Ship to Shore Four Square

It's been raining steadily for 18 hours which is great for the rainforest and my vege garden. Yesterday, the mud puddles on the drive had dried up and I could walk my boundary without sinking into mud; today I almost have to swim round! I've been taking advantage of the dry weather to get the grass cut so with that done, I can now blog about my new job.

Stewart Island's only general store/supermarket is the Ship to Shore Four Square on Halfmoon Bay, Oban, and Sam recently became its owner-operator. I'm the newest staff member with three weeks service under my belt and I'm enjoying the challenge of working in this busy and fun environment.

Ship to Shore Four Square, Oban, Stewart Island

View of the Four Square (right) and Glowing Sky (left)

The nationwide Four Square family with over 280 stores celebrated its 90th birthday this year. Its founder, Mr J. Heaton Barker called a meeting in 1922 to discuss the formation of a co-operative group of independent grocers. Whilst talking to one of the members on the phone, Mr Barker drew a square around 4 July 1924 and realised he had the perfect name for the group - a store that would stand 'four square to all the winds that blew'. The Four Square stores have stood the test of time by living up to their catchphrases of 'Where all Kiwis love to shop', 'Always welcome. Always local. Always Four Squre', 'Providers of Kiwi essentials since 1924'.

The Four Square stores are locally owned and operated with a commitment to grocery tradition, personal customer service and supporting the local community. Nationally, Four Square support CanTeen, Crimestoppers, St John and VSA; locally, our store gives back to the community in numerous ways including funding traps, holding raffles, watching over the locals, especially our elders of excellence, and going out of their way to accommodate the needs of locals and visitors alike. For over 60 years, Four Square have welcomed babies born on 4 July with gifts; in 1961 it was a bear for every baby and the parents of triplets received a new car. The Four Square website has plenty of news, recipes and competitions - check it out!

Smiling Sam - owner-operator of Ship to Shore

New Zealand's first self-service grocery store was opened in Onehunga in February 1948 by Phil Barker (the Four Square founder's son) and Ray McGregor. Over the years these local stores have had to compete with the mega supermarkets but cheaper pricing often comes at the expense of personal service and community values. I'm proud to be part of a hard-working and supportive team that look after the Stewart Island community.

View of Halfmoon Bay from the shop door

Summer opening hours are 7.30am to 7pm and every day I've worked has been different in some way. Tuesday and Wednesday are main delivery days; pallets and ferry bins get delivered by forklift, manually unloaded and then it's a rush to get the shelves restocked and chilled/frozen goods put in the freezers or cool store. Magazine orders need to be processed, produce checked over and orders packed and delivered. The kitchen makes a selection of sandwiches, savouries and slices, along with a batch of freshly-cooked bread loaves each morning.

Our busy store is jam-packed with stock and even after 4 years of looking, I'm still discovering new items!

Entrance to store at right - there are four aisles plus the produce area

Shelves stocked with a wide variety of goods

Chillers and drinks cabinet line the back wall

Amelie putting up Christmas decorations on one of the produce cabinets

Jules decorating the aisle sign - photo taken from between the two checkouts

Charlie Four Square, or Cheeky Charlie, is a Kiwiana icon along with buzzy bees and jandals. He was developed by the Foodstuffs advertising department in the 1950s and has gone through several makeovers (his hair isn't parted now and the pencil behind his ear has disappeared). A number of artists, including Dick Frizzell, have used Mr Four Square in their artwork - check out this website (opens in new window).

Summer surfing with Charlie Four Square

There is also a Mr Four Square Car (link opens in a new window); a Model T Ford with a 20hp engine that was built in Canada in 1924, the same year that Four Square started. It has been rebuilt and restored by Bob Herron of Mosgiel - wouldn't it be neat to have on the island! Another eye-catching car was captured in a photo which became a popular artwork and makes me think of my friend up north that has it hanging on her wall.

Canvas print of Ship to Shore

The same view in December 2014 - but with no car!

With Christmas just 5 sleeps away, it's going to be a busy but exciting week with the opportunity to spread Christmas cheer and goodwill to locals and visitors. Merry Christmas everyone!

Meet some locals

It might be cool outside but there's still plenty of critters around. I have a couple of items of wooden furniture that are borer-ridden so I should be letting a couple of borer bombs off. Instead, I've opted to remove the adult beetles as they hatch out and put them outside! I think they are two-toothed borer, Ambeodontis tristis (Fabricus) - will have to put a photo up on NatureWatch for a positive identification.

I spotted this chappie (I think it's a crab spider) on the rhubarb but it wasn't until I downloaded the photos that I noticed that there were two critters in the photo...

Spider with lots of eyes - look closely to see his friend to the left

Another spider crawled along the table as I did my Christmas mail...

...it had such a large abdomen that it struggled to lift it at times; what pretty patterning though.

My last critter is a Shield Bug (Family Pentatomidae) sitting on a twig. The first photos are of his/her rear end but I was amused to see a 'face' appear when I downloaded the photos.

I think I've just about caught up with the backlog so my next blog will be about my new job :)

Late Spring orchid update

Visitors, a new job and unseasonal weather have curtailed my orchid watching lately. The early-flowering spider orchid flowers are starting to shrivel but that's offset by the summer-flowering orchids like Thelymitra sending up their flower spikes. They could well turn tail and burrow back into the ground after a cold snap sent us back into winter again! We've had a couple of sunny days in December which everyone appreciated - here's the view of Halfmoon Bay from a friend's house a week ago.

The Chiloglottis (Green bird) orchids have started flowering but I'll have to wait for a sunny day to get some better photos of their fascinating structure.

Chiloglottis cornuta

The greenhood orchids continue to delight with their variety and long-flowering season.

Pterostylis, greenhood orchids

The Earina mucronata (bamboo orchid) clump I'd been watching eventually flowered mid-November and it's another one that needs a brighter light to get the best photos - maybe next Spring will be sunnier.



Earina mucronata, bamboo orchid

Close-up of bamboo orchid flower

Bush canopy in the sunshine

Mare's tail clouds heralding windy weather ahead

Last, but not least are some pics of the beautiful spider orchids...

Freshwater Hut and Rocky Mountain

We had Freshwater Hut to ourselves so were well rested when we woke in the morning. The weather was marginally better and we gathered more firewood before setting off on a day trip to climb Rocky Mountain. It's about a 3 hour return hike but we weren't in any hurry, and with heavy overnight rain we knew that the mud puddles would only be deeper.

The turn-off to Rocky Mountain summit - the right hand track leads back
to Halfmoon Bay via Thomson Ridge

The bush walk, before the going gets steep, is really pretty - lots of crown fern and beautiful trees; not a lot of birdsong because we were talking too much! Native birds appear when you are still and quiet, but there weren't many places to sit that weren't under water.

Can you see the baby kakapo chick in this pic?

The track wound upward and we got a glimpse or two of the surrounding area when the low cloud parted. Frequent showers and hail accompanied us but the sun shone briefly which was worth a photo!

Yay! Sunshine!

Quite easy climbing but watch out for slippery branches and roots

It's hot work climbing despite the hail lying on the ground so I'd taken off a layer earlier in the climb. We reached the summit in time for lunch but in the few minutes that we took to put some warmer clothing on and take a GPS waypoint of the cairn marking the track, we realised that we needed to head back into shelter. After a couple of quick photos and a pledge to return on a sunny day, we headed back down the track to eat our lunch.

Jen and Owen on Rocky Mountain summit (549m) - Mason Bay is at top left

Looking north over Rocky Mountain summit

We thought the going down would be harder than what it was - the mud was soft and deep enough to stop us from slipping so we made good progress back. We got some good views in some places - would be stunning on a clear day.

Looking back toward Mason Bay

Looking down on Freshwater Flats

Slow and steady down the steep bits

My camera battery was getting down a bit so I didn't take many photos of the weird and wonderful plant life. I found this ?lichen up near the summit, along with the thick 'goo' that covered most of the branches up there - it looked like a miniature air vent sculpture!

Wood smoke greeted us as we neared the hut and it was great to meet up with the three North West Circuit trampers that we shared Mason Bay Hut with. They spent two nights at Mason Bay and had a wet tramp to Freshwater with the track knee-deep in water in some spots. We got back just in time to catch Martin (from Czech Republic) and Javiera (from Chile) preparing for a swim across Freshwater River; I reckon that maybe 10 days of tramping makes you delusional! Ondrej (also from Czech Republic) decided it was more sensible to stay dry.



Javi making it safely across the river

Freshwater River - upstream of the swingbridge

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and hearing the stories that go with travelling around the world. It's neat that so many overseas visitors enjoy our tramping tracks and New Zealand lifestyle; what great stories they'll have to tell their families when they return home.

We were joined early evening by 3 more overseas trampers who were also doing the North West Circuit. They had walked from Big Hellfire Hut, stopping only briefly at Mason Bay before heading over to Freshwater Hut in the same day - an impressive distance of 30.5km. We were already in bed when a male kiwi called just before 10pm, and were woken in the early hours of the morning with a kiwi male/female duet just outside the hut - magic!!

Another overcast day dawned and we waved goodbye to the trampers who intended walking all the way out to Halfmoon Bay. The track over Thomson Ridge is some of the trickiest tramping on the island, steep, slippery and climbing up/down tree roots. It's only 11km to North Arm Hut but average time is 6-7hrs, with another 4-5hrs out to Halfmoon Bay.

The superfast trampers from New Mexico and France

Javi, Ondrej and Martin heading off to tackle Thomson Ridge

We felt a tad smug taking the easy way (water taxi) back to the village but we helped out by carrying out the trampers' rubbish. After cleaning the hut we explored part of the Southern Circuit from Freshwater Landing to Freds Camp. It didn't take long as no-one was keen to wade across the chest-deep stream 10 minutes from the hut! Instead we headed back towards Mason Bay for almost an hour before calling it a day and sloshing our way back to the hut for soup and sandwiches before packing for our 1pm water taxi.

If you come to Stewart Island then try to include a trip to Mason Bay if possible. The Coast to Coast is a unique experience and although the kiwi didn't tug at our shoe laces this time, we live in hope that next time they will!