The weekend with a mega trap line replacement effort

 Hi,

Okay - so if anyone ever asks me again if I want to come along and help with a trap line replacement effort, I need to consider quite a lot of things. Things like: how many trap replacements are we committing to? Have I hit a personal best in dead lifts in the last month - because I need to be strong. And how is my finger strength? Am I up for a 30km walk?

Yeah - we had an epic day in the bush on Sunday. Let me tell you all about it down below. But first let's cover off Friday and Saturday.

Moxley draped over me

Mike driving - the evening he had a migraine

Thursday evening Mike picked me up from work and we drove out to Paraparaumu to pick up a bench press from TradeMe. Mike was feeling good, despite being at home most of the day with a migraine. He had hired a trailer and it was good he did that as the bench press was a bulky thing. The seller, Wallace, was missing some bolts from the bench press so he took a few $$ off the price. We popped it in the trailer and headed home. We avoided any rain to speak of - which was amazing as the atmospheric river had descended upon Aotearoa. But it decided to hold off while we drove back to Wellington.

Roadie to Paraparaumu

New bench in situ

Next day we drove the trailer back to Gas in Ngaio and I dropped Mike off at potato cakes and then I grabbed some groceries on my way home.

Vince birthday coffee milk

Moxley cuddles

Saturday morning saw us lazily chilling at home. Mike had had a big night with workmates and was not up for much. We did go pick up the penultimate bit of kit for our garage gym - a squat rack. Set it up and tidied the garage to make our gym nicely useable. And I tried my first proper workout. It was good!

Garage workout time

Home gym up and running - mostly

Super rugby final

Back to the lounge to watch the Super Rugby final. I was supporting Manawa - but the Blues came back from behind and clinched it. They looked to be the best team on the day.

Off to bed early and up to pack for the trapline replacement day. The weather had decided to co-operate after dumping rain Friday and Saturday. Woot! We were at Sally and Andrew's place at 8.30am to pick Andrew up and after a stop at the bakery in Whites Line East, we were in at the Sunny Grove entry to the forest park and ready for our day.

Sunday's trap line replacement was a day of firsts for me in many ways. We found a stoat in one of the traps we were replacing. First time I have ever seen one in a trap - fortunately we have never found any on our trap line. It was a beauty too. Big one. I think this was also the longest I have ever walked in one day. Mike recorded 35km - and missed a bit when his watched stopped. He did walk more than me though. And my watch also stopped, so I ended up with 2 walks. And it went flat a good hour before we finished. But I reckon I probably walked 33km or so.

The weather was actually warm all day. We picked up a trap pack thing from Melody in Wainuiomata before we got to our road end. We left the car at 9am and Andrew took one look at my puffing self and decided to smash up the main track ahead of us to get sorted. But despite that, I made it up to the top of the main track in near record time. 1 hour from the car to the top of the hill. That was pretty good for me.

From the junction at the top, we headed off on the Whakanui East line. Looks like this is now just a trap line as the orange markers are few and far between and only blue trap line markers really exist in any sort of numbers.

We met the only other person on this part - a hunter with a bow coming back down. He had chatted to Andrew about 200m ahead. Yay!

Decked out

We got to the first fadge (yeah - I think this is a made-up word too. It is the carrier used under a helicopter for carrying lots of things. In this case, heaps of new traps to get put out) and found that Andrew had left his pack in it and taken some new traps to spread out. He had put 2 or 3 new traps onto the pack hauling thing.  Mike grabbed one too and then we were off. This cleared out the first fadge. I really felt this next section. At one stage it took me 30 mins to cover a kilometre. By the time I caught Mike, he said I needed some lunch. It was probably 11.15am or so by this stage. Porridge was a long time ago already.

After some food and drink, I did feel a bit better. And the terrain flattened out more as we were along the tops by this stage. Still in the treeline.

Old traps

Feet

We got to the second fadge and spread out those new traps. And while Mike and I finished off laying out the traps and baiting and setting them, Andrew ferried the old traps back to the fadge drop site.

I have never set so many traps in one day. Or, well, ever! I failed to set two of them - but Andrew sorted them both. Just needed more grip strength to pull the flappy bit out. But you need to hold the trap open with one hand to get it sorted. 

Last one

Stoat

There was a stoat in one of the old traps. A fine specimen. Lovely black tip on its tail. Glad the trap had brought death to the murdering little critter.

I also had to clear out the most maggoty rat, ever! It was basically a fluid - only keeping a shape due to the maggots inside. But as Mike and Andrew were carrying these old traps on their backs, I needed to clear it all out. Imagine that dribbling down your back! Yuck!

The most maggoty rat I have ever seen

And done - with a 2 hour walk out still

I also carried one old trap in my arms for about 150m before my arms gave out. They were really heavy with years of rain soaked into all their wooden panels. I do not know how Mike and Andrew carried so many back and forth all day.

By this stage it was 4.30pm with sunset just a couple of hours away. Andrew squashed that second fadge bag into the pack rack thing and we headed back. I fell over in this section - caught my foot on a root and went down like a tree. But fortunately I landed on a nice squashy part. Hahah. We got back to the first fadge with no way to haul that one out with our load of gear. So we put an old trap in it to hold it down and continued out.

About 15 mins from here, I had to get my head torch out. And we continued to the junction with the sunset in the far distance a bright orange through the trees. We could also see the twinkling lights of Wellington at various times through the trees.

45 mins from the junction down to the car. It was dark, but pretty easy going on this track compared to the East Whakanui so we made good time. We heard Ruru and Kiwi calling in the bush as we walked. It was a really peaceful and beautiful finale.

Wellington and Wainuiomata framed by the last of the sunset

We were all tuckered out after an epic day. We left the car at 9am and got back to the car at 7.45pm. Yep - a big day in anyone's language.

We dropped Andrew at his place and headed home. I got in a welcome bath and relaxed and Mike even came down to give me some delicious soup. Hahahah.

What a huge day. Mega. And at one stage I did not think I could finish it. So I am pretty chuffed I managed to stick it out. You need to be fit for this type of work. Not sure my office job prepares me for this. We got through 1½ fadges of traps. That is huge. 22 traps we laid out. And baited and set. And 22 old traps to carry back to the fadge point for a later retrieval.

I bet we are all feeling it today. But also - it feels really good to have achieved that.

Thank you for that opportunity to the trust. The native critters thank you too. I know some people do this a lot. Wow!

Have a great week ahead everyone.

Love,

Angela