That funny type of fun...

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By DominicOberhumer, 18 April 2014

Describing this trip, I might just start off with how we actually started our trip: Discussing the 3 types of fun at the Hunter’s car park: Firstly, fun you have while doing something, then the kind of fun you have after doing things which might have been not that much fun while doing them, which is type 2, and last but not least type 3, which is fun while doing something that is not as funny afterwards (e.g. things you do when you’re drunk). Our trip did indeed consist of fun type 1 at some points, for example at the estimated 50 times we “finally” found the right trail, another 20 moments we thought we knew the direction and will be out of the bush in an hour or two and especially that moment when you get out of the bush after 20 hours at 8 AM in the morning. As you can guess, there might have also been a few things which potentially tend to be more a type 2 kind of fun… I mean, afterwards it IS really funny that we got completely lost in a navigation trip. It is absolutely funny that we were thinking we are on a really relaxed stroll at day 2, telling type 2 fun stories about getting lost at tramps in the hut the night before. And it is also funny how our thoughts and sorrows at the beginning of the trip changed from “my shoes are wet”, “hopefully there’s not again a giant slug on the tree I want to hold on to”, “I have a bit of mud on my jacket”, “I hope that not another Giant Weta will jump into my neck” or “hopefully we don’t have to walk for more than half an hour in the dark” to things like “maybe the sun is rising soon so we don’t have to worry about running out of head-torch batteries anymore”, “it would be good if we had enough food to keep everybody energized at all times”, “I really want to make it out of that bush someday” or “hopefully I will make it down that almost 90° slope with my backpack” at the end of the trip. Well, what basically happened is that... I have no idea. After having had a really relaxed Saturday including a 2 hour drive to Otaki Forks, an hour at Pak’n Save, learning how to cross rivers and how to make outdoor-knots, learning-by-seeing how to Pack-float (thanks to Dom at this point), eating Nachos, drinking mannerly (no irony at this point), and a lot of sitting and talking, we started our Sunday around 10:30 AM with a really healthy and delicious chocolate-marshmallow-sweetcondensedmilk-peanutbutter-cadburrycreameggs-porridge, before making it onto the peak of any mountain in our wet shoes. Until there the type 1 fun definitely predominated. We had a stunning view over the Tararua mountains. And also the first part of strolling down the ridge off the beaten track was really enjoyable. Then it started raining. And it got dark. Which was not too bad until we noticed how difficult it could be and that it may possibly take us a bit longer to find a way out of that slightly intimidating forest. But even then it felt really adventurous going up and down steep, well, not paths, but, you know… things between, above, under and next to still living vertical or not so still living, horizontal trees, increasing tension through some bushlawyers, leatherwood and slippery mud. Another good thing was that time passed really quickly between numerous breaks used for finding bearings, keeping hydrated and ingesting as many calories as possible. Of course, not being wet and cold all over could have been nice, but, honestly, that would have been really boring. After all I feel like I do have a tiny bit more bush-experience than I had before the trip, and it was also really interesting to see how capable and enduring our human body acts in such situations. And in the end, returning to your car after a 21 hour over-night tramp, finding that it doesn’t start because of an empty battery is indeed a bit of type 1 fun as well.