Tramping: An In-Depth View of New Zealand's Finest Bushes

Alright! Here it is--the long awaited details of my three days in New Zealand's wilderness. For those of you who don't know, Kiwis call hiking, 'tramping'. It's kind of strange, I'll admit, but that's just the way it is. Hopefully, as you read the details of our trip, you will realize the double meaning of my 'in-depth' view of the bushes. Read on, and enjoy.

Thursday, March 20

I was supposed to be ready to leave by 7am. Experience thus far has taught me that 7 am really means about 8. However, I was ready at 7 and just read good old Eldest. At 8:30, Jacapo came to the door. I threw my bag in the trailer and hopped into the van with my other eleven comrades; Cameron, Tyler, Jacapo, Ramsey, Taylor, Julia, Lisa, Katie, Megan, Janelle and Kathy. I couldn’t help but smile as I smelled incense and noticed Jacapo burning some in the front seat. Of course. The smell blended nicely with his 1920s smooth jazz CD playing in the van. Eventually, I used my iPod to drown that out.

The before picture: Look how clean and happy we all are!

We started our tramp at the Borland Lodge. For about three or four hours we ust walked up a gravel road. It was a nice, warm day and we sweated as we trudged along. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful river and about an hour later, Jacapo and Ramsey stopped the group, pointed up a mountain, and we started climbing. Yeah--straight up a mountain. It was fun mostly. By the time we reached the top, my legs were completely scratched up to my knees. For about two hours probably, we used strong grass and bushes to pull ourselves up the face of the mountain. Literally--the method was: stick both of your arms up, grab tufts of grass, find a good foothold and heave your body up and hope the grass you’re holding is stronger than it looks. When we got to the top, we had to inch along a ridge and up some more bushes and finally--we were at our camp. It was just some random, tall grass at the top of a mountain. We fond a decent spot for our tent and then cooked dinner.

Notice how you can't really see us. That's because, the bushes are so tall and there's no trail!



Our camp site. So...where do you camp? Exactly what I thought. But hey--it worked.


Taylor, Julia, Lisa and I all shared a three-man tent. I was plenty warm, thanks to a sleeping bag of Sue’s (thanks Sue!) but a large mound of grass in the middle of my sleeping area was preventing me from finding sleep. So… I didn’t really sleep. In the morning, we found out that none of us had slept. We should have all had a party. That would have been more fun--and a lot less frustrating.
Our lovely morning faces. We slept pretty poorly...

Day 2: Day of Frustration

The view in the morning. It was beautiful but...


...cold and windy.

Friday, March 21

In our food group of four (Lisa, Cam, Tyler and myself) we had oatmeal for two breakfasts. Well… we ate it all Friday morning. The wind howled all night, which also prevented me from sleeping, and it was no better in the morning. We struggled to take our tent down in it. Bundled up, we prepared to hike. Thinking the wind would be better if we weren’t on top of a mountain, I figured we’d be heading down as soon as possible. Not so. I followed Ramsey and Jacapo, our fearless leaders, up the mountain. The wind literally blew me over three times. Three!! Twice, it was just funny because the hill wasn’t that steep and come on--people falling over like bowling pins in a 40 lb pack is just funny. The third time however, wasn’t humorous at all because I was on a mountain peak! It was so windy. We marched up and over the highest peak of the mountain which was cool but frightening in that wind! Words can not even describe it. Cameron physically pulled Lisa and I down to the ground at one point, insisting that it was too dangerous for us to walk. So… we crawled up the mountain for a while.

Ok, if you look closely at the above picture, you can see us walking along the edge of the mountain. About where we're walking, is where we camped. See the tallest peak of the mountain in the picture? That's the one we decided to walk up and over.

Remember that peak? There it is.

Once we started down the other side of the peak, the wind died down a little bit. We also found that the best way to get down the mountain was to get on your backside, put your feet up and slide. Effective--and fun. When Green lake and the hut came into sight, Cameron, Tyler and I just wanted to be there so we started down the mountain. The rest of the group took a different--and smarter--way down. We picked our way through a creek all the way down to the bottom. As we tramped/slid, I expected the hut to appear closer. It didn’t happen. At one point, I was pretty convinced that it was a mirage. That and the lack of trail by that point had driven me to utter frustration. Cameron was leading our small group of three and I started yelling at him to stop going around the mountain and just go down the mountain at one point. I just wanted it to flatten out--and it wasn’t happening! Finally, it was flat but every other step through the waist high tufts of grass landed my foot in a mud hole. By that time, all three of us trudged along in frustrated silence, willing the hut to get closer. Finally, we made it. It was only about 2pm. We had lunch and then--played cards. All day. It was surprisingly fun. And SO great to just sit around in the warm hut. It also started pouring about 20 minutes after we got to the hut. What luck! It rained pretty much all night too. The hut kept getting more and more crowded as the night progressed. There were three people there before we arrived. The hut only sleeps twelve. When bedtime rolled around, there were over 30 people in the hut!! A few pitched tents and we stuffed nine of us on the top bunk. A few of the boys slept outside.

Day 3: Peanut Butter, Scroggin and Victory

Ramsey and Jacapo. Our fearless leaders.

Saturday, March 22

We woke up to a cool, clear morning. I slept like a baby in the hut. It was magnificent. We didn’t leave the hut until about 10. Every morning, we did something the Anasazi boys (Ramsey and Jacapo) called the “sacred circle”. We all stand in a circle, turn around, and say a prayer/have a moment with nature. Where we’re all done, we turn around and leave. I liked it.
Saturday was probably my favorite day. WE HAD A TRAIL!! Bushwhacking has its perks and adventures, but after a day and a half of blazing my own trails, I was more than ready for a trail. It was gorgeous! It led through this beautiful, green forest. Up and over logs, across rivers, under logs, through mud holes… It was great. Most of the day, I hung in the back of the pack with Lisa, Cameron, Tyler and Katie. It was nice. Usually, I hurry through hikes but I liked just being in the back, taking it all in, pushing each other along. We had fun--our little group. By the end of the day, we were talking about our favorite restaurants and desserts and we even had about 15 minutes of official complaining time. That was funny--and therapeutic.

One of the views that made the whole dang thing worth it.

Part of the trail that I loved oh so much.

I had an apple with peanut butter for breakfast that morning, since I’d downed my oatmeal the day before and we didn’t have lunch with us. So, I had a LOT of scroggin (aka--trail mix). And I mean-- a LOT. We didn’t get back to the van until about 5:30 where luckily, we had planned ahead and had peanut butter, jelly and bread waiting for us in the car.

It’s amazing to me after all the pain and difficulty associated with tramping that I can get home and say I had fun. Day two, was definitely my low light. I was so frustrated--with the lack of trail, with the wind, with the far away hut, with Cameron, with Ramsey and Jacapo for leading us there… Just angry. I finally made myself stop, look around, take some deep breaths and remind myself of what was really important. Every time over the trip when I felt that frustration or that “get-home-atis”, I would force myself to stop, or at least slow down and remind myself of where I was and what I was experiencing. I learned a lot from forcing myself to do that.

I also learned to love Egyptian Rat Screw! I hate that game. Or I did until Friday. We played for hours, until Jacapo told us to stop because the slapping was waking up people on the bottom bunk. And I actually started to like it.
Well, that about sums it up I think. I’m happy I went and I’m happy I’m home. The end. :)

You can thank Cameron for this lovely panoramic. I hope you can see it because--it's amazing!

Orienteering 101: Bushwhacking

Last Wednesday, the day before our tramping trip, our instructors sent us out into the wilderness with a compass, bearings and a map. Ben and I were partners and together, we set off into the wilderness. We went through a gigantic, very thick pine forest; up, over and through bushes, up and over sand dunes... we even sprinted across a golf course and landed ourselves in the middle of a clay pigeon shooting range. That was exciting! Ben and I were looking down at our feet thinking, 'what are those little pieces of clay disc-looking things?' and at the same moment, realization struck, we looked at each other and Ben yelled, "Run!!" Oh man. It was funny. Little did I know...it was just a small glimpse of what I would be doing for the next three days...

PRAWNS!

See the eyes, the legs and the whiskers?? Yuck!



Eating food that looks back at you has never been one of my strong points. Mags announced the other day that we would be having prauns for dinner. Prauns? In my ignorance of seafood, I didn't even know what those were. In case any of you might be in the same boat, they are basically giant shrimp. Seeing as how I don't even like shrimp, I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of eating GIANT shrimp. Nevertheless, I tried. I was even more disgusted as I sat down at the table and watched Mags give me a tutorial of ripping of the head, sucking the juice and taking off the shell. I couldn't help but sing to myself, "Pull off their heads and suck the juice and throw their skins away..." Sick. However, I tried them. And, once you get past the eyes, and the crunchy legs you have to rip off, they weren't half bad. Another fear conquered in New Zealand! Just don't ask me to get back into a kayak...


My trepidation...

...and my triumph!

Stay Tuned....

So, I'm back from backpacking!! I spent last night preparing a lovely blog post for you all. I saved it on my jump drive but alas, I saved it in the incorrect format. So, I can't open it on this computer. I'm sorry, you'll all have to wait a day or two to get the dl on my trip. I just wanted to write this to let you know that I didn't forget about my blog. I just hit a small roadblock. So, stay tuned for some good stuff in the next couple of days! Happy Easter! :)

Last Post of the Day

I'm really sorry that I post in these spurts. I just like to do it all at once. It's easier for me, but not as enjoyable for the reader. I apologize.

I got special permission from Stefanie to post these pictures, so I'm going to. :) I think you will all enjoy them. I hope so at least, because they crack me up! The important thing to know before viewing these pictures, is that we didn't plan them beforehand. Stefanie just stuck the camera in front of us, and we each just struck a pose. These kind of photo shoots are fun. I definitely reccommend them to anyone who hasn't yet tried. So, as my liast post for today, and for awhile probably, I hope you all enjoy these wonderful photos.

Take 1.

Take 2. My personal favorite.

Take 3; shaky style.

And take 4. The end. :)