snow covered in the distance
and this autumn day is sunny and clear.
It is a wonderful thing to travel through one's own land
immediately after visiting some other.
My traveller's eyes are still wide open and alert from travelling in Japan.
Our country is of comparible size
but less than 5 million people live here
unlike the 170 million in Japan;
and most New Zealanders live in the North.
It is the open space and wide skies I love down here.
It is so beautiful I feel an ache in my heart with looking.
The stony beach of Tekapo is covered in rock cairns built by passing travellers
and I add my contribution.
See the small stone Church in the distance.
The Church of The Good Shepherd.
The view from inside.
A charming little church.
A service for Mother's Day had just ended.
T he older I become the more I love
the wide open spaces and the big sky.
A land of tussock
and big hills
and mighty mountains.
Beautiful Lake Pukaki
with Aorangi / Mt Cook, NZ's biggest mountain,
in the background.
It always feels a blessing when clouds shift
and a mighty mountain shows itself.
I feel such emotion when I travel through this place.
That a small land of islands can mile after mile
reveal such diversity and beauty amazes me.
"This is my own,
my native land"
wrote Scott.
When the early Scottish settlers arrived in this land
it must have felt a homecoming,
so like Scotland it is.
We stop and add stones to a roadside cairn
to say thank you
for being alive,
for breathing this air,
for the vastness of the sky,
for the absence of human intrusion..
and pray that it stays this way.
