Bearing beans up the Beansburn
It begins! After a long day of vac sealing and measuring cups of oats, we finally get to do the most fun job. Dropping the food off!
We leave Dunedin at 4am with minimal faff, all making pleasantly surprised comments about how little actual gear you need to pack for a trip like this. The drive is enjoyable, with large moon, drive through misty Otago, and eventual sunrise. Lucky Tom is a good early morning driver. Sam and I both do some sleeping, in preparation for the tasks ahead.
Task 1: Aquire Buckets for rodent and weather proofing our food.
A quick stop in Frankton Mitre 10 sorts us out, where the staff are really helpful and lovely and direct us to everything we need, and find us some awesome vac seal bags with inbuilt nunu valves.
Task 2: Find Tom the Spencer for indispensable food carrying contributions.
How will we possibly do that? We drive into Glenorchy, and see the big red van with coffin box on top parked on GY's only road. Success. Tom Spencer has written a poem for our arrival. It is about a Grebe:
A grebe called Steve
A grebe called Steve, upon the Rees
Past beach and moss she sauntered,
A trout decreed, that she should swim,
And thence she flapped and floundered,
There was no need, but I’m not aggrieved, she said unto the Trout,
So what to do? thought Mr brown, to drag this big bird under?
Follow me, I’ll take the lead, he bubbled up from waters,
so hitherto they went, and hitherto they wandered,
They formed a creed, of different breed,
And coloured river yonder,
an unlikely pair, it was indeed,
As ever since I’ve wondered
He has also enquired with the locals about the state of the Dart Road. They recommend 4WD. Oh well.
Task 3: To fit all people, food and gear into the Corolla, and make it to the Dart road end.
It is a squash, but with one back seat down and things on everyone's laps we succeed in fitting in the car. We get as far as Dan's Paddock (about two km from the road end) before actual four wheel driving seems necessary. We concede that the very heavily loaded corolla might struggle a bit with the rough road, and finally take to our feet.
Task 4: All the beans into the bags!
Four keen beans load 7 days of four people's food into large packs, and begin a new career as pack mules. We engineer carrying strategies for the useful storage buckets, temporarily attach the pack rafts, and begin!
Task 5: Cross the Dart!
The first few braids of the Dart are crossable without complications, however the last braid looks pretty deep and swift for people loaded such as we are. Also, we don’t want to get our dehy wet, we spent so much time removing it of water. Luckily, we came prepared with packrafts! A few shuttles see us and all our gear safely across and having a tasty lunch by the Beansburn confluence. We also take the opportunity to appreciate the really beautiful silt.
Task 6: A long slog up the Beansburn
Now we just have about six hours of walking to do! I am very happy walking through my old stomping ground. There is so much birdlife and green growing wonderfulness. I feel a huge sense of satisfaction knowing I spent so much time checking these traps, and that I have contributed to the survival of the kaka, toutouwai, titipounamu, tui etc that we are surrounded by. It feels so good to be back among mountains, big blue rivers, chaotic glowing canopy. Mt Chaos looms above us, sheer cliff faces, slowly recedes as we travel further up-valley. Bush travel with a bucket isn’t too bad. It has the added advantage that when I get lost in some crown fern, the group can still find me! Tom is stoked to find a four leafed clover. I am full of transcendental awe at mountains and real rivers. We also have a water fight where I discover that soft flasks are very effective at shooting water at people, however then am shown that buckets are even more effective, through sheer carrying capacity.
Task 7: Rock Biv appreciation.
With suitably tired backs, we arrive at the massive Luxury Hotel Complex that is Split Rock Biv. For some reason we trust Tom S to go exploring despite the story he told us about that time he got stuck in a cave. It’s ok he survived. We all enjoy a good Beansburn swim and wash, light a fire, cook a delicious beanie dinner, stoke the fire, set up sleeping mats, draw some cave art, tell some stories and feel happy.
Task 8: Packing the boxes for our future selves!
After a slow morning wake up in the fog, and further fire appreciation, we realise it is time to pack our food and move on. Time to fit 28 people days worth of food into two boxes! It all fits, just perfectly. We seal the vacuum bags. Suck all the air out. Fit the lid on. “Oy what’s this”, says Tom, holding out a big bag of rice. Luckily, it doesn’t take too much to jiggle it in, and everything is sealed fast. We make it doubly secure with copious amounts of tape, carve a warning into the lids (we forgot a pen oops), then move it all into the deepest darkest corner of the rock biv (which Tom helpfully scouted out earlier) and pile rocks on top of it. There’s nothing going to get into that! We assert to one another. Here’s hoping we are right.
Task 9: Exit the Beansburn
From now, it’s just a pleasant saunter back down the Beansburn. We wander downwards, appreciating all the wild places and each other’s conversation. A short stop for river appreciation and stone skipping at the final clearing, no whio sighted but I suppose they should be nesting. Then speed out the final 2km, back to the packrafts. Here, we have a wild fight with the sandflies as we inflate the rafts, forcing us to stand knee deep in the water while we blow them up, then wildly jump in and float away as fast as we can. Floating peacefully down the Dart we reflect on our success, and look at the world from river level, and focus all our attention on soaking up all this mountain wonder. Packrafting is a good end to any trip.
Task 10: Celebratory GY swim
We roll into GY in the corolla at 7pm, reunite Tom Spencer with his red van, and decide late night driving is totally unnecessary for tonight. Instead, we take to the Glenorchy wharf for a glorious sunset swim. Taking off for a three month adventure is definitely an intimidating prospect, especially now it’s getting so close. All you can do is dive in head first, and enjoy it.
And so it was done - food drop one, in place and hopefully safe for when we get to it in… Early February!
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