Winter Camp - organised by Garden City
Rehash Winter Camp 2025, Garden City H3’s turn.
Oh wot a night! Oh wot a weekend. Oh wot a blow…….No snow!! The theme was cowboy which fitted in with or without the hoped for white stuff!
A first time use of the St Johns Ambulance training centre at Waddington, on the main road to Arthurs Pass and a cracking good facility. Rooms next to the hall and heated ducting throughout so no chance of getting cold! An excellent, well-appointed kitchen added to the lure of the place.
This was a first time experiment in to charging a lot less and getting folk to bring their own drink. This catered for those that don’t drink a lot and also to those who like the spirits as much as beer and wine. (Me of course, with whisky) One added benefit that I noticed on Sunday morning during pack up was the lack of spillage. No lakes of beer to mop up, no half empty jugs of wasted beer. It was great for the committee not to have to mop and squeegee the deck two or three times to clean it!
Friday night saw the usual meet and greet with rego providing a patch, a miniscule cowboy hat and a shot sized cowboy boot we were told to carry at all times. Oh and a non-breakable mug with the Garden City Hash logo on! The boot came in every time a bell was rung with shots dispensed and this happened quite a few times over the weekend! A chicken stew from Klingon was served up during the evening along with other nibbles to give a cushion for the grog. The guitars were out and a session to entertain the troops, along with Vominatrix on her harp. A crowd was constantly involved with one of the card or board games that while much drinking ensued!!!
A bit of a chilly morning to welcome the troops for breakfast with a few obviously struggling to manage food but that was to be expected. Most eased into the alcohol while waiting for the run to start. Many had vetted the surrounding area to notice a lack of good running territory so the arrival of SIF in what was termed The Bus Of Death did not surprise. However On was called and trail headed out into the community for a basically circular route which took in the odd collection of housing that made up the village. Some very odd specimens to ogle at according to the builders among the pack. Back to the camp after a couple of km and on to the bus.
Off, and a good bit of craic on the back seat with 007 and RLD until we ground to a halt on Kowai rd after only 15 mins or so; and the FRB’s led by Dingaling leapt off the bus to start running. The bus carried on to Bevan Browns Bush but dropped the rest of the pack off a couple of km before it. The pack headed away uphill chasing the bus to the first piss stop. All beer on the run and fines supplied by the committee (yippee) which was hoed into with gusto. Self was last of the FRB’s but managed to pass walkers MiMi and Xerox on the last stretch before the beer!
What followed was a luvly bit of hill work above the bush and then into it for a superb track through native bush that many agreed was some of the finest in the country. Having not read the notices at the gate to the bush there was much discussion among some as to the amount of trees that had fallen over. Was it earthquakes? No, a big storm in 2021 had taken down many of the mature Black beech and Kahikatea. Trail eventually popped out of the bush for a piss stop overlooking the farmland. After the very slow arrived and quenched their thirsts it was back in to the bush for another circuitous bit of trail and a bit of confusion to boot. The pack popped out again just up from where they had been before and another piss stop to admire the view again. Back into the bush and this time told to follow double arrows (all trail was set in flour with a dribble dropper leaving arrows) this time it was a case of “we have been passed that tree before “multiplied a dozen times. Eventually we poured out to find the bus and lunch laid out with beer to go with it. A brilliant bit of trail laying and you can see that from the attached trail map!
Back on the bus and home for a protracted fines session out on the lawn (sorry, St Johns competition ground) Fines too numerarse to mention but all well-deserved after which a warm shower awaited all before into the hall and some casual drinking and a guitar session again. This time Dingaling joined in with his acoustic bass which added another dimension to the session. The team played until dinner was called and a fine feast was enjoyed by all. Everyone dressed in some form of cowboy attire and dancing, games and frivolity ensued to the small hours.
On up for breaky, clean up and a frosty recovery run followed by another fines session, then all headed home after a top Winter Camp!
A big thankyou to Klingon, Lip splitter, Bolyx, Small Black, Triple S, Navi and Nazal Kum for organising and to all those that helped in the kitchen.
On On
Dagy