Last weekend I attended "Bushball"- a camping trip/drinking trip to Mount Aspiring that is organized by the Tramping Club (a.k.a. hiking club) at the University. There were about 40 people that attended the event (the vast majority of whom were international students). We drove for approximately 5 hours in 12 seater vans, stopping at a number of pubs along the way.
As we got nearer to our destination, we had to drive through packs of sheep and cows that were flooding the middle of the roadway. I'm really not sure why these animals were able to roam free outside of the gates... but that's besides the point...
Anyhow- we spent the first night camping in a parking lot. Some people brought tends to sleep in, others slept under the tent flys that (I assume) were provided by the tramping club, and yet other slept in the vans. Not me. I decided, in all my wisdom, to spend the night sleeping under the stars... in -5 degree Celsius weather. Although I was not alone, the others that slept outside had mattress pads which help to insulate from the freezing cold ground. I now know that mattress pads serve a purpose other than cushioning. So, as you might imagine, I was too freezing cold to get very much sleep at all. But truth be told, I think most people were too cold to sleep that night so I'm not sure it made a difference that I slept outside.
The only benefit of not sleeping, was that I was up at sunrise and snapped some pretty good pictures-- even some using my self-timer :)
The hike took approximately 2 hours, including a number of stops to eat our packed lunched and to hang out and soak up the gorgeous scenery.
Our second camping sight had a large "hut" that we stayed in, as well as a common area for partying and eating. After we arrived at the hut, we dropped our bags and did a little more hiking around the area. Later that afternoon, I snuck in a little nap before changing into my costume for the evening's festivities.
The theme of the party was supposed to be "animal kingdom" and you had the option to either wear fancy clothes, or dress as some sort of jungle animal. Seeing as I didn't want to ruin any of my nice outfits on a camping trip (and since it was freezing), I brought a tiger costume with me. We all enjoyed a delicious dinner and then the common room turned into a happening party. We busted out our alcohol (which we lugged with us on the hike) and someone did a great job at DJing for the evening! I hit the hay pretty early that nice since I had very little sleep the night before.
The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and hiked back to the parking lot (the same way we came). It was pouring rain, and so we walking straight back without stopping for a break.
I was happy to get back to the vans and head back to Dunedin at this point because my feet were sopping wet and I had juuuuuussttt about had enough hiking... for at least a week!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment