Annual Westcoast recon trip part 3

A watched kettle never boils - or in this case a soup. this was a truly community affair.  Sir G.H. kindly donated from his estate a freshly harvested / gluten free bio fresh GE free fruits of his labors from his gardens. Further he went hunting and eventually freed a bird for this meals contributions.  Myself I boiled two chicken carcasses until there was almost nuthin' left of the stock and this all contributed to a extremely flavor-some duck suey - no wait - Duck soup!! So between the tramping / fresh air and flavors added - suffice to say we polished the lot- nothing left. ^^

This friendly local decided to join us for a meal. As you can see he wasn't fussed about table manners and very happily ate from the floor.  At one stage he was even on top of my boot - checking out his wondering meal!!  In the end he didn't much around and got stuck into his meal too.





LOL this reminded us of a cemetery - here lies at rest . . . .    ok a good meal!!  Besides - they needed a good airing and what better way . . . . .








At the end of the tramp we bought some pizza and took back to camp base and then enjoyed a lovely meal complete with a drink.
I wonder if I should copy and paste some of the emails insetting up the shared enjoyment ? ?   MAYBE not (what happens at camp stays at camp - right ^^ ) however suffice to say that a sassy sprightly Italian lass joined a Kiwi rough and ready DIY guy for company! Something along those lines.  It was nice to relax afterwards - even though we all rushed to our cellphones and rung back Christchurch - who we found out had another aftershock - a decent 5.3 mag that rattled the city, cutting out water and power in parts of the city.  Word today is that only a handful of buildings suffered additional damage and one place had to be torn down in a hurry as it was leaning out over the street.









Yess   :)   go on camp and you never know who you meet.  Seems these two got very friendly.  Vinnie being the navigator had a grand view!!  Does that make them officially a pair ? ? ?   Who knows - but they keep meeting in the most unlikely places . . . .   Wonder if I need to have a serious father to son conversation with him!?!?!?!







Daybreak on Sunday - and yes typical westcoast scenery - moody and heavy with moisture hanging around everywhere.  It is a misnomer - we should rename our West-coast to WET-coast!! It rained all the way back home!!






On the return trip we stopped at Arthur's Pass (in the aptly named avalanche shelter) for lunch - which originally was s'posed to be a light sandwich with healthy fillings - like Salmon and Salads complete with Camembert cheese - this changed to Fruitcake only (the one we forget to flambeed and eat last night) only to lay out a meal fit for a starving army. We more or less ate all the left overs in a hand to mouth action - no ceremony here - also no dishes!! Except for the coffee / tea or milo drinks.

Now that we have this trip behind us we just need to sort out our accommodation on the Coast and get transport sorted.  Sadly the City council 10 seater minivans / buses will not be available to get the kids across - so need to be creative in this department.






Oh and one funny thing happened - we split up - Sir G.H. and myself continued on the track, while Stitch and Brush returned to the original entry point - mainly for them to go back check us out with DOC and for us to suss out the rest of the track conditions (which where marginally worse from  here on in). Anyway short story cut  long - at the end point we came across this wedding party who went on location location location for some outdoor pictures.  So imagine the scene - them in their finest livery - all dressed up - best man and flower girls present and a couple of page boys and us rough and smelly tumble characters emerging from the bush and behind them- complete with staves and well - ^^  you know !!  Before the groom realized what was happening, we said - in a loud as poss voice - " We are the local bushman and have a prior right to the Bride - so  have come to kidnapp the lass and take her back to our Liar in the bush"  The Bride was a bit of a goer and said "whohoooooo", hubby well he didn't look to happy about this!!  I am sure  he thought this was somewhere between a joke or a serious matter.  Anyhow we gave her one of our staves and said this is a man beater - or a-round-to-it!!  Funny thing - we ended up in a couple of wedding photos! ^^  A memorable day all round I am sure

Annual westcoast recon trip part2

Scout leaders can read - right?? naturally, but we always reserve the right to investigate any dubious claims, and besides what depth does the water have to be across the road?? 1 cm?? 20 cm?? Anyway - we found out that the sign was there for a reason after all - as it dips below the level of the lake next door and when that floods - there is no road left to drive on . . . . . more like a canoe track . . . .
It did make for some interesting return travel out. 
Message to self - pay more attention to the local signs . . . .

Check out these cool hillibillies - ready for a days of tramping in the rain!!  We decided to go anyway  and check out plan B route seeing that the planned route A - to Cave creek was a wash out.  Funnily enough by the time we got started the heavens stopped crying and we almost had sunshine!! Vinnie - you're a darl!! Had I taken Brodie with me on this recon trip, we would have been doused I am sure - and I really didn't fancy a fresh outdoor shower.  Anyhow the track we went on is a 3 hour loop track around Punakaki and has some fantastic scenery. I would regard it as a easy grade track.  

Sometimes when life gets too much, you just have to go back into your bear-cave?!!!? 
Well looks like it, however this was just one of the many interesting places on the track - walk literally through the rock face. The steps help of course, but you had to bend down and Sir G.h.  had to stoop quite low.  A new experience for his Lord ship perhaps ?  ? Anyhow this particular gem had fallen over the track a long time ago and left a natural tunnel to walk through. Magic

I have a friend in Austria who would drool over this scenery and a simple 3 hour track would probably take more like 6 hours - photo-stop at every 5 paces.  Stitch did good on her walk - we took only some 200 pics ourselves.  Anyhow, a short story long - this is a very typical wild and mossy bush-walk scenery to enjoy. Luckily for us there was a track to follow - imagine having to bush-whack through here.  ^^    

We got to the half way point and made a rudimentary shelter - using two half hitches on the corners and strung the ropes on some trees.
Ahhh our good old scouting skills do come in handy!! Funny thing was, we ended up sitting
O U T -side the shelter, but we proved that the area selected would comfy hold a group of 10 under a larger canvas.  Time to build a campfire (sadly on gas) and get the billie boiling, ohh and lets not forget the lunch meal. 





 
 

Annual westcoast recon trip

And so it began again. Our annual trip is coming round again and it is our job to go over there in a recon mode and suss out the location / activities / roof over the campers head etc etc etc. A Scout leaders job is never done!! :)
All it meant was a jolly good excuse for some of us to get away for a weekend.
So we headed over to our lovely west coast - which is really a bit of a miss-nomer - it should be called our WETcoast, mainly for the amount of rain it collects.


We left on a cold damp Friday evening and after a three and a bit hour drive (that also included a stop at a country Hotel / Pub for a evening meal) we eventually got there. Met the contact, made camp and settled in for the night.


Sat morning - bright and early - having listened to the rain on the roof and the *urm* waterfall outside our place ( a local Scout hall) we got up - fed ourselves and went of in search of the local DOC office to get some info on the track conditions. We mainly wanted to get into Cave Creek and the hours it takes to get there do vary - depending which website you choose to belief.  So it was great to get local advise.








Anyhow the local DOC guy was very good - gave us maps and explained the timing it takes etc etc.
He did say that they had a lot of rain and that the access road might be a bit *urm* wet. So we found out - and at times the road seemed about 1.5 feet or deeper under water.  There is a sign that did say something about not going further if the road is wet . . . . . .    but you know - reading is not our strong suit ^^



A single shingle lane did not make for a easy turn around, and even though a certain Sir G.H. did lend a hand - it was not enough, and eventually it was agreed to, to simple reverse drive  the three and a bit k's back out. Eventually got walking on the alternative route / track - which is a lovely three hour hike through NZ native bush.
Even the local wild life is on friendly terms here and "accompanied "us for a while.