Monday, December 10, 2007

Fruit Cake Oatmeal


Day: 75
Naseby to Daisybank
Time: 2:35
Distance: 38.9 km
Avg Speed: 15.0 kph
Terrain: F-L-A-T
Location: 45 14 46.5 S, 170 16 34.0 E

Ahh…what a way to start a day. We had some oatmeal left over from our backpack a couple of weeks ago and since we were out of our regular breakfast cereal, we ate it. I knew our menu was coming to this so while on Oturehua I had bought some mixed dried fruit to spice things up a little bit. We got the coffee made this morning in the process of getting the oatmeal ready to go I noticed that the dried fruit was actually a fruit cake mix. I am not a fan of fruit cake by any means, and the thought of having candied orange and lemon peels along with “artificial” dried fruit didn’t excite me too much. I was hungry though, and I ate it as long as I could. Leslie and I could only half laugh and half groan as we ate the oatmeal down this morning. We were glad that we had planned a little café stop later that morning when we passed through Ranfurly. I guess I really need to read labels more carefully!
We got back on the rail trail in Ranfurly and headed towards our bush camping destination of Daisybank. The camp really isn’t in Daisybank itself, but further down near the Red Dwarf Ganger Shed. I thought that was too long for the destination line, so I left it as Daisybank. We are actually staying in our first bush camp in New Zealand. We had thought that we would do it a lot more, but with all the holiday parks in this country the DOC and the Government do a good job of keeping the bush camping sites to a minimum. The site we have is right near the river and we are surrounded by a couple hundred of our wooly friends. They have kept us at a distance for now. Hopefully it remains that way.
We ate a little dinner and had some candy bars for dessert. We ended the evening with a rousing game of skipping stones down by the river. Leslie had the best skips by far, but I attribute that to my height and the poor interface angle of rock and water. Oh well, it doesn’t really matter that much, I just enjoyed spending some fun time with my lady friend.
I have been working on a book while on the trip. I haven’t come up with a title yet, but it is about the introduction of possums to New Zealand for the fur trade. It is centers on the breeding female Charlotte and her two suitors, Hector and Anthony. I see it as a cross between Dr, Seuss and Edward Grimm. The first part is the demise of the first couple of litters due to various accidents. Did I mention that Hector and Anthony aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed? Here is a short excerpt:
Georgia the beauty was shot with a bow
Howard the strong one was hacked with a hoe
Ian the dolt was nabbed by a seal
Julia his equal became a poor farmer’s meal
Kermit the clumsy one fell out of a tree
Lucinda the serene one was allergic to a bee
Mason the curious one went one step too far
Neil the sickly one was crushed with a bar

You get the picture. I have an entire alphabet of names and fates, but this is just a taster. Any comments would be welcome.
That is all for now.
CK

4 comments:

Class Act said...

This 'possom poem sounds like something you would make up CJ!! Keep on pedaling and having fun. The photos are wonderful, everyone is enjoying all the "art" shots. Your photographer has a great eye!!

JennSean said...

WOW, that poem brings tears to my eyes...right on man.
-JH

JennSean said...

Forgot to add - try cinnamon on your oatmeal!

Neil said...

Long-belated response, but the possum story is fantastic. As someone named Neil, I particularly liked the one who was crushed.

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading everything you guys have put up.