Date: 13/08/2012 - 17/08/2012
Location: Whitcombe Valley, Mungo river, Toaroha Valley.
Weather: clear, with occasional cloud. day 3 we had snow.
Duration: 5 days
Group: Greg Lee, Grace Slee, Gretchen Dalzell, Dan Morgan, Owen Ripley, myself and our tutor was Zak Shaw.
By far the coolest tramp I have been on got to see some cool white water with a sweet crew. day one we walked up the Hokitika and Whitcombe river and camped near Frew hut. day two we made our way over Frew saddle and down into the Upper Hokitika river where we camped the night. Day three involved a steep decent into the Mungo where we meet the other group. once we reached Poet hut we made a decision to push for Toaroha Saddle. once there we face some cold conditions and even had some snow so we had all of us crammed into the Biv that was up there. Day 4 we went over the navigation assessment. After a late lunch in the sun we set off to Cedar Flats. We quickly found ourself walking in the dark. Once there we had a quick dinner then had a soak in the hot pools before a well needed sleep. The last day we walked out to the van at the bottom of the Toaroha track. An awesome tramp and a great way to spend our last away trip of DOIG.
Survival
Date: 31st May - 3rd June
Location: Greymouth civic centre, Arahura river
Weather: Fine
Duration: 3 days
Group: Orec Group 1
Incidents: None
First day we learnt self defense which was quite fun and exhausting the second day we left for our outdoor survival trip we got there and Dave gave us a scenario we had crashed in a plane and some of us had injuries and others were fine we had to set up a shelter make a fire we managed to get it all done and have time to make other stuff i managed to make a spear but didn't catch anything and had a practice at lighting a fire. the only thing we didn't do was test the shelter to see if we all fit. When it came time to sleep only 11 of us fit in leaving 5 people out of it. They decided to go and sleep some where else and we didn't see them till morning. my sleep was super cold i ended up sleeping next to the fire but only got 1 hour of sleep. the next day we were so happy to see the light it quickly warmed up and we had our debrief and Dave then told us what was happening for our solo night. No watches or books and Jono pushed for a punishment for talking to others. We were shown to our spot by Dave then we were on our own i set off collecting heaps of ferns to insulate myself and make a roof also there was no dry fire wood near my camp so i had to go on a big mission to collect some but there wasn't a lot of dry wood. once mt shelter was constructed i started on my fire but barley any of my fire wood was dry so i had to use lots of moss and bed roll to light it it was Finlay going but by then it was dark so i cooked up a pack of noodles and they were the best noodles i have ever had. i then fell asleep really easily i woke up once the whole night and my fire was completely out so i just pulled all the ferns down off my roof on top of me and didn't wake up till it was light the next morning we found out that Jono had talked to Zack so we made him jump in the river(the punishment he made up) then it was time to go back to greymouth but first we stopped off in Hoki and had the best fish and chips ever!!! thanks Dave
Greymouth Hills
Date: 14th May
Location: Hills behind greymouth
Weather: Rain
Duration: 2 hours
Group: Me, Kelly, Keran, Kristy
Incidents: None
practiced some navigation skills and found an old downhill bike track and explored some of it. i fell over heaps due to the rain making everything really slippery kelly thought this was realy funny. We also found some Kawakawa we chewed on it it caused our mouths to go slightly numb.
River Crossing
Date: 11th march
Location: Arahura
Weather: overcast with some rain
Group: Outdoor rec group 1
Duration: 6 hours
Grade: 2
incidents: None
Crossing fast water
We set off to the arahura in the morning and lernt different ways to swim accross the river with our pack and how to cross the river in different sized groups in fast moving water at knee to waist deep and how to get over strainers or out of your pack when you get caught on one. it was a great day learning to cross the river
Practicing getting out of our packs as if it was snagged
Paparoa Tramp
Date: 15th February - 17th February
Location: Paparoa national park. Croesus track and Moonlight track.Weather: Fine
Duration: 3 days
Group: Me, Owen, Gretchen, Astria, Luke, Danielle, Kelsy, Flo, Shivion, Damion, Jake, Cat, Steve and the tutors Keith and Jeff
Incidents: none
On the 15th of February we set off on the first Tramp at Tai Poutini Polytech. We started in Barrytown at the start of the Croesus track with a group of 6 Eco tourism students and 7 outdoor rec students we hiked up to Mt Ryall at 1220 M and camped on the ridge line. On the second day we found water just below the ridge line of our camp ground. we walked across 3km on to Ces Clark hut then climbed up to Croesus knob before heading back to camp around 12:00. After lunch we packed up camp and headed along the ridge line to high point 1104 and set up camp for the night and looked for more water. the following day we headed down the Moonlight Creek track we found the track was washed out in many areas so had to find our own way down then get back to the track further on. Once we got to Anderson's flat were the vans were supposed to be we had another 5 km to go due to a broken bridge further up the road once we arrived we all had a swim in the river and returned back to Greymouth.
Thanks to Jake, Gretchin and Flo for the photos
Walking up From Barrytown
Getting close to the top
On the way to Croesus Knob
Enjoying a Milo at the Second camp site
Epic sun sets on the tops
