Nasty piece of work ...

I guess it depends on where you go, and I suppose I also haven't seen bush lawyer lately. My pet hates right now are onga onga (aka stinging nettle) and speargrass/spaniard (all the sub-species of which I don't differentiate much between.. if it goes straight through gaiters as if they weren't there, it's speargrass to me.). Through some ironic circumstance, the Ruahines map that I've spent most time on happens to be U22 Ongaonga.

Oh yes you've brought back memories of the Aorangis now! I grabbed a few handfulls of the stuff trying to keep my balance, but I don't think I could compete with someone who's charged into it head-first. :)

The stuff really lives up to its name (Ongaonga = Dog Nettle) we've had 3 emergency trips to after-hours vets with dogs that have gone down with the stuff. The hairs of the plant lodge in their fur / paws and irritate; they lick the irritation and their throats swell until they can't breathe. Sumptoms: drooling, wanting to lie down and sleep; difficulty breathing; loss of consciousness; death. The solution is a combination of antihistamenes and steroids, which all vets should know- but many dont: many have never even heard of the plant. As a result it's worth carying the antidote and instuctions if you work dogs around this stuff.

Yes Ongaonga has to be the worst. What gets me is that after you come home from a weekend and all the other aches and pains have gone away, you can still feel the ongaonga on about Thursday or Friday. My ongaonga story happened to a mate of mine, though I was there. As we were approaching a remote and rarely used hut my mate fell down a bluff. It was quite a severe fall and he was lucky not to be injured. But as he fell he went hands and face first through an ongaonga bush. We hauled him out in a rather shocked state and helped him, the last few minutes to the hut. We were suprised to find the hut full. A Landcare Research team were doing possum surveys in the area. That night my mate started show signs of an alergic reaction, his skin was tingling and he was hot and quite uncomfortable. In the morning he was not much better. Luckily the Landcare Team were due to fly out by helicopter that day so decided that he would go with them. We tramped home and then picked up our mate in the car on our way. That night, over 24 hours after the fall he was still having trouble walking and was very unsteady on his feet. In retrospect it was quite a dangerous situation and we were lucky the Landcare team were there.

I have been lucky enough never to experience Ongaonga, seen it quite often but never touched it.

Damn it, discovered Ongaonga the hard way yesterday! Three left fingers are all numb. Does anyone have suggestions of what one could carry in a first aid kit for longer trips to easy the pain or is it a matter of toughing it out? Would anti-histamine alone be effective?

Flask of Whiskey or vodka. Does Dock leaf cure the pain caused by Ongaonga like it does to normal stinging nettle...

A packet of toughen-up pills?

A tube of Stingoes usually helps heaps.

After a while you learn to recognise Ongaonga leaves in your peripheral vision and your bare parts instinctively retract as you walk past. Eduring the pain is part of getting to that stage.