Outward Bound - Part One

I was Outward Bound when I got on the tiny cigarette plane early on a wet Friday in Auckland. There were seven of us there in degrees of Deaf. I'd met three before, but I was soon to know everyone. Christian, Daniel, Dylan, Melissa, Naia and Scott. That's who else was on the plane. We flew for a hour and half to Blenheim, a place I affectionately know as Bleh, half an hour out of Picton. We waited for a fellow from Invercargill to arrive and I was put to work as a voice, asking the shuttle driver if he could drop off Daniel, Melissa and Naia at the railway station as DANZ hadn't organised transport from the airport to Picton for them. Picton was the same as ever, a tiny, boring little town at the bottom of the Malbourough Sounds. We had the last coffee of that week and a fish burger for lunch and walked around town for three hours until our pick-up at 1pm. Ashley and Maria arrived by train from Christchurch and Emma was dropped off by her parents. Our ages ranged from 16 to 39. The fellow from Invercargill, an unemployed baker called Chris, was never comfortable, and pretty much the first thing he said to me was that WINZ had promised him work at a bakery if he did the Outward Bound course. He wasn't on the course long. You'll learn shortly. Before we could put our bags on the boat we had to do a little exercise, run a rope up our sleeves and down our pants legs and then in reverse on the next person, and linked in this manner, collectively carry our bags on board a little tug of a launch called Sir Roy. As we were shipped to Anakiwa, we introduced ourselves to one another. Ashley tried to go swimming with a pod of dolphins. In mid-winter Queen Charlotte Sound! We shivered to think of how cold it was! Anakiwa is a little small settlement in mouth of a valley at the bottom of the Sound. The Outward Bound school is a ring of watch houses around a round square with a hall and administration and equipment buildings next to the beginning, or end, of the Queen Charlotte Sound walkway. We were billeted in the McKenzie watch house, named after Sir Roy McKenzie, the current patron of Outward Bound. We were told to dress in our PT (physical training) gear and get back to the wharf. Right then, all of you jump in the water with all your clothes on and swim back to shore, as a group! The light was fading - as usual there is too much talking to make sure everyone understands what needs to be done - but it's important to know. On the count of three, we mostly jump in. A few people wimped out and stayed on top of the wharf - but in they had to go, because we weren't going anywhere. Christian jumped in and was back on the wharf faster than he was going in, but back in he came as we all pleaded for everyone to get in so we could get out and have a hot shower. Did I mention hot showers, what a laugh, too bad, no more hot showers until the last day, and maybe at night if you're lucky. We did press-ups and ab crunches under a cold shower in the trees by the entrance, and then got some dry clothes on to have dinner. The Kupe group welcomed us with a fierce haka with women singing from the front of the hall. They were a mixture of teenagers, mostly from Auckland and South Auckland, from the Islands, India and NZ aged 16-18. I met two girls, who became good company over the week, Jelitah and Jacinta. The food was nothing to write home about, but it was very edible. I ended up getting second helpings most nights we ate at base. The thing about Outward Bound is you're always outward bound. We spent Saturday making sure that we could pitch tents and hang a fly and use the triangas to cook with. Ashley and I spotted the Kupe group negotiating the rock wall up on the northeast side of the valley. That night we humped five tents, three triages, two cooking flys, meths for gas, and food, sleeping bag and clothes for two hours along the Queen Charlotte Walkway until we reached the campsite up the little river at the base of the next valley up. We set off before dinner as the light fell. Glow worms, dark rainforest, and the annoying tendency of people with torches to ruin my night vision by shining their light back and forth along the pack train to reassure themselves that we were all keeping together. The moon was up and when I did have night vision back, I could see the debris of the bush floor moving in the light of the torches on each side of me. The two youngest girls, Emma and Naia both had difficulty with their packs and got them carried. Krystofer got one of the packs, they were heavy to begin with, to carry two! Camp was set up quickly and the triangas were hot. I had bought a bag of lemons, green tea, honey, dried fruit and a macadamia nut mix because I knew that while the Outward Bound school was exemplary in providing vegetarian fare, it just wouldn't cut the grade in terms of pack rations. I munched on the nut mix and had a reviving cup of green tea. Naia and I put up our tent in no time at all. There was some talk, but it was dark and I have no idea what was said. We went to bed and I kept waking in the night to adjust my hat and turn over without waking up Naia who was tail to my top. Daniel woke us all up before first light. We had to move out by 9am. We were running on Deaf time, so there was no chance. After we got ready to move out, we had to drop our packs and do some more compass orienteering to settle on a route up and out of the valley and go along the spur and drop back down to Anakiwa. It took four hours to make the top of the ridge up a fairly light bush floor clearly marked with blue ties on line of sight patterns - showing us the route up the hill. The OB instructors pretended not to know what they were for, saying, oh, it must be DOC or something. The first sly manipulation of the truth. Oh no, you don't have to swim tonight means, yes, ohhh yes, you're going to have a swim before the day is done! I didn't promise you that, it was Bevan who said that, and I'm not Bevan. I'm getting ahead of myself here.