Bush TTP

2013

Date: 9-13/09/13
Location: Wheel creek hut to Kirwans
Group members: Jono, Alice, Rhys, Ari, Taylor, Logan and Phil
Duration of activity: 5 days
Incidents/injuries: None
At the start of the tramp we did a quick refresh of nav before heading off. We didn't get far as we couldn't find the track markings and later found out that it did not follow the route on the map. On the second day we got to Wheel Creek Hut and stayed in tents there for the next two nights as there was heavy rain and thunderstorms. On the fourth day we didn't quite make it to Kirwans and had to sleep 10 kms out. On the fifth day we walked out along Kirwans and we were walking in the snow on the tops.

2012

Date: 02/04/12

Trip Location: Lewis pass, Doubtful valley

Group members: Zenzi Breitbreger, Julia Melville, Jono Irvine, Watson Green, Logan Froriep, Cory Burrows, Rob Bruce, Rhys Hillock, Hugo Boss, Ari Kingan

Duration of activity: Afternoon session

Weather conditions: Fine

Variations in environmental conditions: None

Route/river conditions and if they have changed over the days: Good

Incidents/injuries: None

Learning points: Navigation skills

Narrative: Started late in day as did not have meeting time. Weather was good and sunny. Walked to doubt hut and camped 200m pass that. We had to choose between trying to bush bash up a hill that evening where it would get dark while still walking or staying down hill and camp there then get up early and bush bash. We chose to stay. Had beef curry that night. Tented with hugo and jono. Saw meteorite burn up close which was really cool and amazing.

Date: 03/04/12

Trip Location: Lewis pass

Group members: Zenzi Breitbreger, Julia Melville, Jono Irvine, Watson Green, Logan Froriep, Cory Burrows, Rob Bruce, Rhys Hillock, Hugo Boss, Ari Kingan

Duration of activity: Day of tramping

Weather Conditions: Fog/cloudy, windy

Variations in environmental conditions: Fog

Route/river conditions and if they have changed over the days: Bush bash, Then above bush line walking

Incidents/injuries: Watson and Ari were stung by a wasp. Watson stood on unstable ground and his leg went down a hole which cut his leg badly. This was just before lunch and we fixed it up then. Watson could walk on it fine and it didn't cause any problems.

Learning points: Navigation, Map reading, Picking which way to walk.

Narrative: Frost in morning when we woke up. Had a cooked breakfast then packed up camp. Had to bush bash up hill which took 2hrs 10mins. Watson got stung by wasp on stomach and ari got stung as well. Was interesting to say the least, trying to bush bash. Rob found Zak's walking pole which he was very happy to see. Got stuck in a few places due to trees and my pack getting jammed between them. Legs got scratched a lot. When made it up hill it was very poor visibility due to cloud we still had lots of up hill to go. I had to navigate to lunch spot which was interesting. Had lunch at a couple of tarns on either side of a ridge. Just before lunch watson fell in a whole and cut up his knee badly but could still walk fine. Funny cause that is what the assignment had said. Carried on more hills and it got windy. At times we had to sidle around mountain which was challenging as was steep and slippery. Fell over a lot as did everyone. Got to flat saddle and camped just down from it was was windy at top. I got the roll as toilet digger, lucky me. Had Ari's pasta salad for tea which was good then had a early night and went to bed while still slightly light outside.

Date: 04/04/12

Trip Location: Lewis pass

Group members: Zenzi Breitbreger, Julia Melville, Jono Irvine, Watson Green, Logan Froriep, Cory Burrows, Rob Bruce, Rhys Hillock, Hugo Boss, Ari Kingan

Duration of activity: Day of tramping

Weather Conditions: Overcast at start and windy then cleared but wind was still there

Variations in environmental conditions:

Route/river conditions and if they have changed over the days: Good

Incidents/injuries: None

Learning points: More Navigation and map reading

Narrative: Woke up early after an average sleep. Had muesli for breakfast and were off. We had a tricky time trying to find a way down to the saddle where a hut was. But we managed and had lunch there. I was lucky enough to fall over right as zak was taking a picture. We then had to walk up a big hill again. But after that we stayed at mostly the same altittude. I took over navigating and got us close to camp. We then had to find camp which took awhile but we managed to find a perfect wee spot just at the edge of the bush line. We had sasuges that night and a special surprise which was a coconut rob had carried all throughout the tramp. We all got a bit of milk and of the coconut which was a good way to finish off the night. Rob tried to cook custard but this however did not work so well. We had another early night.

Date: 05/04/12

Trip Location: Lewis pass

Group members: Zenzi Breitbreger, Julia Melville, Jono Irvine, Watson Green, Logan Froriep, Cory Burrows, Rob Bruce, Rhys Hillock, Hugo Boss, Ari Kingan

Duration of activity: Half a day of tramping

Weather Conditions: fine

Variations in environmental conditions: none

Route/river conditions and if they have changed over the days: Good

Incidents/injuries: None

Learning points: More Navigation and map reading. Also learnt that you should always take a bearing of where you want to go before your start walking places where you can not see landmarks clearly.

Narrative: Got up and had french toast which was a nice treat. Then packed up camp and headed down hill. We found a white pole which marked a hunters track if it could be called a track. The group got split at the start but we soon found each other and struggled our way down hill. More slips and slides but amazingly no injuries. It took awhile but we reached the river and found the nina hut track. From there it was easy going and it didn't take to long till we were out of the bush. Zak then had to hitch to the van which took a while but a guy in a red truck came to the rescue and we were soon after loaded in the vans and heading home.

Date: 16-20/7/12

Trip location: Thousand Acres Plateau

Group members: Rebecca, Rhys, Lenny, Ru, Alice, Jono, Watson, Conor, Jeremy, Tim, Ambrose, Zak and Phil.

Duration of activity: 4 days

Weather conditions: Tues- fine. Wed- fine. Thurs- fine. Fri- Fine

Route conditions: Good on track. Steep and sketchy off

Incidents/injuries: My ankle, Lenny's knee and Rebecca's knee

Learning points: Navigation, lemon finding and Hurts to walk for 13 hours.

Narration:

We started the tramp on a four wheel drive track as the van could not get to the start of the walking track. Checking out rapids along the way slowed us down a bit as did the river crossing we had to do. We arrived at camp as it was starting to get dark and talked about whether we would go up onto thousand acres plateau first or stay in the bush. Everyone was keen to go above bush but what we didn't know was how much that decision would cost us.

I started off as leader in the morning as we made our way up a gruelling hill. We got above bushline in good time and conor switched to leader at Poor Pete's hut. Again we made it to our campsite under the needle as it was getting dark but had some trouble finding a suitable spot. We went to bed with what we thought would be a peaceful night but we were woken up by someone yelling out to come and get them. Lenny got out of the tent as did Phily J from his to investigate. Phil recognised it as Zak so he called out to him to make sure he was alright. We heard a sleepy reply from Zak saying he was find so we went to bed confused.

In the morning Zak told us of his scaring dream of being on the edge of a cliff and calling out to Phil to come and get him. After a bit of teasing we headed off to conquer the haystack. We only made it halfway up as we were running out of time so we made our way to a saddle where we were planning to descend via a creek. We were all keen to do it but luckily Phil and Zak still had a presence of mind. They kindly pointed out all of the lemons to us and we realised what a stupid decision it would be to go down a steep, slippery creek after a long and hard morning of tramping. We carried on along the ridge till we stopped for lunch where we melted snow for water then we carried down a sketchy slope through trees that were so tightly packed together when we emerged our head had sprung a forest. We then had to walk up another steep hill and again were going to make another not so wise decision. Phil again told us some lemons and mostly everyone was still keen to go. I however was not so stepped forward and told everyone I didn't think we should do it. Alice backed me up and the whole group thought about it some more and agreed that it maybe wasn't such a good idea.

We found out that decision was a good one as the next day it took us around 3 hours to get down a hill with steep drops and slippery rocks that we would have had to navigate in the dark. Not to mention it was still a while after till we found a campsite that would have been suitable. We started our long walk back along the track not really realising how long we would be walking for. 13 hours after we started from the top of the hill we got to the vans utterly exhusted. Some of us were walking on injuries and everyone was walking on battered and beatten feet. When we made it to Murch at 9 everyone Zombie shuffled to find food before returing to the vans to coma for the trip back. The clean up when we returned at 12 was interesting to say the least...