While visiting Alaska, Brett Atkinson waits patiently to observe wild bears - and finds they're exactly like Auckland buses: nothing at all and then all at once.
Coffee and aviation fuel. It's a combination of aromas usually flagging a redeye flight from a big airport, but today, also infused with the dewy freshness of an Alaskan morning. We're seeing in the new day at Anchorage's Lake Hood seaplane base. Seaplanes are departing for work and pleasure to all parts of southern Alaska, and our 8am flight in Rust's Flying Services' red Cessna is set to transport us to the heart of North American wilderness.
From Anchorage southwest to Redoubt Bay is a journey of just over 100km, and for 45 minutes we fly above Alaska's extreme scenery at an altitude of just 3000m. Like our own South Island, a rugged patchwork of glaciers, snowcapped mountains and braided rivers is revealed below us and around us, and we eventually touch down amid the forested labyrinth of the Big River Lakes region. We've arrived on Cook Inlet at Redoubt Bay Lodge – "rustic and wild...in the heart of bear country" – according to their marketing spiel, and framed by the volcanic peaks of the Chigmit Mountains, the area has a big reputation as one of Alaska's best locations for seeing bears.
After a second coffee in the lodge's relaxed lounge, we board a flat-bottomed pontoon to make the short 15-minute journey across the lake to the sheltered arc of Wolverine Creek. We're not the only visitors on a July morning, and a few fishing enthusiasts in aluminium dinghies are trying their luck catching salmon from the piscine tangle gathered at the base of the creek's rocky brook. Every boat gets an allocated a 30-minute slot, and several dinghies are queued up for a shot at catching a few sockeyes.