Well, not sure if I class as an ex-pat as I came out with family when I was a kid about 30+ years ago, but still miss rummaging around in the UK undergrowth for various berries, fungi and nuts - Feral browsing not quite the same out here, but the fishing and scenery more than make up for it.
Registered with the forum as a courtesy rather than being an anonymous lurker. Well out of touch with what's been going on back there with regards to UK woodcraft, but get the impression the current official word is, "DON'T!"
Joined Search & Rescue out here a few years ago - Seen some absolutely incredible parts of NZ back country, as well as some I'd be glad never to see again... Part of the training was in depth tracking and clue processing - sort of 'Bush-Forensics', which opened my eyes a lot more. A whole lot more.
Got to the point where my family almost refused to walk with me as I'd disappear off the track and rejoin them a couple of minutes later with something like, "Old toilet site - It was a female wearing trainers, having a pee".
Even sent a wallet back to a guy in Chester who'd lost it when he downtrou'd to have a dump 3miles into a tramping trip (who takes their wallet on a 1 week hike into the bush?). He was more amazed how it had been found than getting it back
Anyway, I'm keen on all things regarding living off the land although the bush out here is very sparce in terms of wild food without the variety that the UK has collected over the years - NZ 'bush' is better described as rainforest. A SAR exercise (race) had our team recently managing a magnificent 3hrs per km! Rough would be an understatement!
Look forward to working my way through all, well, a lot of your posts to see what I can apply out here.
Currently tracking a couple of wild pigs which have moved into the undergrowth surrounding the quarry site where I work.
It's cool just 'reading' their movements at the moment, following where they feed, have a bit of argie-bargie or decide to change their course for some reason... I'll throw some pics into the tracking thread if anyone's interested.
Tracking food is much more interesting than lost people...
Registered with the forum as a courtesy rather than being an anonymous lurker. Well out of touch with what's been going on back there with regards to UK woodcraft, but get the impression the current official word is, "DON'T!"
Joined Search & Rescue out here a few years ago - Seen some absolutely incredible parts of NZ back country, as well as some I'd be glad never to see again... Part of the training was in depth tracking and clue processing - sort of 'Bush-Forensics', which opened my eyes a lot more. A whole lot more.
Got to the point where my family almost refused to walk with me as I'd disappear off the track and rejoin them a couple of minutes later with something like, "Old toilet site - It was a female wearing trainers, having a pee".
Even sent a wallet back to a guy in Chester who'd lost it when he downtrou'd to have a dump 3miles into a tramping trip (who takes their wallet on a 1 week hike into the bush?). He was more amazed how it had been found than getting it back
Anyway, I'm keen on all things regarding living off the land although the bush out here is very sparce in terms of wild food without the variety that the UK has collected over the years - NZ 'bush' is better described as rainforest. A SAR exercise (race) had our team recently managing a magnificent 3hrs per km! Rough would be an understatement!
Look forward to working my way through all, well, a lot of your posts to see what I can apply out here.
Currently tracking a couple of wild pigs which have moved into the undergrowth surrounding the quarry site where I work.
It's cool just 'reading' their movements at the moment, following where they feed, have a bit of argie-bargie or decide to change their course for some reason... I'll throw some pics into the tracking thread if anyone's interested.
Tracking food is much more interesting than lost people...
