Advanced Bush School - Or The Trip Where We Were Rained Out

The Kaimanawa’s are notoriously bleak, at least that is what everyone tells me. I actually found the place we were walking to be fascinating and charming. It had this element that drew around you, drawing you in and dwarfing you with its features and channelling you further up and further in. The place we were walking was a reasonably wide and open river valley. The river was slightly high and the current a little strong in places, but still manageable levels. The concept for the trip was to push boundaries in a safe-ish setting focusing on navigation skills and making decisions about where to go and where to move.

We arrived latter than expected and proceed to walk up the valley past sun set. It was cold and very wet. Moral of some of the party was quite low, and the initial plan to walk well into the night was cut short to make camp around 8pm on the side of the river using tarps and groundsheets. Our cooking system for this trip were individual cat food tins hole punched with mentholated spirits poured and lit to boil small amounts of water which could be added to flavoured couscous and cheese. Surprisingly effective and surprisingly satisfying food.

It was a cold night. Everything frosted and my socks I forgot to grab froze whilst sitting on the top of my bag, along with my tarp and several other things. This led to a cold morning start, with cold scroggin, and I was seriously wishing I had secretly brought my modular stove system that boils water in 2 minutes, if only for a quick cup of tea or hot chocolate, especially as we were all set to leap thigh deep back into the river. 

But the sun came out and the day became warm and the brief interludes in and out of the water became quite pleasant. We ended up with a small break away group quietly strolling slightly more confidently up the river valley. The intention was to walk up to a hut that day, however around 3 hours in we all banded together to evaluate the total distance the whole group had progressed.

The jury was out and the results were in, we weren’t going to make it before dark we’d only walked 6km and those at the back were not going to be able to do much more than that. Also the weather forecast for the next day was a big rainy storm. We were heading back to the car. 

Burgerfuel, Drive, Home. 

Disappointment. 

But. What did I learn from this trip:

• I had a firmer grasp of off tack navigation than I realised.
• Despite its weight and the annoyance of carrying gas canisters, having boiling water in 2 minutes is a luxury worth bringing along on any trip that involves a lot of river crossings.
• Don’t leave your socks outside to become ice overnight. That is a silly thing to do! 
• Pick your teammates well.
• Have an alternative sheltered non river route planned if possible, so you can still have a trip even if the weather looks dodgy. 
• Tents are significantly warmer than tarps.
• A ground sheet would be a good investment.
• Potentially a slightly better compass may be in order.
• I have a terrible habit for loosing hats on trips. 

Footnote. Arriving home in Auckland the weather deteriorated into a superb thunderstorm, but that’s what you get for attempting to go tramping in the first week of September.