In a message dated 7/16/00 5:18:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Issodhos... I have to keep reminding myself cos sometimes I think there may
>  just be some hope for you:-). Queenstown, Aotearoa-New Zealand... our suns
>  just done the same - over Lake Wakatipu and down behind a mountain range.
>  The only things spoiling the scene are the commercial development (let us
>  show you nature in all her grandeur)and the absence of anything
>  approximating winter. Where has winter gone? We used to have 4 seasons down
>  here - now we have something that feels like the meteorological equivalent
>  of a global fast-food chain. The end is nigh.

    As a child I lived for two years in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.  Our
home was a couple minutes walk from the beach which was a pure white ribbon
of sand extending for miles and backing up against nothing but marsh and
swamp.  Across the water was the island of Santa Rosa.  It too was a narrow
ribbon of pure white sand with a fresh water stream filled with aquarium type
tropical fish and a narrow road running down its middle.  When not
incarcerated within the halls of middle school, I and my friends would spend
the majority of our time on these wild beaches.  As I understand it, they are
now covered with condos, beach houses, and other intrusions.

  Years later, I lived for two years in a small fishing village on the island
of Crete in the Eastern Med.  At that time it had two tavernas and a tourist
oriented hotel.  My house was on the beach just east of the harbor and at
night I was able to enjoy the rising of the moon as it reflected off of the
Aegean and I had the olive groves and arid mountains, populated mainly by
shepherds and their flocks, rising behind me.  The fishermen of the village
would unload their catch, mend their nets, stow their boats and gear, eat and
go to bed in preparation for the next night's work.  I recently heard that
this former fishing village now has over two hundred bars and discos and is
wall to wall condo, beachhouse, and hotel.  The fishermen are certainly no
longer there.

   I will never return to either because what is alive in my memory is too
precious and would surely die.  I hope your Lake Wakapitu will continue to be
as it should be, and not become only a fading memory of how beautiful it once
was.
Yours,
Issodhos