Success!
I have survived the 12 hour drive, braved the elements,
wacked the bushes of fatigue and forded the waters of many foul smelling tidal
flats.
Armed with little more than a layer of gore tex, a brick of cheese, a fishing pole, sleeping bag, head lamp and a handful of other costly outdoor accessories 7 mates and I spent the past week in the bush.
Alright so we werent really roughing it that hard, we were all well prepared and we did spend each night in a hut. But so what? Most people didnt even do the inland track like team Unstoppable Hauce Force Delta 9.
Let me start from the beginning which I sup
pose is a fairly logical starting point.
Right so we woke up at 530ish Saturday morning knowing we had to charge a 12 hour drive. Awesome. It wasnt so bad, we made many stops including the famous Moeraki Boulders at sunrise. Pretty Standard. Anything worth seeing is worth seeing
at sunrise seems to be my new mantra.Im going to take the liberty to glaze over the less interesting parts of the drive by using the summary statement "we made it to the campsite safely".
So we pitched a tent for the first night before heading out on the inland track. W
e broke camp at a leisurely pace and hit the trail at say 10ish?
Sounds great? Yeah things were moving smoothly minus the fact that by about 11 we realized it wasnt going to stop raining. In fact it was going to turn into a casual monsoon, this was con
firmed by the wind howling in the tree tops above our now hooded heads.
I learned some important lessons that day; nothing is really water proof, especially paper and go buy a pack cover when you get back to Dun
edin you idiot.
We stopped for lunch in the jah hut, a former overnight hut turned into a random shack it was a welcome relief from the stinging rain. We built a fire in the fireplace and huddled like penguins while trying to keep out spirits up. I snapped this picture of bee just to confirm the ol camera was still ok.
We endured the hardest day on t
he first day which was alright once we made it to our final hut destination for the evening. The name of the hut eludes me but we shall call it "Jabba the Hut". Jabba was mad
e for exactly 8 people and ca
me equipped with a wood burning stove, table, sleeping pads and fresh drinking water. We all threw up a quick thanks to the forces that be and busied our selves cooking and warming up.
The bunks proved to be cozier than any mattress I could imagine and we were all soundly asleep by 9. Correction we were all asleep except Christian who was running a power saw in his sleeping bag. His snoring problem would haunt us all through out the trip but thats a different story altogether.
We awoke to blue skies and warm oats. Sweet as.
Day 2 promised to be another challenge for Team Sparkle Motion. Captain/Doctor/Non-Human Nick promised us a 7 hour day.
Not a big deal after you have survived a monsoon. It also proved to us that everything could dry out overnight so we were ready to step in every puddle and ford every steam like the adventure-naughts we were.
Nothing to out of the ordinary for day two, just a lot of putting one foot in front of the other. Good weather, good conversations covering everything from star wars to people Dave had bullied online. We were still jubilant to discover our second hut just as the day light was fading into the dark purples of night. Literally 2 minutes after arriving Dave was shirtless and clutching an axe ready to gather fire wood. Good hustle Dave.
Im actually not sure what day it was but this hut marked Zack's 21 birthday. A little unconventional but who ne
eds to puke in a bar? We all had a nip of whiskey stashed away
which we now indulged in. I think I can also safely say that I am the only one who documented this colossal event in young Zack's life.
Happy birthday to you --------->
So moving right along.
Day three promised us finding ourselves on the coast. Which I half didnt believe and half wanted to dunk my nappy head
into the ocean. However maps dont lie and neither does Nick Lee. After crossing an open field in sideways rain Christian and I were rewarded with our first ocean views.
We hustled to get to the
hut as this was the only way we knew to travel. After snaking down numerous switch backs we stumbled upon an 1800s farm house turned hut. I will reference this hut as "Pizza Hut" for no apparent reason.
This hut was arguably the coolest as it had 4 bunk rooms of varying sizes and our room even had a second story balcony/porch. This made night time bathroom breaks exponentially easier. Awesome.
We also met our favorite personality of the trip in the hut, Sing. A 56 year old Aussie who had retired 10 years earlier after conquering the real estate market. He was on a 6 week vacation in NZ, skiing and hiking arou
nd at his leisure. Truly Sing was living the dream. Dave poured him a class of whiskey and the rest is history. We would be graced with his presence again at our next hut.
The beach was a 5 minute walk from the Pizza Hut so we took advantage of this and basked on sun soaked rocks like the cold blooded lizard people we
are. I also found this awesome beach comber shanty which was remarkably well made.
Nice. Sequence of
events; Cards, dinner, tea, reading or more cards, sleepin
g bag talk (which is alot more candid than pillow tal
k), sleep, wake, grumble, breakfast, pack up, brush teeth, fill water, use the lou, walk. Repeat.
This of course brings us the our next hut. But this would be completely glazing over one of the coolest parts of the week; Separation Point. A natural home to a seal colony, this rocky bluff played host to several saucey seals who were more than happy to hang out while we sunbathed and enjoyed their presences. The one pictured is named Gerome, he is 14 and has two daughters Joan and Cynthia, he enjoys swimming, itching himself and Peter Frampton.
This hike was remarkable short compared to our
previous days, I think it was only suppose to take 4 hours but with our frequent stops and leisurely pace we timed it just right. Time it right for what? Oh the tidal crossing. In order to get to the next hut you had to cross a seriously large tidal flat that was only possible during low tide. Needless to say we arrived perfectly on time and marched effortlessly through the sulfuric mud. I will logically refer to this hut as "The Hut where we meet those other Americans who really sucked".
Once the tide came in the water came almost all the way to the porch. Really awesome. This was the first time where we really had to share our space in the hut which was alright except that some of the other inhabitants were complete goons. On the bright side Sing did spend the night in our bunk room which gave us all a boost of inspiration.
American fools who stayed up late into the night braiding each others hair and gossiping (only half kidding).
We played host to an almost full moon that night which aided our exploring of the
surrounding bay. This hut may have had the sweetest location however it was diluted by the presence of two other groups of roaming
Sam had an awesome spot for his hammock though.
We cruised out at our leisure and started off for the next hut (I
dont even know what day it is at this point, while narrating or while hiking).
So this day was probably the shortest yet. And arguably the least memorable except we walked on golden crusty beaches for the majority of the day, oh I also hiked i
n jandalls as well. Oh never mind this was the day we went swimming if my memory serves me correct. The water was cold but it was necessary as we all were starting to fester in our polypros.
Righhhhhht. So we arrived at the "almost out of food" hut at about 3ish right before a nasty bit of grey skies flanked the coast. That didnt stop Greg and I from exploring the inlet we were situated in. We got nothing more than a nice mud-foot and few more bug bites but I would do it again in heart beat.
Blah, blah, blah. We played some cards, ate peanut butter right out of the jar and went to bed early eagerly awaiting our last hut as we were that much closer to kebabs!
So the second to last day of hiking was rewarding as we cruised through even more beach views and took a detour to Cleopatra's Pool which is a pristine stretch of stream a little bit inland.
The high light of this detour was Dave taking a digger and falling right into the steam. He was alright and we all had a laugh at his expense and then headed back to the coast to bang out the final leg of the day.
We got to
the "Christian is deadly sick" hut and threw down our packs and went right to the beach to enjoy our final day. We chilled real hard and Pete even went swimming. Nice!
So yeah copy and paste that sequence of events from earlier and you can see
our routine. This hut was a little different simply because we woke up at 6 so we could beast out to the car and drive into town and get grub. From there we had a 4 ho
ur drive to the Hanmer Hot springs and our hostel for the night.
Our return to civilization was nothing sort of glorious.
I will elaborate further later I have to go to class.
rats
Ok 8 hours later or so.
We emerged from the woods looking burly and smelling nothing short of fierce. If I had one word to describe our collective odor I would use the word vulgar.
As I mentioned earlier we got on the trail even before the sun was up and didnt see a soul until we reached the parking lot where we had left the Caldina a week earlier.
We changed into our "civilized" clothes that we had left in the car and headed for the first town we had seen on our way to the park. The n
ame eludes me but lets call it "KebabKFCmeatpieheadquarters". We gorged ourselves. Case closed.
From there we cruised to the Hanmer Hotsprings which were still 4 hours away. 4 hours goes by real fast when you havent been in a car for a week and we arrived with the musk of the trail still clinging to our beards. To be honest the springs were a little bit of a let down as they werent hot enough and they were full of creepy old people and impish toddlers who were almost certainly peeing in every pool.
Luckily our hostel was a 2 minute walk from it and we retired to its warmth after only an hour or so.
So our return to society wasnt too painful except
when we crested the last hill and realized we were now back in the snug confines of Dunedin. This was really the first time that I have felt any dislike towards the city bu
t Im over it now.
I actually went to bed at about 6 on sunday night for a variety of reasons.
When I woke on Monday I discovered all the trees around my flat had bloomed over break and it was now officially spring in Dunedin.
Id like to summarize the week by listing my favorite
quotes from each individual.
Greg: Greg had too many gems to really pick just one
Nick: "Atleast it was warm in Nam"
Dave: "Rub my feet while I play the X box!"
Sam: "I dont imagine much goes on in Canada"
Christian: "It aint easy being cheesy"
Zack: "Hot damn"
Pete: "Here I am" (to be understood must have been heard in context)
Im done rambling about the week here are some random images
Drive home
suspension bridge
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