|
27/12/99 Lake Tekapo Camp Site Here's a tip. Want to go camping? Avoid large family camping grounds during school holidays. Especially large family camping grounds during school holidays on the banks of the South Island's most renowned water-side beauty site. And don't - repeat don't - position your tent between three drunken, hyena-giggling, young bloods, a Norwegian Champion At Snoring, and several teething babies. Bring mosquito repellent (and don't spray it on the front of your tent in indignation at their surreptitious behaviour: the water-proofing won't stand for it). Bring bloody warm clothes... just in case. And sun screen. Of course. Maybe a larger tent - and a four poster, wrought-iron bed with drapes and frills and little fluffy teddies that go 'baaa-abe' when pressed - would be nice. A proper cooking set. A gourmet chef with all the trimmings? Yes please. What's that? Oh, sorry. Yeah, wonderful place. Tramped up to the Mount John Observatory via a blisteringly hot field of heather and a Herculean downward forest path, and argued. Wandered into a cut-price supermarket to buy more penne pasta for dinner - plus maybe a couple of Chupa-Chups for sweet relief - and argued. Stayed by our tent, tightening up guy ropes and pretending to be proper campers, and argued. Took a 'scenic flight' over Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, plus the rather imposing Mount Cook mountain, and argued. Slept, and argued fitfully with myself. Woke up, and argued with the wash-basin over just why on earth, for the first time in my life, I'd managed to buy the wrong razor blades. Followed the path of a canal for far too long, and spotted some Black Stilts, and argued over the journey's end. Phoned up the Bagges, the Jensens, the Thackrays, on Boxing Day, and argued over niceties. Must be something in the air. And such outrageously warm, summery air it is too! |
editor@tangents.co.uk