Chilly weather hike

You should come to Wellington mate, our nightly walks have been strangely warm the past week. Lots of glowworms and moreporks make for a relaxing end to the day.

Didn't feel too flippin warm 6pm Thursday evening, 3km up Ngatiawa Stream (Waikanae) with 20 traps still to check, hosing down with rain and a gale blowing what fur was dry enough not to be stuck to my hands off down the valley before I could get it in my furbag. Bit nicer this weekend though.

I carried my "coons" to a dry spot and skinned them , but thats probably too simple .

Yes - you made it clear last time you responded to a comment of mine the I know nothing and you are far superior in all regards. So it does not surprise me that you have the skill to position your traps so that the possums don't get wet; can find dry spots on an open valley floor in a downpour; and have a technique of keeping your hands dry when pushing though wet bush.

Madpom, do you collect fur as your main source of income or as a means of topping up the income ? collecting fur in the bush is a noble and tough as nails way to make a living and you are to be commended . There is a big difference to riding the quad bike along the back of farm lands to stomping around in the bush in the cold, wet, windy, mud, roots and bog of the north island back country .

Generally it's secondary. Either working for the likes of Telecom in the day, getting reasonable money but needing to hit the hill in the evening to maintain sanity, or working on AHB / DOC contracts and the fur is a way of topping up a minimal wage. Sometime's there's pure fur recover work to fill in the gaps between the above. But in general you've got to try pretty hard to find yourself out of work in NZ. Somewhat regretting this particular line. Reckoned 3km of river wading up the Ngatiawa stream then a 700m climb up a spur to the track would be fun for a week, but we're well into the second week and it's still catching like new. Just praying for good weather.

May be its all in the mind ,eh! We all have to start somewhere, and its usually at the bottom of the pile. Mind its easy when one gets a choice where one traps/poisons/shoots; monitoring to grid points can be testing. Three of us did a monitor from Dundas Hut a couple {?}of years ago, the trouble is that the start points for your lines are set by some shiny bottomed administrator who woudnt have a clue about terrain etc. 3 lines of 20 traps took all day to set and a fair portion of each day thereafter to check.And thats not taking any skins/fur. Good on ya madpom , a man after me own heart.... The best trapping i had was at Waiorongamai Station , where a mate was manager, and the bush was awesome,open easy walking , nobody had been there for years and plenty of "coons". I could use the Subaru Brumby ute to get right into the trapping area.Best skins were getting $20-$30 worst $4-$5; we would also spotlight and clean out all the cabbage trees of possums every 2-3 weeks, the place was lousy with them. As a diversion ,one morning i was checking and clearing traps and found a huge wild tabby tomcat caught by a front leg-fair set the hackles on the back of me neck up, he was really upset and it took me a while to find some rocks to stun him and then very cautiously finish him of with my 3/4 inch pipe hammer, staplepuller, despatcher.Holding him by the tale at chest level , his whiskers where touching the ground, he was about a metre long from the end of his tail to his nose i would guess.......an absolute killing machine! Ed Hillary was asked once if he had a wish what would it be. His reply was ".. he wished young people would listen to older people". I dont bother giving advice to those who know it all, but i can give examples of life experience for those who are interested, and really i have found that the younger the generation the less they listen......but theres nothing surer that they will eventually be "older" one day, and hopefully wiser.

I suppose the dumb ones die young though!

Wow! all i was putting out there was a mid winter Waitakere hike on a clear day - don't think i mentioned possums at all!?