Track cutting in Fiordland

 Last year at Easter, I spent a few days volunteering with Permolat Southland at Deep Cove. We did some track cutting and installed some trap lines for the Deep Cove Outdoor Education Trust. Since then I've not been available for further volunteering, but recently I did find the time, this time to recut a track in Fiordland.

Lake Hauroko, in southern Fiordland, is known for the wicked winds that funnel down the lake. There's a tramping track down one side of it, that goes to a lakeside hut at Teal Bay, before crossing a 3 wire bridge at the lake outlet and heading west to another lake, Lake Poteriteri. This is a fairly remote part of Fiordland, and there are no further tracks once you reach the hut at Poteriteri, though there are certainly lots of off track routes to explore. As a result, these tracks don't get a lot of traffic, and with high rainfall the crown ferns soon take over, obliterating the route.

Permolat Southland were given the track between Teal Bay and Poteriteri to maintain, because DOC don't have the time, money, or inclination to clear it themselves. And since this is a route I plan to take with my packraft I was very glad to be able to help clear it.

A week before we went in Les walked through over a couple of days and marked the route with pink tape. There are lots of orange triangles marking the track but the crown fern is so abundant and high that the markers are mostly obscured.

Day one for our team dawned overcast, but there was no wind on the lake and a very pretty rainbow. 

We met at the jetty at Lake Hauroko, loaded Joyce's boat, Namu, with gear and motored down to Teal Bay. There Alastair, John and I jumped out with our gear, and the boat continued down to the lake outlet to drop off two other members of the team, Les and Gavin, plus our full fuel cans so we didn't need to walk them in. Les and Gavin left the fuel at the bridge, and tramped in for a few hours, to camp beside one of the streams and begin cutting further west towards the hut. Our job was to cut from the Teal Bay end to their campsite.

Each day we walked in, cutting and clearing the track until it was time to head back to Teal Bay Hut. We left our tools where we finished for the day, meaning the only thing we needed to walk in was more fuel. Each day the tramp in and out got longer, but luckily for us Ross turned up on Day 2 with his boat which meant we could dispense with the 40 minutes each way tramp to the outlet, and avoid crossing the three wire bridge over the Wairaurahiri as well. There was still the Rata Burn 3 wire to cross each day....

It was frigging hard work. Whilst the others wielded power tools, I cut and slashed and picked up all the cut ferns so you could actually see a track. My back was really feeling it after two days, but I spent some time stretching back at the hut and the next few days had no further issues.

By lunchtime on Day 4 we had cleared all the way to the next big creek after the Rata Burn. As we were eating lunch I noticed a newly marked track (I'd walked down to the stream the day before to get water and the track and pink ribbon markers hadn't been there then) so I followed the track to a different  crossing spot on the stream and could see the tents of Gavin and Les. We had done it!

After lunch and tidying up the final piece of track to the stream crossing, we carried our tools back to the boat. That took a good 3 hours as we were pretty tired by then. But it was a great feeling of achievement to know we had done what we had set out to do, particularly as there had been less volunteers than Alastair had hoped.

The final day we just lazed around waiting for our 4 o'clock boat pickup. Les and Gavin turned up around lunchtime, looking as exhausted as we felt. They too had finished cutting through to the flats before the hut, although with less people in their crew had not cleared the vegetation away as much as we had.

At last the boat arrived and we all clambered onboard, including a solo kayaker who had paddled down to Teal Bay the day before, knowing full well that the wind was picking up after a week of settled weather, making a paddle back impossible. I was awed by her nonchalant attitude, just expecting that someone would give her a ride back. Of course we did. No way do I have that sort of self assurance!

There was bad weather brewing, and I was exhausted. So I drove back to Wanaka to rest up for a few days and plan my next adventure.

That's next..

When the volunteer job comes with it's own hot pools!

In April last year I walked in to Welcome Flat Hut on the Copland Track with my friend Emma. We stayed two nights with the plan to walk up to the next hut further up the valley, but in the end just lazed away the day in the hot pools. Emma had done a gig there as a volunteer warden and I thought that sounded like a nice idea, so a few weeks later I sent in an application to volunteer during Spring 2018. I never heard back from them.

Then out of the blue last week I received an email asking if I, or anyone I knew, was available to volunteer for a week at short notice. I had nothing planned after the Hidden Lake tramp, so I replied I could do it, and then rang them from the top of the St Bathans Ranges to get the rest of the details.

I passed through Wanaka for a couple of days and then drove to Fox Glacier for the night before receiving a short orientation the next morning and then being driven to the carpark for the 6-7 hour walk in. I must be getting fit, because the walk only took me five hours....

At Welcome Flat I met the full time summer warden, Duncan, who finished my orientation and then walked out the next morning. I was relieving him for seven days, as Duncan works 10 days on, 5 off. There's a little overlap to cover orientation and time spent walking in and out. Someone still has to clean the hut on the changeover days.

The volunteer Hut warden's job isn't very onerous. There's a radio report to be made each morning back to Haast DOC office, informing them of hut numbers and what your plans for the day are, the hut needs to be swept clean and kitchen areas wiped down, and the two toilets need cleaning. Then at 4pm another radio call in, when the weather forecast is given, and I'm told the numbers booked at the hut for that evening. Then about 6pm I do a short hut talk regarding fire safety and hut etiquette to the walkers who have arrived, and check their booking slips.

Most huts in New Zealand work on a first in basis, except for The Great Walks Huts where bookings are mandatory. Then there are a handful of other huts which have become so popular that they were getting overcrowded. DOC's solution has been to institute a booking system to control the numbers, which stops these places being overused. It's actually a better solution than building bigger huts, at least for the environment, if not for the tourists!!

Welcome Flats is popular because of the hot pools, though I'm yet to be convinced that walking up a so so river valley for 5-6 hours each way is actually worth it. Most people only stay the one night, it really seems a lot of effort.....

Over the week I am there we are full on a few nights, mostly weekends, but some nights there are only a handful of people. One day the track gets closed due to high rainfall, a not uncommon occurrence on the west coast where torrential rain can quickly make side creeks far too dangerous to cross. I meet a wonderful mix of local Kiwis and international tourists, and even a very brave Swiss couple who took the mountaineering route over from Hooker Glacier. They said the route was terrifying, as the rock on the exposed moraine just kept moving under them!!! (Back in the 70s the Copland Track from Mt Cook to the west coast was a fairly easy tramp, but these days, as the glaciers have retreated, it is only for highly experienced, perhaps slightly crazy, mountaineers)...

The Hut Warden has their own private quarters down a path from the main hut. I have access to a gas hot water system so can have hot showers. But the gas califont decided to pack up after a couple of days! Thankfully there was also a wetback so I simply needed to stoke up the fire and turn the water system over so it used the wetback to warm my water. Coal is flown in by helicopter to service the hut and quarters, but dry wood is hard to come by, so we restrict fires in the main hut to cold rainy days to conserve meagre supplies.

On a fine sunny day I at last manage to walk further up the valley to Douglas Rock Hut, which sits just below the treeline surrounded by glaciers and waterfalls. Unfortunately I only had time for a hurried lunch before having to head back down to my warden duties that evening.

And often, late at night, when all the walkers were asleep, I'd go and sit in the hot pools and look up at the milky way. I really could have stayed there longer.....

But soon my time was over and I had to walk back out. I met Duncan en route and gave him a quick handover, then it was on to the carpark, Fox Glacier village for the night, then back to Wanaka to see Harry for an eye checkup.

Then off to Te Anau for a packrafting course!

I'm adapting

Back in Wanaka for the season and it's another waiting game as the snow gods refuse to deliver enough natural snow to get the ski fields cranking. Most of the main commercial fields are open using artificial snow to create enough cover on the trails, but it's poor pickings off piste. Treble Cone, despite having more snow guns this year, still relies on the natural stuff to make its mostly off piste terrain rideable. So for the second year in a row, it's opening day has been delayed....

Last year, during ski instructor training, it became increasingly obvious that a Level 2 qualification would not get me employment in the Northern Hemisphere ski fields. The initial plan had been to supplement my income with instructor employment whilst exploring more ski fields, but the big problem is visas, or rather the lack of ability to get a work visa once you are over 30.

The ski industry relies heavily on acquiring young staff travelling on working holiday visas. No sponsoring required, and the seasonal nature of ski field employment means that the working holiday visa requirements are fulfilled. (Mostly, employers cannot employ someone on a working holiday visa for more than six months). This situation feeds a good little industry in training and qualifying new instructors each year, many of whom may never work in the industry, or will do one or two seasons before pursuing a more lucrative professional career. Which means the vast majority of instructors teaching beginners to ski tend to have minimal experience themselves.

To work in the Northern Hemisphere ( at least, being Australian I can work in Oz and NZ no problems) I need a sponsored work visa, which doesn't happen without many years of experience and at least a Level 3 qualification. This essentially means making a commitment to taking on ski instructing as a career rather than as a sideline income. I'm not sure I'm prepared to do back to back winters to achieve this....

Last year I met an Alaskan ski tourer who suggested adaptive ski volunteering as an alternative way to supplement my northern hemisphere ski trips. Not being paid circumvents the visa issue, but there's likely to be a season pass or at least some free skiing thrown in. Many North American ski fields, in particular, have large adaptive programs, and getting a US work visa: forget it!!

Adaptive skiing is skiing for people with a disability, be it physical or cognitive or both. Having been a paediatrician and GP I've a vast experience with most disabilities and certainly don't suffer from apprehension of the unknown like most of the public might. I've also often railed against the negative thinking of bureaucracies that limit less abled people rather than look for opportunities, so this field actually ticks a lot of boxes for me. And I can even get a qualification out of it!!

So this year I have joined the Adaptive Volunteer Program at Cardrona. We started with a weekend of training, which involved learning about the equipment as well as the types of clients we would be accompanying around the mountain. Learning how to guide a blind person required us to pair up, then take turns at closing our eyes and trusting someone else to guide us through a lift queue, on and off the magic carpet and ski down a gentle slope. Then there was loading and strapping people in to sit skis, loading the sit ski onto and off a chairlift, and finally, guiding a sit ski down a mountain. Depending on the client's level of disability and experience, this can be anything from the client having full control, to tethering, where the sit ski is guided using ropes, to bucketing, where the sit ski is guided by holding on directly to the back of it. There are mono-ski and bi-ski set ups for the sit skis, and they turn differently, so there are a lot of new skills to learn. But bucketing a bi-ski is hellishly good fun. Those things turn on a pin!!

We also learnt how to use outriggers, used by one legged skiers and abled sit skiers, to provide lateral stability and control, and also techniques and strategies to manage clients with cognitive impairment. School kids with ADHD, Aspergers, Autism or Down Syndrome, are the most common impairments seen, and it's the volunteer's job to help the ski instructor in a school group to keep the kids all on track and skiing together as a group. And deal with the fallout if the kid loses the plot!!

There were a lot of people at the training weekend so although it was fun, there was a fair amount of waiting around for your turn to try the gear. There's more training available throughout the season but the best way will be to get the hours in. For my Level 1 certification I only need to have 4 days of volunteering but I'd rather get a lot more hours under my belt. Luckily, I have the time to do it, and with TC still closed, there's no time like the present.

So at the first opportunity, I jumped on it. This week I've had more training at tethering and bucketing, as well as loading onto the chairlift. I'm not yet fully confident with the bucketing and loading but happy to do more practice before letting me loose on clients. So after a couple of half days of further training I accompanied a couple of volunteers with an adult client with cerebral palsy and limited verbal communication. She required full bucketing but can do some steering by leaning her body, and turned out to be quite the speed freak. As a disabled sailor she sails independently using just a toe to control the boat (must be some awesome electronics involved) so she wasn't scared of adventure so we took her down to Captains and over a few unscheduled bumps! I helped block, which means skiing behind creating a triangulated barrier to protect the disabled skier from the other punters on the hill. Not an easy task with the myriad out of control skiers and boarders on that mountain now its school holiday season!!

What was really interesting was our feedback to each other after the session. Both the other two volunteers, despite both being ski instructors themselves, said they weren't comfortable with the small talk, whereas when I joined them and immediately built up a rapport and conversation with the client that really helped them. Although they did all the physical work, I provided the light entertainment!! Of course I have years more experience communicating with people with disabilities than they do, and zero apprehension about doing so, so I was really glad I could be so useful given I wasn't doing the lifting and steering work. It really is a team effort.

By the end of the session we had all had an awesome time, including our client who was grinning from ear to ear and even heard to chuckle loudly when I sussed out that she was a girl who loved speed and adventure. All of us volunteers got such a thrill out of the experience, and I'm sure the rest of the volunteers helping her out this week will have as much fun as we did.

Later in the week I will be volunteering with a lass with Down Syndrome. I'm looking forward to that.

In the interim, we've had more snow and Treble Cone is scheduled to open tomorrow.

At last!