MAC Mag 06

Fiordland Rulz!
The Routeburn and Caples Tramps continued to provide the highlight of the
Level 2 Outdoor Pursuits Programme as they always do. Staff, students and
instructors spending quality time together in a stunning setting where the outside
world doesn’t intrude is magic.
The challenges of completing a 5 – 7 hour day of alpine terrain, cooking hearty
and tasty meals, trying to sleep in a hut full of people who seem to lose their
inhibitions in a crowd as well as making funny noises at night, learning about
the New Zealand bush (thank you Simon King), how not to cross a bog (thank
you Joss), what not to pack (Jack T and Doddy), the magic of hypnosis (thanks
Siobhan) and never to completely trust a hosteller (eh, Rocky) are just some of
the memorable moments.
On this year’s Routeburn tramp our group went from Queenstown to Milford.
It was good, a lot of walking. There was a good view of the lake on the top:
reasonable sized, sparkling and calm. There was beautiful weather and a bit
of ice on the way over the pass. The last day was drizzling but it didn’t make us
miss out on much. The weather progressively got more and more miserable;
well, it drizzled anyway. A short day of walking but a long drive afterwards back
from The Divide. The bunks were quite interesting because they were big wide
mattresses, so four people were crammed like sardines in a tin on one huge
bed. When we met up with another crew we heard stories about rocks in
Thomas Brash’s bag and he hadn’t noticed until he was told. The food wasn’t
that great because there was a lot of burning going on.
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