A5: In Which I Tramp With 150 Others

This past weekend was the first trip of the year with the CUTC--Canterbury University Tramping Club--called "Freshers". On Wednesday, some friends and I signed up for the trip along with roughly 150 other people. For $25, we were going to get transported to the trail and receive two meals. We knew that with so many people it would be pretty hectic, but we decided to go for it because we wanted to go tramping, and this tramp was already planned out for us.

On Saturday morning, I walked to the University car park rubbing sleep out of my eyes. I didn't go to bed late the night before, but I'm pretty sure it's the earliest I've woken up in a month (7:00 am). I set my pack down and watched the rest of the group trickle in with the same looks of fatigue on their faces.

Around 8:45 our main mode of transportation--Party Buses--rolled in. Now, when I write Party Bus, I intend to capitalize it. Party Bus is a company that usually transports students from Uni to downtown Christchurch on the weekends. The buses are fully equipped with bad dance music, strobe lights, and [on Friday and Saturday nights] alcohol. I have yet to take the Party Bus down town, but I'm sure I will at some point. Anyway, anyone can rent a Party Bus for any occasion. CUTC rented two to take us 2 hours west to the Southern Alps. Specifically Arthur's Pass. You could tell the drivers were probably a bit jaded because the early hour didn't stop them from blasting techno and smoking cigarettes the whole time. I'm surprised he didn't turn on the strobe light.

When we got to the trail head, we were told that there were three options to tramp. The first was the Extreme (!) option. It involved a seven hour bush-whack that went entirely out of the way. The second was the Stream option. This option had participants taking the most direct route up Andrew's Stream. Although it was direct, the cons included a lot of scrambling up and down large rocks and guaranteed wet feet. The last option was just the normal track. A three-hour hike on a trail that went up and down and was said to be the easiest.

Our group decided to take the track because (a) we didn't need a club to tell us that we were extreme, and (b) there was no way in hell we were going to get our feet wet when it was only 50 degrees and cloudy.

About 15 minutes up the trail we had only gone about 50 yards. This is because there were so many people it was like driving in rush hour: stop and go. So we took off our packs and stopped for another 15 minutes. Even though we were dead last, we knew it would be more fun to keep a steady pace than to stop and start all day long.

I know I've said this countless of times, but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. We were on a narrow path in woods so thick you [literally] couldn't step off the path. The ground was spongy from day old rain and layers of dead leaves, muffling most sounds. The trees were covered in some sort of black lichen causing them to look burned, but since they weren't, they were in full foliage and the contrast was striking. Speaking of contrast, the trees were also covered with fine mint green moss--akin to cotton candy. Occasionally we would come across bright purple fungi--they were shaped like mushrooms but without stems (on a side note, we began the fungus section in biology today and our professor told us that the fungi in New Zealand are infamous to mycologists. They come from all over the world to look at the amazing specimens. A blue fungus is even featured on the 50 dollar bill...next to the queen hahaha). And due some other type of decomposer I have yet to learn about, a lot of the dead wood on the ground had turned a deep blue. The red rock in Utah is amazing, yes, but it finally has a competitor.

As we were hiking, we passed and picked up other members. Since most of us had just met, we talked about anything and everything to pass the time. From "most embarassing moment" to "how did you get your name", nothing was left untouched. Thus, by the time we got to the campsite, I felt like I knew these 10 or so kids for more than a couple hours.

After about 2 1/2 hours of hiking, we descended into the valley to walk along the stream. Tall (waist-chest high) grasses replaced the trees and the silence was cut with the rush of water. We stopped when we met up with about 50 other students sitting on the trail. They filled us in on the whole "the captains are looking for a good spot to settle down" plan. So we dropped our bags and sat down for a well deserved break. I even took the time to get some light shut-eye while the sun was still shining. Luckily, the chosen spot wasn't too far, so we walked over when the time was right and set up our tents. Between 8 of us, there were three tents. Two others brought their own and [thankfully] my friend Cliff let me borrow his. The ground here was also covered in grass so my choice of not borrowing pad didn't end in a sleepless disaster.

Our group gathered up some more people and walked back down to the river bed to occupy ourselves before dinner. We ended up playing a variety of camp games as three of us were previously camp counselors. I was quite proud of our ability to entertain ourselves.

Dinner was provided by the club and consisted of couscous ("the rice so nice they named it twice!") and a mixture of fresh and canned vegetables. Although bland, it was filling and we were all grateful to have a nice hot meal prepared for us. I was really impressed with the club's guess on measurements. Cooking for 150 people can't be easy, let alone having to carry it all in and prepare it over a fire.

After dinner we played some more games (namely, charades), met some new people and happily crawled into our sleeping bags.

The following day was quite similar to the first. We were given the stream option or the track option. Again, we didn't feel like getting our feet wet so we chose the track.

Coincidentally, though, my shoes got soaked about 10 minutes before we reached the campsite the day before. There were trenches all over the grassland and I didn't see one and stepped right into it. My shoes never dried so I decided to hike down in my Chacos (extreme sandals). Even though I hike in them all summer and feel very confident in them and myself, other people didn't and constantly asked me if I was going to be ok. Not my friends, but people I didn't know. I would have appreciated the concern, if it was genuine. The thing about any extreme outdoor sport (climbing, tramping, skiing, etc) is that a lot of people think that they're better than everyone, and that the gear you use represents how extreme you really are. For example, many people will choose to buy a $500 ski coat over a $150 one because it's a well known brand. Just one of the many reasons why I choose to ski with my parents--they don't judge me based on what I wear. I found this was really apparent on this hike, and you got it from both ends. Take "Bob" (not his real name, of course) for instance, who kept telling me about his $500 Gortex hiking boots and how he was going to hike down the river instead of the track so that he can actually get some use out of his $500 Gortex hiking boots. We all knew it's because he didn't want to go up and down hills, he probably would have gone on the river anyway...but he had to let us know he was hard core because he had $500 Gortex hiking boots after all. In conclusion, this whole "gear=extremeness" attitude is annoying and I'm sad to see that it extends past the States. Just because I don't own top end stuff doesn't make me ignorant or bad at a sport, and conversely, dropping a lot of money on great gear isn't going to make you any better. So, sorry to rant and ramble, I just had to get it off of my chest. Where was I.....?

Oh yeah. The hike down. It was about the same as the hike up. I decided to give everyone some space though so that I could have a quiet walk by myself. It was a lot warmer and sunnier the second day, and I really enjoyed the peacefulness of the area. Woods still amaze me as I've never really spent much time in them. I love open spaces, but I'm becoming much more keen on thick forests.

I reached the bottom around noon and a shuttle transported those of us who were down to a much larger river to practice river crossings. Many of the tracks in New Zealand require multiple river crossings--and by that I mean rivers that are about 30 yards across and can be as deep as your chest. The correct way to cross these raging waters is with a large group standing in a line parallel to the shores. You hold onto the backpacks on either side of you with the heaviest/largest person upstream to break the current and attempt to walk across. I decided to just watch as I didn't feel like submerging myself in glacial melt for the hell of it. It was pretty intense and props to those who did it. Most of the groups ended up losing their footing and floating part of the way...backpacks and all. I can't say I felt like I missed out.

After a barbaque of sausages (falafel for the veggies) and white bread (what a surprise! every BBQ I've been to has consisted of sausages and white bread) we loaded back into the party buses. This time we were all ready to dance, and dance we did. Pretty much the entire ride consisted of most of us in the aisle of the bus grooving to dance music while epic scenery flew by.

We got home around 6pm, and unsurprisingly went our separate ways, showered and went to bed. It was quite a weekend. Although it was only an overnight, I hadn't been tramping in so long I was beat. But in a good way. It felt so good to get out and move.

The rest of this week has been pretty dull. I did go dancing on Monday though which was really fun. We learned how to Modern Jive and Salsa. Other than that I've been focusing on school. It's finally starting to pick up which is such a bummer. I generally enjoy school, but here I feel like it's such a nuisance. It's been such a vacation so far and thinking about school makes me dread getting up in the morning. Haha, oh well.

And now I'm off to class. All day. Yay!