r1chard81

About r1chard81

I am passionate about the health and disability sector. I am currently working as a Community Facilitator supporting people who live with intellectual disabilities. My previous roles are wide and varied ranging from working in support roles in the community including peer support and advocacy, training Police Recruits on working with people experiencing mental distress and working as a Lived Experience Advisor, sitting on Health Policy Committees and Advisory groups. I have a active interest in ensuring that the lived experience voice is heard and included. I myself live with bipolar, chronic anxiety disorder and complex-PTSD. This background is valuable as it provides a unique perspective on the health system and makes it easier to build relationships using the system. Backing up this lived experience I have a BA majoring in Political Science from Canterbury University, a Diploma in Child and Adolescence Psychology and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Psychology) from The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Health Science (Psychology) from Massey University. The aim of this blog is to explore different topics from a health psychology or community psychology perspective. View all posts by r1chard81 →

Well the group is a tramping group we are also a very relaxed and social group several of us also enjoy a good weekend camping. After a busy period including exams and also being unable to do any tramping due to injury I thought a quiet weekend camping would be a great way to recover.

Plans

The original plan was to camp at The Pinnacles but something about my events means the weather goes against us. The forecast for strong to gale force winds and rains meant great weather for ducks but not the best camping weather in an exposed area and no cooking shelters.

**Great weather for the ducks at Kaitoke Regional Campground**

A decision was made to camp at the Kaitoke Regional Campground instead. Most people went in on Friday evening after work with some loose plans of doing a couple of days walks over the weekend.

Hikes

With the weather being ok on the Saturday morning it was decided over a very late and leisurely breakfast it was decided that we would do the Norbett Creek Loop and also explore Rivendell, a location in the Lord of the Rings.

Norbett Creek Loop

The Loop starts at the campground and follows Norbett Creek, takes in the Pakuratahi River Walk and includes the Kaitoke Strainer House which was part of the original water treatment plant for Wellington.

Checking out the view at Kaitoke Gorge
Photo Credit: Ben

Rivendell

Rivendell is the home of the Elves in The Lord of the Rings and was a filming location. There is a short loop walk with information panels about Rivendell as well as the filming on location. Rivendell is the location from which Frodo and the Fellowship left from on their quest to destroy the ring.

**Panel showing the height of different characters in the Lord of the Rings**

Ridge Track

Is a track is a longer track that runs from the campground Te Marua. Over lunch there was some discussion on the afternoon plans with the option of a group doing the ridge track. The rain had set in again so it was decided to wait. Mid afternoon there was a break in the weather and a small group decided that they wanted to do the track. It was decided that they would be dropped off at Te Marua and they would walk back to the campground.

The group that did the Ridge Track were pleased they did it and made it back to the campsite just before the weather broke again.

Social

It was a very relaxed weekend with a range of club members on the event. Friday nights dinner was the responsibility of individuals but a small group organised to do a shared meal of a beef stir-fry. As usual meals were a great bonding time involving much discussion of a range of topics, lots of banter and laughter.

In the evenings the drinks and snacks came out as did Cards Against Humanity which is often popular and often reveals the true nature of a person. What made it more interesting is several members of the group had never played Cards Against Humanity but very quickly found their stride.

**Drinks and Cards Against Humanity**
Credit: Francis

We broke camp mid Sunday morning before the weather turned on us again.

Everyone had a great weekend and are looking forward to the original planned camp at The Pinnacles being held at a later date.

Some trips or events become part of a groups legend and come up again and again around the campfire. One of my trips forms part of this among some members.

The plan
The idea was a winter dinner at Parawai Lodge in Otaki Forks. A very simple plan, have a good feed and some mulled wine and with it being only 5 minutes from the road end we could take in a few luxuries and not worry about the weight of our packs.

A few days before the event there were 20 people signed up, this quickly changed as the forecast called for heavy rain. In the end there was just two people and myself down for the trip. After some discussion about cancelling the trip, it was decided that it would go ahead with the three of us. One of the deciding factors is the wine had been bought for the mulled wine and the person wanted to try mulled wine before heading back to Australia.

Things don’t go to plan
Come the day of heading away my washing decided to fail and flood my flat (becomes important later) so spend much of the day drying out stuff, dealing with the Property Manager and tradespersons. About two hours before I was due to leave I started sorting out my gear and pack. We had decided that instead of sorting out food we would stop in Otaki and do a shop on the way up.

So off we headed in Otaki Forks, at the road end we got our packs out and I realised that due to my fizzled brain from dealing with the flooding etc I had left my boots on the car pad back in Wellington. Thankfully it was a short walk to the hut in sneakers.

We killed some time by doing a couple of short walks and sat on the deck of the hut solving all the worlds problems.

Winter dinner
As we lost light we decided it was time for pre-dinner nibbles including hummus, pate, crackers and bread along with our mulled wine out on the deck as it was still warm and the weather hadn’t set in.

The can opener
It wasn’t till it came to dessert that things came unstuck again. Dessert was a can of fruit, peaches from memory and we didn’t have a can opener. Not having packed food when I sorted out my gear I hadn’t made sure I put one in my pack. After checking with the others no-one had one on them and there wasn’t any in the lodge. Never fear we sorted it………

A great weekend was had by all.

Postscript
I was asked for the mulled wine recipe a few days later so went and dug it out. On the bottom of the recipe it said “serves 6-8 people” and we doubled it between the three of us.

Wellington Tramping Group

We Love Tramping

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