“On a Mish” #238 Fresh Start (Part Two). Holts/Rolleston Camp. Arthurs Pass National Park. 31.12.2020. I’m sure a lot of us would rather just erase 2020 from our minds. It started with jokes about good vision and now many days locked inside our homes seem like a blurred reality. With all the crap that happened I wanted to see out the year in a good location and more importantly as far away from any pandemic talk as possible. A fresh start for 2021 was what I was seeking and as I stood at the start of the Rolleston River track, I had already forgotten about that thing that changed the world…
The sun brought the temperature up, and the day couldn’t have been any better for a hike in the hills. The threat of showers wasn’t going to be an issue on a nice warm day like. At least the weather was kind to me after a year when the ways of the world weren’t so kind to the people that live there.
I slowly followed the true left of the Rolleston River with my first pack to the portal for the Otira Rail Tunnel. Looking around I could see from here Holts Creek was only another ten minutes or so of rock-hopping in the riverbed away. The spot I had spotted on the map was as good as it looked back in Christchurch, and I was stoked to have taken this option over others to finish my year.
Two trips back to the car down and it was finally time to pitch my tent in my private patch of paradise and bathe. You know you’re doing the thing you love when an uncontrollable grin decorates your face with happiness. After setting up my home for the night I was left with the challenging task of hanging out in the mountains for the rest of the year!
During my peaceful afternoon looking up at the mountains I heard the calls of Koromako, Kaka, Kea plus many more. The pest control had managed to give the birds a chance against the nasty critters we brought with us when we invaded their pristine land. At least now we know what we have done and are doing all we can to remove the unwanted.
Afternoon rolled on into evening, and this meant there wasn’t much left of the year, and that was good because we were all waiting and wanting the fresh start that awaited us in 2021. We are so lucky here in New Zealand that most of us can carry on with our lives pretty much as they were pre-covid, just minus tourists. And if you’re a Kiwi who wanted to visit our most prized tourist places you had the unique opportunity to go there without huge numbers of overseas travelers. An experience much like many, many years ago.
As I sat back and watched the light slowly dim, I could only laugh at my fortunes. I might have been a bit buggered, but I could still do what I loved (just with the effort levels set very low) and once again Aotearoa had presented me with an epic location all to myself. I had found inner and outer peace on the last day of the year. Oh look, here comes a train…
