Trekking, Take One, Action

hulooooo!

I am back from my first ever trekking experience. (Trekking = tramping overnight and tramping = hiking.) After a friday spent doing a bit of work and only one paper (class), I packed in only an hour or so and headed off to Hannah's for some grub. Together we walked to meet Vic's Tramping club, boarded a bus, and headed out from Wellington.

The weather in Welly was rainy, with high winds, and some cyclone-action. As we drove out of Welly we lost much of the wind, but the rain seemed to be everywhere. After a two hour bus ride, we left the bus and began setting up tents in the dark in the middle of nowhere! Thankfully, almost everyone had taken the list of things to bring seriously; sooo many head-torches (torch = flashlight). In fact too many head-torches. Seriously, the situation was reminiscent of driving with brights, you know where if you see another car you turn them off? Well, no one turned them off and blinding lights were scattered around our camp site. The club provided some chips/cookies and many trampers had taken the offer of bringing alcohol. After socializing a bit, I left the lil' hut where we were staying dry (as the rain had returned) and headed into my tent, though tent is an understatment. One tarp on the ground, one tarp suspended by poles above. Basically a tent, though a bit drafty and rainy. I was a bit too long for our setup and after a rough night of sleeping with a storm, I awoke with a bit of dampness in the end of my down bag. Down bags are great and warm but sure don't do well with water. The trip was off to great start...

But in actuality, I was still having a great time as I was so excited to try one of my one-square meal bars! With 700 calories and 33% of you daily needs, it is the ultimate way to start one's day, I paired this with a banana-flavored up & go. Banana flavored up & gos will not be purchased by me nor anyone else I come into contact with. Also, when we woke up we actually saw where we were and where we were was wonderful (try saying that ten times fast!). Camp was surrounded by high hills and quite a bit of temperate rain forest. This was the Tararua range, two hours north of Welly.

Fueled with breakfast, we broke down our "tents", repacked our large bags (I was borrowing Anna's big bag) and started hiking. My group was last to leave the campsite, which we liked giving us no rush and a chance to be slow and take pictures. However half of our group including myself go quite fast for taking our sweet time! From gabbing about ourselves and the beginning, we switched to gasping at the beauty of the hike.

Giant trees (well, in my opinion), ferns that were almost my size, and furry branches gave us much to marvel at. Not long after starting we came across a bridge. This would not be the last of many many many river crossings. It had a load of 8 persons and was about 30 meters or so across. Designed to give in to NZ wind, it swayed a bit, but not too much. Crossing and seeing the river down below did raise my heart beat and gave an instant adrenaline rush.

A few hours later, we hit a large river crossing, in which we had to take off our shoes/socks in order to wade across. Some of the trampers, simply walked right through, boot and all. My half group made it to the lunch spot soon after wards, some rocks/boulders on the river in the sun. I attempted to toast my ham+cheese sandwich in the sun on a rock, but to no avail. After lunch, Hannah and I waded into the water, which was extremely frigid and numbing. So naturally we had to jump right in, though the swimming lasted less than a minute. Regardless we felt proud and continued onward, having lost her group and mine.

After trapesing through mud that rivals the Adirondacks in New York, Hannah and I made it to the campsite, where many students had tried the water. Feeling brave we went in again! Though there was an epic wind, which made me crawl out sooner than I wished. Some trampers were sitting around some food and having swigs of wine and after a couple swigs for myself, I was determined to try the water again! Finally I got to swimming for almost two minutes! Then had the pleasure of putting on dry clothes.

My group combined our ingredients to make guacamole, probably the best I've ever had, and pasta with onions, zucchini, carrots, and my two cans of sauce. Like before on my road trip, two parcels of spaghetti is a lot for seven people, but after tramping all day we where able to finish all of it and most of the guac and not all of the dessert. Apricot pudding (pudding = ??? cake/tart/just general dessert?). After such an excellent and filling dinner, I joined the group 'round a big ol' bonfire. Before I sat down I tried to fill up my nalgene from the river, because apparently that's safe...i wasn't too trusting and intended on using it for emergency water only. As I reached down to fill it up, I slipped and off went my nalegene. I starred at it floating away weighing the pros and cons of the situation before the logic of "I love that water bottle" swayed my judgment. Stripping off my socks I ran down the river back (all rocks mind you) retrieved my nalgene and then tripped in the water plunging my new fresh pair of socks into the water. :( <-- that was my face.

I went to the bonfire with all my socks and wet clothes and boots to dry them by the fire, when I got the brilliant idea to tie my sock to a stick and dry it over the flames. It was working! Steam was being released and they started drying. Feeling even more brilliant i just unrolled the whole sock and stuck a twig through the sock and put that over the fire. The winds frequently caused much smoke to travel my direction and I got the even more brilliant idea of planting part of my branch into the ground as do I could close my eyes. All was well and good until someone added more wood to the fire, causing more smoke, causing me to look away for TOO long. I looked up to see more steam rising, until ti realized it was more smokey. I pulled my sock back to find a small hole in the middle of a dark burnt patch. As I picked it off the twig I watched in horror as the burnt part disintegrated in front of my eyes.
:( <-- my face x 10. Such sadness, but really such stupidity!! But alas, I have plenty of socks back in my flat for other excursions.

Feeling disheartened, which soon just turned into heartened via a roasted marshmallow, shooting starts, and the clearest Milky Way galaxy I've seen, I headed towards or tent, which was located on some tall grass giving it wonderful cushion. I slept so much better and could even recall a dream (which oddly enough I have been able to do more times in New Zealand than I have ever been able to do in my life).

I woke up excited for ONE SQUARE MEAL (which was NOT accompanied by a banana up&go) as well as less excited for the absence of a toilet/outhouse. After reenacting a Charming commercial, I woofed down by breakfast and headed out for the final day of our journey. Today we would be ascending 400 meters in an hour, which had some people a bit nervous. After passing by the Totara Flats hut, where you could spend a night in a bed with toilets (= lame), we came to a large bridge. This time it had a maximum load of ONE PERSON! And was swaying in the wind. It had steel bars every foot or so with chain-link mesh between. Not my idea of sturdy, but it held all 200+ pounds of me plus my large pack.

Our next obstacle was another large stream, all of these smaller streams feed into the Waiohine River (I think that's the right name, not sure). Instead of taking of boots, it seemed more cross-able and those days of track and field which included the triple jump really came in handy!

After the stream we finally started the main ascent. I decided to time myself and managed to pass the leaders in front and get to the top much faster than I thought I could. Though I was not exactly sure where we were headed but I asked some kind trampers and found my way to a nice lookout, where I eventually encountered some of my old group. We hiked down after having a spot of lunch and were greeted with a kiwi BBQ from the leaders who had sprinted ahead. (Kiwis don't use buns...I don't really know why, something about excess carbs/food. Instead they just use bread...I'm starting to get use to it, but so want to show the what they are missing). The bbz spot at the end of the tramp was also located by a river and Hannah and I again dove in, lasting maybe seven seconds. Refreshed, fed, and de-shoed, we headed for the bus and returned to Victoria, this time able to see the scenery. I sat next to girl named Hannah (different than the other Hannah, confusing, no?), a Harvard grad on semester program at Vic. It turns out she currently resides not too far from my place.

After being dropped off I walked barefoot to my flat. I was greeted with warm dinner by Sophie and chocolate from our neighbors. Finally getting my shower, I found the time to update my blog! Still need to check the homework situation, but I have all tomorrow for that...

It's been, yet again, another unbelievable Kiwi experience. Hope all is well with you!

Cheers,

Johnny