The Leader's Retreat
We started off at 9 on Friday from my house in Christmas road. Andrew took his parents new car, and I took the Alfa. We drove to Thames and had a quick bite to eat there. I selected a curry steak pie. It was hot. You could actually see curry powder on the steak. Mmmmmm.
We then travelled up the Kauaeranga Valley to the visitor centre. Here we purchased our hut tickets. This put a downer not only on the consolidated purse, but the spirits of the group, because we found out that the Pinnacles track is closed due to an unsafe ladder.
However this did not mean we couldn't go up to the hut and stay there, so we continued with our plan. We drove up to the end of the road and parked our cars. Unfortunately a steady rain had set in and nobody was particularly keen to get out. Eventually everyone was rounded up, and we began the Billygoat track. The rain soon stopped, and we began a steep walk. Soon we had beautiful views looking back down over the Kauaeranga river.
For dinner on Friday (3rd September) we had mince, and pasta, cooked in the luxurious Pinnacles hut. We passed the evening by playing Mafia, which we taught to a couple of Germans who were up at the hut. They caught on quite quickly, and it made the game interesting having new players with different styles.
After a reasonable nights sleep, with only one snorer, we had a good sturdy porridge for breakfast, and mucked around for the most part of the morning. Towards midday, we looked at youth leadership. I had prepared a study, which contained the following three points:-
1. C.I.A. youth leadership is primarily about kingdom relationship building.
2. Kingdom relationship building requires long term commitment.
3. Kingdom relationship building has eternal benefit.
I might post about these in more detail later.
We then had a nice lunch of hot dogs. Man they were good. I especially enjoyed the carbonified onion.
The afternoon took a different turn, with Scum coming into play. There was much blustering and self inflation during this game. However there was also humiliation for those who thought their God-given place was the President's seat, when in reality they ended up in the seat of the scum. Reminds me of one of those Parables Jesus told. Don't put yourself in the important places, as you may be humiliated by having to move down!
Dinner promised to be impressive, but actually failed to deliver. Jono promised us his famous curried sausages. What we ended up getting was more akin to sausage soup. Nevertheless, it was tasty, if not viscous. After dinner, Kurt the hut warden got out a mini generator, and gave everyone a slide show about the history of the area. It was really really good. Some of the kauris in the slides were just incredibly big.
After the slide show we taught a few of the young people who had arrived Mafia. This proved to be another fascinating evening of Mafia.
The next day, being Sunday, we had a watery porridge for breakfast, and prepared to leave the hut. We walked up to the junction and from their we went our separate ways. The girls and Andrew took the 2 hour Webb creek track out, and Dwaine Jono and myself took the Moss creek (read really hard) track. We intended staying at Moss Creek for the night. We started this walk at 10:30. There were many what we called 'demos' along the way. A demo occurs when we show everyone else what can happen if we do such and such. For instance, Dwaine gave a demo when crossing the stream. It presented us with the dangers of using slippery stones on stream crossings. I gave a demo of how difficult it is to get up when one has fallen over on ones side in mud with a heavy pack on. Jono demonstrated time and time again for us how certain grasses could cut ones hands, and how to fall on ones backside, so as to protect other parts of oneself. So all in all the track was a great learning experience. I would conservatively estimate that there were at least 50 demos on the way to Moss creek.
Along the way mud was often above knee level. Some kind person had put the odd polished stump on the track so one could stand on it instead of in the mud. Only problem with these were that they often caused an unplanned, sorry I mean demo of how much mud one person could wear.
We got to Moss creek, and decided to continue down the treacherously steep track to the car park. The sign said another 3 hours. The time was 16:00. We thought that we may need to tramp for a bit with torches, so we set ofF at a cracking pace but the descent was pretty steep, so we made our way carefully down. Jono even slipped at the very same spot where Peter sprained his ankle last time I tramped here. It did become dark, but we kept close togetehr, and went slowly so as not to lose the 'track'. In some places it was at the very least cheeky to call it a track. Nevertheless, we made our way out, and arrived at the good old Alfa at 19:00. During the day we stopped for a quick morning tea, lunch, as well as a short afternoon tea. All up it took us eight and a half hours. Not bad.
We then travelled up the Kauaeranga Valley to the visitor centre. Here we purchased our hut tickets. This put a downer not only on the consolidated purse, but the spirits of the group, because we found out that the Pinnacles track is closed due to an unsafe ladder.
However this did not mean we couldn't go up to the hut and stay there, so we continued with our plan. We drove up to the end of the road and parked our cars. Unfortunately a steady rain had set in and nobody was particularly keen to get out. Eventually everyone was rounded up, and we began the Billygoat track. The rain soon stopped, and we began a steep walk. Soon we had beautiful views looking back down over the Kauaeranga river.
For dinner on Friday (3rd September) we had mince, and pasta, cooked in the luxurious Pinnacles hut. We passed the evening by playing Mafia, which we taught to a couple of Germans who were up at the hut. They caught on quite quickly, and it made the game interesting having new players with different styles.
After a reasonable nights sleep, with only one snorer, we had a good sturdy porridge for breakfast, and mucked around for the most part of the morning. Towards midday, we looked at youth leadership. I had prepared a study, which contained the following three points:-
1. C.I.A. youth leadership is primarily about kingdom relationship building.
2. Kingdom relationship building requires long term commitment.
3. Kingdom relationship building has eternal benefit.
I might post about these in more detail later.
We then had a nice lunch of hot dogs. Man they were good. I especially enjoyed the carbonified onion.
The afternoon took a different turn, with Scum coming into play. There was much blustering and self inflation during this game. However there was also humiliation for those who thought their God-given place was the President's seat, when in reality they ended up in the seat of the scum. Reminds me of one of those Parables Jesus told. Don't put yourself in the important places, as you may be humiliated by having to move down!
Dinner promised to be impressive, but actually failed to deliver. Jono promised us his famous curried sausages. What we ended up getting was more akin to sausage soup. Nevertheless, it was tasty, if not viscous. After dinner, Kurt the hut warden got out a mini generator, and gave everyone a slide show about the history of the area. It was really really good. Some of the kauris in the slides were just incredibly big.
After the slide show we taught a few of the young people who had arrived Mafia. This proved to be another fascinating evening of Mafia.
The next day, being Sunday, we had a watery porridge for breakfast, and prepared to leave the hut. We walked up to the junction and from their we went our separate ways. The girls and Andrew took the 2 hour Webb creek track out, and Dwaine Jono and myself took the Moss creek (read really hard) track. We intended staying at Moss Creek for the night. We started this walk at 10:30. There were many what we called 'demos' along the way. A demo occurs when we show everyone else what can happen if we do such and such. For instance, Dwaine gave a demo when crossing the stream. It presented us with the dangers of using slippery stones on stream crossings. I gave a demo of how difficult it is to get up when one has fallen over on ones side in mud with a heavy pack on. Jono demonstrated time and time again for us how certain grasses could cut ones hands, and how to fall on ones backside, so as to protect other parts of oneself. So all in all the track was a great learning experience. I would conservatively estimate that there were at least 50 demos on the way to Moss creek.
Along the way mud was often above knee level. Some kind person had put the odd polished stump on the track so one could stand on it instead of in the mud. Only problem with these were that they often caused an unplanned, sorry I mean demo of how much mud one person could wear.
We got to Moss creek, and decided to continue down the treacherously steep track to the car park. The sign said another 3 hours. The time was 16:00. We thought that we may need to tramp for a bit with torches, so we set ofF at a cracking pace but the descent was pretty steep, so we made our way carefully down. Jono even slipped at the very same spot where Peter sprained his ankle last time I tramped here. It did become dark, but we kept close togetehr, and went slowly so as not to lose the 'track'. In some places it was at the very least cheeky to call it a track. Nevertheless, we made our way out, and arrived at the good old Alfa at 19:00. During the day we stopped for a quick morning tea, lunch, as well as a short afternoon tea. All up it took us eight and a half hours. Not bad.
posted by Scotty at 3:24 PM
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