How to Find a Flatmate

How to Find a Flatmate After years of threatening to buy a house I finally got round to accomplishing the task in early 2004. But of course that wasn’t the end of the story – it was merely the beginning. I spent most of January packing up the old flat and then unpacking it all again in the new house. I thought I’d never see the end of the numerous My choice of escape route was the club’s Waitangi weekend trip to Mole Tops in Nelson Lakes. As an easy-medium trip I hoped it wouldn’t be too exacting and would allow me some time to relax. The trip was to be led by Grant and Lee-Ann and included other punters whose company I’d enjoyed on other good tramps with the club. So it all looked promising. But I didn’t realise quite how productive the trip would be in solving the one last, crucial task in the whole house moving saga – finding a flatmate.

There were 11 of us on the trip – 10 of us walking in one direction and Struan walking in the opposite direction. I thought I needed to get away from it all, but obviously he had an even greater need. Splitting up the party this way did mean that we avoided the transport issues you get when the tramp isn’t a circular one – but I reckon the main reason was that Struan could fish to his heart’s content and they’d be no-one there to hassle him when he didn’t catch anything.

The first day was lovely and sunny (little did we know Taking a break on Mole Saddle (Grant Newton)

Tramping & Mountaineering 2004 Lisa Tinkley cardboard boxes and felt the need to get away from it all.

what February had in store for us the rest of the month). The first part of the day was spent climbing, but it was reasonably gentle, and the reward was some beautiful, vast tussock tops. We strolled along looking at the magnificent views and then dropped our packs by a tarn, at what would turn out to be our campsite for the night, and headed up to the real tops. Now this was a tough climb, especially in the heat, but we made it and once again the views were fantastic. This time we could see across to the ranges – in fact several ranges – the sky was clear, the sun was out and the odd manic punter in our midsts even braved the icy tarns to cool down.

So how is all this helping me to find a flatmate you ask ? Well, without knowing it the day was providing me with opportunities to check if my future flatmate met the characteristics I was looking for. So what are those characteristics ? The ad in the paper said – WANTED : non-smoking, vegetarian, female, mid 30s - and so far the answers were tick, tick, tick, tick. Excellent – but what else could I find out.

John enjoys an afternoon dip at 1600 metres (Grant Newton)

Day two wasn’t so great on the weather front. We woke to drizzle in morning and set out across the tussock that by now was enshrouded in mist. We didn’t travel too far before we started our steep descent down to the valley. Down hill, as many of you will know, plays havoc on the knees, but on meeting Struan doing the long haul up I had to admit that any issues with the knees weren’t so bad after all. On quizzing Struan we found that he was still to catch a fish – but of course he still had a day to go. And luckily for us our day was almost over as we found a neat six bed hut not far from the end of our descent – this and a couple of tents would be our home for the night. The rain was now heavy and the little stream nearby was quickly turning into a raging torrent. But we didn’t care – with a warm fire giving us a makeshift sauna, plenty of good books to read and card games to play, we were sorted.

And how’s the flatmate hunt going? By this stage a few of the secondary criteria had been tested. Do we have similar interests? Can we get on easily? And do we have a similar outlook on life? Well, obviously we have tramping in common and found we liked to travel. In fact we spent many a happy hour chatting about life – so another few ticks there. And let’s face it – the tramping club has lots of active, no-nonsense, outdoor females as members so I couldn’t really go wrong. Another import question is - will they pull their weight with the chores? Already it was quite obvious that it would be me that was the more slovenly one of the two of us – so no worries there, either – another tick. The final day was spent strolling down the river. Well, that’s not quite true – it was spent crossing the Tramping & Mountaineering 2004 river – a total of over 40 times. We did try to keep a count but eventually gave up. The sun came out again, the valley was beautiful, so it as such a shame that we had to share it with a plethora of wasps and sandflies. The wasps seemed to have their favourites – several of the groups had stings into double figures. Some of us escaped the brunt of the wasps’ wrath – but in the end I think only one of us left the valley completely unscathed. But that’s Nelson Lakes in February – lovely weather but you have to share it with the locals.

So the wasps were no surprise, but what greeted us at the bus was. Struan had caught a fish. He had lived up to his reputation as the club’s rain god (though with only one wet day out of three, he’s in danger of losing that mantle). But to catch a fish – what is the world coming to? There are certain things you come to rely on, and Struan’s inability to catch a fish is legendary. Obviously it unnerved him too as he has since felt the need to flee to the UK. And my task for a flatmate … the search was now complete – to the previous list of characteristics had been added:

Practical – excellent at making fires and chopping wood – and a good job too as I am absolutely useless at both;

Tidy in shared areas – we had to be as we shared a Huntec fly between three of us, and that’s hard to do it you are messy. But note I emphasise the shared areas bit and read your own interpretation into what hasn’t been said.

Camping on the Mole Tops (Grant Newton)

Copes with adversity – and she had to considering the number of wasp stings she acquired. So coping with truckloads of visitors from the UK was a breeze after that. And most important of all - copes with my idiosyncrasies – after three days spent in the bush with me she had a good idea of what she was letting herself in for, and she still decided to move in – mad woman.

One of the many river crossings in the Tiraumea (Grant Newton)

Tramping & Mountaineering 2004 So there you go – how to find a flatmate and have a great weekend away at the same time. You can’t do better than that. Or can you?… I do remember going away for Wellington Anniversary a few year’s back with a certain club newbie, Lee-Ann. The tramp was led by our then chief guide, Grant. Isn’t it amazing what a tramping weekend away can achieve?