Month: April 2011

What’s with the Megs?

Two weeks ago my poll asked which Little Woman you were. I was quite surprised with the responses. The poll responses looked like this: Meg: 12 of 29 Jo: 11 of 29 Beth: 2 of 29 Amy: 4 of 29 I can’t believe it! The largest amount of you identified with Meg! I thought no-one identified with Meg! She was always the most boring of the March girls to me. Sure, she was the prettiest, but other than that, as far as I could see she didn’t have a lot going for her. She wasn’t bright or witty or talented like her sisters. As I read the book, she idolised conventional society, and had to be basically bashed over the head with lessons to make her realise that it wasn’t all it was stacked up to be. She didn’t even realise that she loved Mr Brooks until Aunt March warned her off him. And then she married him and settled down and was a boring, conventional Victorian mother. Blah Me, I have all of Jo’s …

The tramp part two

Published by The Dreamstress

Day Four – Tutuwai Hut to Kaitoke and the track end The evening of day three, we realised we had a problem. We had scheduled our pickup at the trail end for 1pm on day four. While this was easily achievable based on DOC’s estimation of a 4.5 hour hike, our track record wasn’t looking good for making the pickup on time. So we set our alarms for 6am – before dawn. Ouch. So, after bashing round the dark hut at zero dark thirty in the morning making porridge and getting our stuff together, we set off at first light. Unlike the 3rd days hiking, the last days track became not exactly easy very quickly as it wound along the bluffs above the river. Sometimes the track barely scraped the cliff edges, and at other times it dropped quickly down into ravines with streams at the bottom that we needed to ford, and then climbed up steep scrambles of hillsides. It was beautiful, but hard, hard work, and we were all tired out from our …

The tramp: or why I really don’t like DOC very much right now

Published by The Dreamstress

This is the story of the hiking trip I just went on. It started with Shell and I popping into the Department of Conservation (DOC) shop in Wellington and asking for advice on an easy and beautiful 3 to 4 day hiking trip suitable for a group of four hikers: two with no experience and two with a bit of experience. They enthusiastically told us about the ever so easy, beginner suitable Holdsworth to Kaitoke track, and supplied us with maps, track guides, and DOC passes. They told us about how easy it was, and how it was a popular family track. Sounded perfect. Umm. Yeah. Day One – Holdsworth to Totara Flats Hut We got up early, checked all of our equipment, loaded the car, and drove over the Wairarapa mountains, and parked at Holdsworth Lodge. Packs on, we started off. And climbed. Up, and up, and up, and up, the ironically named “Gentle Annie” track. 30 minutes in we were all puffing, stopping every few steps, and seriously questioning why were were doing …