A Day Trip up Mt Erebus and to the Hospital

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Party: Madeleine Whittaker, Torea Scott Fyfe, Shar Mathias, Poppy Mitchell and Darius Mortimer-Webster

OUTC was gearing up for their first club trip of the year - Paradise.  This year I was going to be leading a day trip up Mt. Erebus.

Thursday - started feeling a bit ergh.
Friday  - decided it's just a cold. She'll be right....shivering uncontrollably in the van driving over. Just a cold I told myself. I was determined that I'd feel better in the morning - with a weather forecast like that, ain't nobody got time for being sick.

Saturday
I have mixed memories of Saturday. There were beautiful lakes and beautiful mountains. The sky was blue, oh so very blue. And there were wonderful people.
Valley of the Trolls (Maddy Whittaker) 
Somnus (Maddy Whittaker) 
Descending from Mt. Erebus down to Lake Wilson, the Darrans behind (Maddy Whittaker) 
Lake Wilson made for beautiful swimming (Maddy Whittaker) 

The rest is like a dream. Where the light is too bright, and their voices too loud, and everything hurts until it all becomes fuzzy and you zone out, walking but not feeling like you're really there. At some point, the throwing up began, and at some point, I feel like I stopped feeling much at all.

We got to the top of Mt. Erebus and back. Then I found my sleeping bag and passed out in the back of a van for a period of unknown time.

Sunday
Back in Dunedin the next day, still throwing, passing out going up the stairs. Eventually, I ended up at student health. Everything's blurred. They are calling an ambulance, sending me to hospital. Influenza and pneumonia.
In Dunedin hospital

What were you doing on the weekend they ask… well……

“I went for a bit of a walk...”

Doctor - “You have a temperature higher than 40 degrees, resting heart rate of 135, resp rate of 42.
And you felt like going for a walk?"
Me - “It was nice weather and I wanted a nice view?”
Doctor - “Must have been some walk to have a good view.”
Ha. Yeah some walk

Thanks for a truly awesome Paradise team. Exploring with you was awesome. I'm sorry for exposing y'all to Influenza H3N2.....
The team


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