TRAVELING THE BLUE ROAD
AN ENTREPRENEURIAL COUPLE HAVE BUILT A FIORDLAND-BASED BUSINESS THAT TAKES NEW ZEALANDERS OUT OF THEIR DAILY LIVES AND BACK IN TIME
SO REMOTE IS the south-west corner of the South Island — home to an archipelago of 700 islands — that there are moments when it’s possible to feel entirely alone. And when the wild beauty, enhanced by mirror-glass waters or a sultry mist drifting over white-capped mountains, elevates the soul and sends it soaring, gravity seems to fall away.
The U-shaped valleys and mountain ridges of Fiordland, truncated by glaciers, form a land and seascape unchanged for centuries. Captain James Cook saw it this way when he sought refuge here in 1773 after 123 days battling storms in the icy Southern Ocean.
With a beauty and grandeur hidden far from the usual tourist routes, this is as pristine an environment as anywhere in the world. But there is a problem.
Seen from a distance, the bush is a canopy of virgin variegated greens — silver beech, tõtara, rimu and miro. On land, there is the subtropical smell of regeneration: damp earth and composting vegetation. But there’s also an eerie silence vastly different from Cook’s time. The birdsong, he reported, was “deafening”. But rats, stoats, deer and possum have since ravaged the forest and devastated the bird life.
Slipping through these mercurial waters — at one time calm, the next white-tipped by wind — sails Flightless, a 27-metre ex-Navy expedition vessel with international survey and safety equipment, water-maker, diesel stove, air-conditioning, three bathrooms, and a huge back deck with dining table for communal meals of venison or crayfish or pāua, the seafood caught within metres of the boat.
Flightless — only slightly smaller than Cook’s expedition ship with its crew of 70, and named after its original Navy moniker, Moa — is home to Sean Ellis (35) and Maria Kuster (34). On its decks, this plucky entrepreneurial couple not only built a charter business, Pure Salt, but also developed and honed their values, forging a passion for conservation, people and this remote corner of the South Island.
Born in East Germany six years before the wall came down, Maria excelled at school. Her parents had expectations. “In Germany, things are structured. I was headed for medicine or law. For me, to jump off the wagon and do what felt good didn’t make a lot of sense.”
At 19, she headed overseas to improve her English. While friends went to the States, Maria decided on New Zealand. When people said, “Go to Auckland,” she went to Christchurch. It was the start of following her own way, a trajectory she maintains to this day. It guides her life, loves and business.
‘ We are dealing with New Zealanders, so the mentality is locals checking out their backyard’