“On a Mish” #274 The Perfect Day – Part Three. Te Anau / Milford Road. Fiordland National Park. 26.4.2021. I once went on a mission with my cousin (@nzjimny) and we rocked up to a campsite on the Wilberforce Riverbed. We had the beats cranking, a glorious feed, then went to our respective sleeping quarters. The peace and serenity we left behind when we went to sleep was long gone at 1am. A fierce wind smashed our campsite, and I’ll never forget the mad rush in the middle of the night to secure the campsite. But now, months later, I had just had the perfect day…
A morning of writing and inside jobs had led to an afternoon skate. And finally a night in Fiordland camping on the Milford Road. The rain had set in by the time I went to sleep, and I awoke to a strange weight on my head. It took me a second or two to workout what was going on. The tarp had filled up with water during the night, and thanks to its incredible water resistance there was a small lake now pushing down on my tent, and my head! Fixing this problem was a mission in itself. Out in the heavy rain at 3am isn’t that much fun, but funnily enough it added to the perfect day as now I had another chapter in this very eventful 24 hours. Due to the way I had rigged my tarp to a picnic table and my car, the water had pooled in the middle. I thought the tarp’s angle would mean the water would just simply run off it to the ground, I was very wrong. Heavy rain, 3am, half asleep, attempting to move a small lake off my tent… now this is what I call a mish! There was a surprising amount of weight to move, and when I finally got a good enough grip to move the tarp of course the water would all spill out over me! Now soaked, but free of the lake that got me out of my tent in the first place, I jumped back into the warm and dry of my tent. A clothing change mid sleep is definitely not a normal part of my adventures, but now it was a very damp part of this one. I got myself dried off and could finally get back into my sleeping bag. It took me a while to get back to sleep, and as I lay awake the rain continued to fall. I usually get up early, but I thought I had earned a sleep-in after the events of the previous night.
Well past early-ish I finally dragged myself out of bed and began to plan my pack down strategy. My very waterproof tarp was going to be the x-factor that would keep me reasonably dry while packing my gear into the car. I could see my breath in the air, and the rain was laced with sleet, summer was long gone in the Eglington Valley. My final task was to bundle my wet tarp into the back of my car and head home. For less than 24 hours this day had it all. Writing NzHikes stories, skating and camping. The perfect day, I couldn’t have asked for any more!!
