Pre-Adventure Training Camp

Before the party sat, Sam walked down one side of them and Gracie squeezed past the other side of them as ordered, and confirmed Sam's count by reporting all were present and uninjured apart from Judith Henare who had sore ankle.

"If you can no longer walk, we'll have to abandoned you," Sam said.

But then, as if responding to the horrified looks and comments from members of his team, he said: "We'd be back next day by chopper to lift you up by winch, attempting not to let you bang against tree trunks."

"I already feel better with just this small rest," Judith said brightly.

Later, after breathing more heavily negotiating steep hills, the group walked through a flat section of dead and reviving trees, with Sam saying a fire had ranged through that stretch of trees two years earlier, the party went down a steep grade, slipping and sliding and he called a rest.

"Right, now for some truths. We are actually walking only seven miles, not the 15 miles I started earlier. I wanted to see how you'd react to coping with a 15-mile slog so soon after arriving at the camp. You may be interested to know that your overall rating was higher than the bulk of groups that come here. We have been walking what I call, in rough military euphuism - ladies, prepare to flinch -- the leg-opener."

"The rougher walks to come include two with low-grade rock climbing and surviving a lake adventure."

"I know that some of you will be thinking tough conditions don't apply to you because you're booked to take fairly easy expeditions, much of it riding on vehicles or in water-craft. I have to report to you from personal experience and hearsay, that's there a tendency when the easy-goers are abroad, they can be tempted to engage in some of the harder stuff when on a free day or between booked adventures."

"Even from today's leg-opener, some of you will already have weary legs but at least you have experienced slipping and on the edge of sliding out of control and wading through a baby of a mire, plus getting water in over the top of your boots. Imagine experience an overnight adventure of double or treble the difficulty of our leg-opener and feeling pain or unease and attempting to talk to a guide who only knows a few words in some languages outside of his incomprehensible native tongue and helicopter rescues or lift-outs are available, at a huge price, if indeed they are available to be called by radio."

"Now everyone, take out you phone and listen for the dial tone."

"Hold it, don't bother, where we are just now is between reach of cell-phone penetration, although if you climb higher you will eventually pick up signal strength. Am I getting through to you?"

That was greeted in silence.

"Right, we are three miles from the camp. It's all on an incline but it's only three miles. Gracie take the lead, and I'll replace you at the tail.

"Yoho, gang, onward," Gracie called, walking off in the lead. "Don't dilly, dally, because there's a real mean bastard to deal with behind you."

Sam was rather surprised at the speed people in front of him had moved off so quickly. They ought to be feeling tired and ready to whine about it.

Southern Alps Pre-adventure Training Camp for Imminent Travellers - 03

The tramping (hiking) group returned, most looking rather weary, and the mechanic, painter, plumber, roofer and handyman Rusty Grimes, wiping his hands on a rag, watched them troop into the barracks, grinning. New intakes, who all thought they were fit, mostly looked like that after there first trial outing at the camp.

He knew most would disappear for a quick shower and then slope off for a nap, while a couple might head straight for a hot tub with a bottle of wine and glasses

At 6.30, after checking the outdoor hot pools and lounge and recreation buildings, the only person Rusty found was Gracie Hart, performing a light workout on a rowing machine and she was reminded that dinner was schedule for 7.00.

He reported his findings to Sam by phone and then sounded the fire alarm as a general alarm and a recorded message of a female, with a professional-sounding speaker's voice, boomed out:

Southern Alps Pre-adventure Training Camp apologizes for interrupting your nap, chat or prayer session but you are reminded that dinner will be served at 7 pm sharp. No meals will be served after 7.10.

The alarm sounded again at 6.55 with a short reminder:

In 25 minutes, the kitchen will close. Be late and you go without a supplied meal tonight. Please keep this in mind.

By then, all of the team of ten were already in the dining room choosing their complimentary one bottle of beer or big glass of wine or Apple Cider from several cardboard casks. Water was available on each table.

Someone called out when that broadcast ended, "The ruddy Gestapo runs this camp" just before Sam walked in appearing to have a baton or his military cap under his arm, or was that was just imagined?

He sat at the staff table this evening and thereafter would circulate at a difference table as a courtesy each night, his seat marked with a reservation sticker.

A bell sounded and Sam stood and said Grace and then said as the then two female cleaners who were also maids and kitchen hands began serving the meal.

Sam announced, "Tonight's meal is roast beef, splendid Yorkshire Pudding, thick brown gravy and roast vegetables and greens. Desert is apple pie and whipped cream. Inform the server if you would prefer a vegan meal."

"Now for tomorrow's program: Reveille is at 6.30 and by 7.00 you need to be on the playing field jogging or walking if you prefer and at 7.30 be serving yourself breakfast in the dining hall. At 8.00 we march down the 4-mile access road in full tramping kit to within one mile from the rural road that we turned from yesterday to enter the foothills of the Southern Alps.

"You will be taken on to a huge plateau called Shepherd's Bush and will be spread about individually at varying distances at least one kilometre apart, allocated at various distances away from here according to our perceived assessment of your personal level of fitness and calculated ability to cope alone. You then stay apart and find your way back to this access track, singly or in groups and return uphill to our camp. You are meant to be at the camp within five hours from the time you enter the bush."

"Now listen carefully. You each will be given an emergency GPS device to aid you should you feel need such as due to injury, panic or the conviction that you are lost. You activate it by pressing the red switch and sit and wait and we'll come to you. At any time, of course, you are free to continue the walk out with any other member of the team who comes across you and invites you to accompany him or her making it out. There is no need to advise us of that as your GPS unit will advise us where you are."

"By 'us' I mean myself as coordinator and the 10 volunteers who are local mountaineers or tramping club members who will take you to your allotted positions identified by GPS coordinates."

"Should anyone of you decide rather than walk back up to the camp you would rather walk down and back into civilisation, then you are free to do so PROVIDING you report your decision to a member of the team that you have confirmed is returning to camp. If you fail to give that advice along with handing in your loan GPS device, you could be liable fully for all the costs of the procedures that we need to take to locate you as a missing person. Remember, you are here as adventure-seeking adults and not as mindless children. All volunteers will have left the scene after placing you in your start position deep in tree and scrub country."

"Are there any questions?"

There were none although a buzz of raised voices surrounded him.

Deep into several square miles of bush, on her way back to the vehicle access track, Annabelle White-Finch detoured to climb a small rise to check distant terrain to see if she could catch sight of their camp to confirm the direction she was walking visually than reply in on the occasional glimpse of the sunlight beaming through tree tops and her funky GPS thingy.

She glimpsed the sight of someone coming from another direction, presumably another member of the group with the same idea of checking his or her position. She climbed through a rock-strewn rise to finish clear of the tree tops on a rocky outcrop, and waited.

Annabelle saw a figure emerged thought the remaining tree trunks and her heart skilled a couple of beats as she recognised it was that Doctor White and then remembered his first name.

"Hi, Trevor!" she waved excitedly and he looked up a made a half-hearted wave and beamed.

Yes, though Annabelle. It was definitely a pleasing expression, not a frown.

He came across the slab of the long-weathered rockface carefully, puffing a little, and sat beside her saying hi. She grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him across and kissed him on the lips.

"Wow," he said, grinning. "What have I done to deserve that?"

"Meaning?" she smiled.

The married philanderer slipped easily into his accustomed role by asking a question to try for an explicit answer: "Are you horny?"

"Yes," she smiled, and thrust out her chest a little to catch his gaze and, gaining the expected success, said to play with them if he wished.

He didn't play around.

Trevor grabbed her left breast.

He squeezed it hard, saying "Great tits."

She squealed.

He kissed her lips hard.

She pressed back hard while fumbling through two thick layers of his alpine clothing to find his nipple and crushed it between her fingers.

It appeared all on.

But with her enthusiasm being unmistakeable, Trevor called a halt.

"We could damage ourselves on this rocky surface."

Annabelle took Trevor by the hand as they left the rocks and said, "This way. I earlier negotiated a real bed of pine needles just over here."

Needless to say, Annabelle and Trevor were last (no one had decamped) to be welcomed back by Sam, who was grinning. He was aware from GPS locator signals that those two had been together for 3.3 hours, and their two merging tracking signals had been stationery for 72 minutes.

The camp commandant then asked, "You both look exhausted. Did you get lost, temporarily?"

"I had a wonderful adventure in the bush; time just seemed to fly," Annabelle said vaguely.

Trevor just yawned and said he was hungry and winked at Sam, who said salad lunch awaited them in the mess and compulsory physical training on the sports field would start at 3.00.

Southern Alps Pre-adventure Training Camp for Imminent Travellers - 04

Sam Cook watched with interest the 188th intake of 10 intending travellers who were paying $200 daily to be battered about and extended to near their individual breaking point to increase their level of fitness and endurance before departing mostly to foreign destinations to experience adventures of a lifetime.

On the first occasion five days earlier, he'd watched the would-be adventurers take to the sports ground at 7 a.m. to either jog or walk a few circuits of the perimeter track. Two of the team had jogged around the track several times before joining the general exodus to the mess for breakfast, and one more had managed to jog three-quarters of a circuit.

Today, however, six began jogging with only one pulling out early. Two of the walkers were doing so at a cracking pace while the two laggards were Trevor and Annabelle, whom Sam had reasonably assumed would be shagged after their late night and possibly early morning additional spell of physicality at possible sufficient level to qualify as robust activity.

He was pleased, and watching his deputy Gracie Hart push back an escaping breast back into her top as she bent over to pick up her towel, he wondered if his daily inter-action with her on camp affairs, err training management, might mean it was timely to hit on her. While most of the team had worked themselves into pairs, several of them in same-sex pairs although one shouldn't rush to make assumptions about that, it seemed that Gracie remained a loner.

Why?

Perhaps she had reserved herself for his company, socially? Well there was one way to find out, his way that had never failed him.

"Tonight, then," he muttered.

* * *

The truck, driven by Sam, rumbled into the assembly point outside the mess for its first outing after the overhaul of its transmission by Rusty with parts being replaced. Rusty was at the wheel of the Land Rover behind it with Molly, the most athletic of the two maids beside him.

Everyone had been told today's training would be strenuous and would last about five hours and they were required to assemble with a complete change of warm clothes and footwear in supplied carry bags.

The nature of the exercise had not been explained.

Two of the females had said perhaps they would be taken up into the snow to learn how to make snowballs and throw them accurately while a couple of men threw everyone off the scent by suggesting that with a long stretch of imagination, the word 'strenuous' could mean going to the pub at say Mayfield and drinking beer all afternoon.

No one thought they might be facing something quite brutal.

They travelled along the valley between two foothills that gradually increased in elevation, the truck grinding away on almost bare land with evidence of ancient lava flows from above and loose debris from those ancient eruptions.

The truck stopped, and Gracie who had been briefed, announced, "We get out here and walk upwards for almost a mile. Sam will be riding in the Land Rover with Molly and Rusty.

The Land Rover ground its way up the slope, moving not much faster than the walkers carrying their kit of spare clothing. A dozen towels in a shrink-wrapped bundle were in the vehicle ahead of them on top of something bulky covered by canvas that hung out through the open back doors.

The group arrived at a plateau, experiencing air temperature was colder than at the lower altitude of the camp, and eyed an attractive calm lake surround by stunted trees covering about half of the extensive shoreline.

The Range Rover had been backed up to the lake edge and Rusty and Molly were hauling from the vehicle the second of two RIBs (rigid-hulled inflatable boats).

"Ooh, we will be boating on this beautiful alpine lake," said Jill Reynolds, excitedly.

Derek, the girly chap, disagreed saying he believed pragmatically that nothing they would be doing in training would be exciting, because the two themes were fitness and survival.

Sam called the group together and said, "Today is all about water survival. You will be taken out to the middle of the lake and invited to jump in and make your way swimming over water up to 75 metres deep in places, using the parked Land Rover as your destination where you'll regain your footing on land and change into your replacement clothing awaiting you."

That was greeted with chilly silence.

"Therefore, leave any valuables, including cell-phones plus anything that adds weight, such as watches or a pocketful of coin or make-up."

Pointing to the carton beside him, Sam said, "Each one of you will wear one of these light safety vests that inflate with a pull of the cord located straight down from your chin when pointing straight ahead. If you swim or arm paddle well, you might choose not to inflate the vest at least initially in order to make faster progress back to the shore. Whatever, remember you will be dragged down a little by your water-soaked clothing and boots."

"The two points to remember are, that this is a supervised exercise usually never having been practised by travellers going to dangerous places involving crossing water, frolicking in water or accidentally slipping into water. Secondly, inflate the vest before you jump if you are nervous or even doubtful about your ability to negotiate 250 metres across icy water."

"The big rule is always move to inflate your vest BEFORE any panic rising begins to seize you."

"You will be under constant supervision from two motorised inflatable dinghies. Rusty will operate one with Molly as spotter and I'll operate the other and I need one of you to volunteer as spotter."

Surprisingly, no one volunteered and Sam said right, he'd appoint his spotter and picked who he thought was the weakest person in the group, and said, "Derek, you are my spotter."

"Must it be me?" Derek squeaked, but almost ran to stand alongside Rusty and Molly, appearing much relieved.

Answering questions, Sam said yes, the supplied towels, limited to one for each person, were bath-size towels. When completing the exercise, people should strip, dry and put on the dry clothing from their reserve kit immediately they stepped ashore and sit in the back of the truck that would be heated. Every camp intake to date had completed the exercise successfully and no one had suffered ill-effects. Awaiting the team back at the camp would be complimentary rums or several kinds of hot totties and everyone arriving back at their homes could share their boasts about how they courageously had survived being dunked in icy water and made it back unaided to the shoreline that appeared to be a long distance away.

Sam said, "Right, let's go, four in one craft and five in the other plus two crew in each. Anyone who wishes opt out, do so here on the shoreline. However, if you decide to delay that decision until 150 meters out on the lake, expect to be thrown in the water by your boat skipper. Think carefully."

Sam waited.

No one dropped out.

"Right, let's go on one of your great adventures of your lifetime. Yippee," he yelled cheerfully, actually smiling.

The mainly sullen lot around him, ventured forth.

Sam called back his deputy.

He whispered, "Gracie, would you like to join me this evening to have dinner -- it's roasted venison -- in my converted Army hut?"

"Ah, you expect me to survive the swim?"

"Yes, everyone will but I'm only inviting you to give you the opportunity to hit on me."

She grinned.

"Okay, will I be expected to stay the night?"

"That's for you to decide, Gracie."

The two skippers halted their RIB and told everyone not to jump into the water, but to singly roll over the side and to hold on to their hat if wearing one.

The drops-offs were accomplished in a fairly orderly fashion, only two when ready to roll and then 'freezing' were 'assisted' into the water with a gentle push.

The usual cry being heard was the f-word or some variation of it from each individual as they reacted to the water temperature and then all effort was concentrated in getting back to shore ASAP.

Only two swimmers required assistance (vocal encouragement) when near the shoreline and even then, they hurried off to shed their wet clothing and, dry and into their dry clothing before heading to the truck.

Molly collected the considerable amount of wet clothing left behind by the garment owners fleeing to the warmth.

Southern Alps Pre-adventure Training Camp for Imminent Travellers - 05

The current intake at the Southern Alps Training Camp arrived back from their testing swim in an unexpected icy-cold lake buoyed (except for Derek) in the knowledge they had survived an unexpectedly hard and, for some, gruelling test designed to help prepare them for deep water mishaps when adventuring touring overseas.

They may have been disappointed at not being greeted back at the camp at heroes but were hustled into the lounge part of the mess where they were plied with hot toddy drinks or tea and they hungrily chewed slice after slice of hot pizza and had the choice of tomato or pea and ham mugs of steaming hot soup.

That ended at 3.30 when most of the team sloped off to nap.

Dinner at 7.00 consisted of mussel fritters entrée or potato and onion deep fried cakes followed by slices from a hindquarter of roasted venison from a hind that had been shot in the high country and been left to hang outdoors to 'cure' for several days.