Just before Christmas DOC bought a large tract of land North of Hamner Springs – for NZ$60m I think? Something like that… adding a lot more land onto what is the St. James Walkway National Parky-ish Area. Anyway.. we thought we’d head in there for a tramp.
Maaike had a visiting Dutch friend – super fun and sporty – Veronique, who came along with us.
It was quite an interesting area really.. seemed like steep valleys all over the place (which I completely forgot to take pictures of ;)
Along the way Steve would periodically look under rocks, as in an entomologists want, and we did see this quite cool transition of a centipede? shedding its old skin (the orange) and coming out blue.
Along the way we introduced Veronique to river crossings. I have pretty much given up on even bothering to think about hoping to have a chance of maybe keeping my feet try on tramps. I would imagine that the number of tramps I have been on where my feet haven’t got wet is a lot less than a quite small number.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4334415523266204539]
After much merrymaking we got to Lake Guyon hut. It is a 4 bunk hut, and as we’d not seen anyone (but a few mountain bikers) for the day we hoped it would be ours. But no, the Belgians had invaded. Nice people though… they had taken 2 1/2 years off. 2 1/2 years. Nice… (though I would go… mental?! ;) ehem, and were spending a lot of their time tramping through the South Island. Also there is a picture of Steve with our cheesecake desert!, and a poem.
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And a video of the hut.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=9204198569098935457]
So had a fun evening there, and the next day started the same tramp back out. We thought about heading back over a different saddle but unfortunately, as we were crossing over a small (but quite slippery) stream, Veronique fell awkwardly.. and my 3rd trip involving a helicopter was about to start.
We all stopped, and while Maaike was quite heroic bandaging up her ankle – Steve showed me these really cool active-predator spiders. They can swim, and don’t make webs (except as a nursery). Should have made a video. Anyway… we started walking out (for about 20m) before it became obvious that even if we could get out – it wouldn’t be until 3am.
So Steve and I hiked back to the car, drove into Hamner, called the police on the way, and quite soon after that a helicopter was organised. So Maaike ended up with a free $2.5K helicopter ride as she got to accompany Veronique back in it.
If you are ever unfortunate enough to get into an accident in New Zealand.. then ACC is the free state accident insurance cover, and it will look after you. The heli trip, A&E;, etc. etc. is *all free*. For New Zealanders (not sure about the rest) your salary is also paid (up to 80%). It also means, basically, that there is very little personal litigation – though unfortunately it is trying to creep in.
So, if you walk down the street / across my garden / in the hills, trip, break your leg you can’t sue anyone! ACC will pick you up, dust you off, and put you back together. It’s a magic system. And it works for anyone who is on NZ soil *regardless of nationality or reciprocity. So there. Another great reason to move / live here. No lawyers.. or few. Deadly.
Oh, and before any Kiwi’s think we were frivolous calling the helicopter.. it turned out to be a compound fracture of the ankle – and really was just an unlucky accident. The doctors said it was a really good thing we stopped and called a heli as if she’d walked far on it, it definitely would have been far more serious to fix.
Also, Sylvia is back visiting from Scotland, she was given a bottle of wine with her family name on it.. and looks quite happy about it :)
Hopefully she and Mark move back soon.
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