Persevering Persistent Precipitation

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Persevering Persistent Precipitation Ian Hadfield We were all looking forward to our eight pieces. Kev had lost his Christmas trip to the Garden of Eden; edge at Rummy Cube and was st tarting until we met at the airport on the to lose. Something had to be done. morning of Saturday, January 8th. The long-range weather forecast Friday we awoke to find larger than predicted north-westerlies bringing usual gaps between the raindrops. bad weather to the West Coast for We packed up and convened a meeting the next month or so. down by the creek. A crossing of Perverse Creek looked possible but Optimistic as usual, Kev Thompson, did we want to get across? Half Neil Woodrow, Paul Cooper, Jack our time had passed, the weather was McConchie and I flew down to Hokitika not improving, barometric pressure and "Radicked" to the Whataroa where was still way down. Our options: we found Ian Bunckenburg lying on To press on and probably come down the side of the road amidst a pile the Poerua with no guarantee of of gear. Our first afternoon's getting out on time, or retracing tramping consisted of a ten minute our steps and if necessary sidling stroll to the nearest campsite. to Scone Creek to cross the Perth. A unanimous tactical withdrawal was Sunday we packed in the rain and set agreed upon. We sidled back down off up the Whataroa and the Perth the Barlow to our previous campsite reaching Nolans Hut for lunch. at the Perth. After lunch in the hut sheltering from the rain we wandered up to the Saturday we checked out the swollen confluence of the Barlow, made our Perth which was about a foot up on first waist-deep wade and camped in when we last crossed. Kev, Paul a secluded grassy clearing with a and I managed to forge across on a convenient stream. huge upstream diagonal where the river was divided into lots of Monday morning and it was still channels. The crossing took about raining! Our intention was to half an hour by the time we'd backed climb on to the Great Unknown but out of and re-crossed some of the since we liked our campsite so much stronger channels. Neil, Jack and we made Monday a rest day. Buncks weren't as lucky and were forced back. We eventually Tuesday we awoke to the usual pendulumed them across on ropes in precipitation. The Great Unknown a deep, slower moving channel. Wet looked more like the Great Uninviting, and cold we took off out to the so we sidled up the true left of the Whataroa road bridge. Barlow rather than get bedsores. Reaching Perverse Creek early in the We stayed one last night in the rain. afternoon to find it uncrossable, we We were surprised to see a "Radicks" constructed a campsite on a terrace bus instead of the usual van pick us several hundred feet above it. up in the morning and even more surprised to find the Hollis party Wednesday, raining as usual, was inside. We listened to their pit declared a rest day. and chopper bashing stories and counted ourselves lucky. Thursday another rest day. Conversations were getting noticeably Later weather reports backed up our shorter and frequently ending in decision, but the rain hasn't U.Y.D.C. (trip catchphrase). Books dampened our enthusiasm to return. were getting serialised with the Perhaps in February/March next time. popular "Womens Rcom" ending up in Camp in the Barlow Jack McConchie