Mesopotamia Madness Field Trip February 2010

Friday-Sunday 12th-14th February

Well, what a weekend we had! High wind, moderate rain, hot sun, warm wind, cool wind, spectacular clouds, low cloud, high cloud, red and followed by a fairly poor attempt at a southerly change. We had high drama, low humour, dust , oh lots of dust. We drove up hill and down dale until we were nearly on top of the world ! We took many photographs.

Upon our arrival at Mesopotamia Station we ensconced ourselves in the cookhouse, allocating bunks on a first come first served basis with the three ladies given a room of their own. We settled in, made our evening meal and then it was into the vehicles and down to the groynes to photograph in the moderate nor’wester stirring up dust and grit. Some interesting nor-westerly cloud formations were seen and I believe, photographed. As the light faded we left the groynes and after stopping at the cemetery to pay our respects to members of the Prouting family, Dr Andrew Sinclair and others, we returned to the cookhouse. There we variously shook the grit off, looked at images on laptops or sat and contemplated the state of the universe. Then showered away the remaining grit and retired to bed.

On Saturday at 0515 hours my old faithful alarm rang. I groaned and got out of bed. put the jug on and went with devious pleasure to wake the others with the news that it was dark, windy and raining. I said we would still go to capture the morning light and split the party sending some with Brian Milner round behind Sugar Loaf and the rest with me to the knob above Les’s Hut. After an hour and a half we were feeling very hungry. After breakfast most of us made lunch and sallied forth to ford Scour Creek, and on toward Big Bush where we drove up to the high terrace for the view and ambled amongst the rocks photographing flowers, or, like me, just sat sipping a cuppa and drinking in the ambience. We returned the way we had come to the "main" track with just one minor excursion because I missed the turn, and then it was on to Felt Hut for lunch. There was very little wind now and the sun was quite hot as we lolled about outside the hut. More photographs were taken here of water, rocks, mosses and flowers.

From Felt Hut we drove back up to the top of the hill, turned around and went back down again, but this time we took the right hand track and headed up to Bullock Bow Saddle. As we were negotiating a slightly soft area one vehicle became stuck. After one and a half hours of tugging, heaving and straining with bloodied fingers and much cursing the offending vehicle was freed by the tandem tow method.

When this drama was over the rest of the drive to the top was reasonably sedate with only one other minor mishap with another vehicle going to ground in a hole. This was quickly remedied. At the top the view was, as one member put it—stunning! I think we all agreed with him! Too soon it was time to return to the cookhouse and have a late tea and/or a shower.

After tea we went back to the groynes for sunset shots. No dust or grit this evening, just a cool southerly breeze and some spectacular clouds. All too soon the light faded and we returned to the cookhouse and to bed, perchance to dream. or sleep deeply. My alarm soon tormented me for our next early start. It was out of bed, put the jug on and go and wake the others with the immortal words, “It’s fine and cool with little wind.” So up the hill again, to a different place this time where the cloud drifted over obscuring the rising sun and the mountains and sometimes us. I have been told there is no such thing as bad weather for photography, so I do expect some wondershots from the digital-daleks. With breakfast beckoning, we descended to a small lake where we were able to photograph some reflections, and birds and other things. After breakfast we packed lunch and headed up-river with various stops on the way, however, finding our progress stopped by a somewhat fast flowing, dlscoloured Rangitata River, we went back to Black Birch Stream for a late lunch and the Quiz. We returned once again to the cookhouse where we cleaned up and reluctantly set off for Christchurch.

My very grateful thanks to Sue and Malcolm Prouting for allowing us access, and thanks also to all members for making this a truly memorable field trip.

ULYSSES

Photographs from various field trip attendees.