Eight Go Tramping (Part 1)

Easter, April 2014

A well planned sojourn began where 8 friends headed to the South Island to embark on a five day walking hike through the Heaphy Track.

Much planning had been put into this event, with our Camp Leader, Katheryn Lester, beginning to put organisation into place some time around Easter last year.

There were people to get on board for the trip, flights, accommodation, taxis, meals, foods, couriers, tours, trains, rental cars and vans to organise.  It certainly was no easy role for whoever put their hand up and it has to be said we were fortunate it was Katheryn who did the job as no one else would have managed so well.

Katheryn (or Clipboard Katheryn, or Clippy Chick, names she has been known by) had spent many, many hours going over maps, schedules, computers, lists, research for the benefit of everyone.

She was/is an organised 'chick'.  So organised that two weeks before the actual trip began we had a beckoning one Monday evening to a home where pizza and red wine were served while Katheryn ran through her 90 minute Power Point presentations of just what this trip was all about. Every flight, bus, train, taxi plan was listed.  Every accommodation, walk, sight seeing opportunity, meal providers and wineries were listed.  Every cost, distance, height, weight and view was listed.  As was some of the history listed. Delightful.  We felt we had just had a journey to and from the Heaphy track whilst licking our fingers over pizza and wine.

Once the Power Point presentation was complete each person was given a handout to compliment the presentation.  They had all the information they needed to set out on this trip.  We thought.

It wasn't.  Barbara (aka Gadget Chick) had done her own research for the expedition. Two days later an 8 page Excel spreadsheet is emailed to all of the group, listing the 'minimal' list of necessary equipment we would need to pack for this five day sojourn.  

Barbara had also put in a lot of time and research and work for this list which she had compiled during midnight hours.  For not only was the list comprehensive for every possible piece of clothing, or food, or equipment we would need, but Barbara had weighed every single item then tallied up the weights so that she could work out how heavy her pack would eventually be. Why does that word punctilious come to mind?

Barb had thought of every scenario.  For instance, listed were: tissues, sweat cloth, hand sanitiser, Lip Dip (what is lip dip?), eye mask, Kindle, needle, cotton bud, Friar's Balsam, toothpicks, to list few.  And most important piece of equipment of all, for all on this trip - wine glass.

Did you know that a microfibre towel weights 0.115 grams?  Or that ear plugs in container weighs 0.005 grams?  I was horrified when discovering the map weighed a great 0.050 grams.  

Only Gadget Chick could ever have done such a comprehensive and expansive eight pager Excel spreadsheet so efficiently.

Nothing was going to go wrong on this five day trek - not with organisers such as Clipboard and Gadget Chicks amongst us!  What a lucky group the rest of us were.

So, let us travel.

     

Day 1 - Friday 18^th April – Good Friday

Happy as a pig in a peach orchard. That’s how I felt on this particular morning when surveying the surroundings I was in.  It was the first day of a new Kiwi adventure for a whole group of eight friends but on this morning three of us were about to fly to the South Island, the others to follow at a later stage.  We were waiting for our Auckland to Christchurch flight.

Perhaps the more ungenteel descriptive phrase that many would relate to is not, ‘happy as a pig in a peach orchard’, but, ‘happy as a pig in shit’.  In fact, those were the words that passed my lips when trying to relate to one of the others in our trio how content I was.  Happy as a pig in a peach orchard. 

And what was it that made me happy?  Oh, a simple thing.  I was in the Koru lounge at the domestic airport and was enjoying their gourmet offerings without restriction.  I had already devoured an enormous, self-made hamburger-like sandwich, a freshly baked blueberry muffin, a latte and two really sticky and scrumptious caramel slices.  I was happy as a pig in shit.  Oops, I mean peach orchard.

Ah, life was looking good, things were beginning well.

Eight Jaffas going on a tramp.

We had already had an interesting journey to the airport.  Our tour leader had organised a Corporate Cab to take us there and our cab was driven by a very Korean driver, a chatty fellow, unusual for some Asian cab drivers as language difficulties often preclude a good conversation.  However despite the fact this chap’s English was not particularly well developed he conversed well.

He asked us to explain to him what he called the “Kiwi terminology” of the phrase ‘by-the-by’.  Interesting question.  Not hard phrase to define.  Until you think about it.  The driver continued his conversation by telling us how he finds learning English as “very, very hard.” This I found surprising as when I asked how long he had been in New Zealand he responded, “Twenty years.” After twenty years he was still having difficulty understanding English, mind you, Kiwi colloquialisms are even very confusing for the English. 

We learnt much about this gentleman, including the fact his son is to marry shortly and as father of the groom he is expected to give a speech.  Again, the three of us were not short in offering some tips and suggestions as to how he should prepare for what he clearly was anticipating as being a challenging task.  By the time we disembarked from the cab we had earned our fare by one-on-one tutoring in Kiwi slang and speechmaking skills.  But he still charged us the standard fare.

Thus, all was well on this beginning of our epic Heaphy journey.  That was, until we heard the weather forecast for our destination, Christchurch.  Cold, windy, torrential rain and bleak.  Oh well, it’s only wind and water.  Neither are harmful.  Or so we thought.

To be continued .......