Solo Wild Camping in HEAVY RAIN - my wettest and wildest camp so far

Honestly you guys, it's crazy out there. To say it's raining is an understatement. It is pouring. Okay guys, so we have a bit of a situation. And I apologise if it's hard to hear me. I don't know if I'm yelling. It's so windy. I currently have a wet tent. Because I have had to pile in here with all my wet weather gear on. So every time I go camping there's always a fail. I was just thinking about taking my raincoat off but there's no point. Now my fail this time, and there is a fairly good excuse for it, is that I have left the pegs of my tent at home. Well not quite at home, but I'll tell you the whole story later on once everything's set up. So I don't have any pegs for my tent. Sorry, I've got one peg. You saw me setting it up with one peg. Now that peg has already broken because the ground is so rocky. Okay, I'm going to venture back outside and see what I can do. It's a real shame actually because I've also brought my tarp so that we can have a nice outdoor area. But without pegs I'm going to have to make sure I can tie the tarp off to trees. There's quite a few bushes around so it might be possible. Okay, wish me luck. So these gas burners don't particularly like to get wet. And even though it looks like this is miles away from out there, it's probably about 20 centimetres and the wind and the rain are just blowing, the wind's blowing the rain in. So I tried to towel it off and I tried to use the lighter just to dry the little holes where the gas comes out of. Cup of tea time. Now, I've got lemon, fresh lemon in my water and I've decided that I don't care. I am not going out there. I've got a lemon and lime tea so that's going to go perfectly with the lemon that's in my water. Honestly you guys, it's crazy out there. It's really, really wet. Like to the point that I just honestly don't want to go out there and try and put my tarp all on up. I'm actually really snug in here. So I've actually got myself really nicely set up in here. So even though I don't have a tarp, I think I'm just going to chill in the tent, going to have my lemon tea and just think about my options really. I've got my book, I might have a read. Or I might brave it and take you guys for a walk. If I can be bothered putting my wet weather gear on again, which I think I can, I'll take you guys for a walk and show you around. Because you just don't want to miss out on this place. It's really, really pretty. In that time that I've been chatting to you, literally no longer, that water is boiled. Well this camp is many things and one of them is not luxury. Okay so I am feeling a bit jaded. I'm feeling a bit vulnerable. It's been a tough camp to get set up. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a hot chocolate. I had my cup of tea earlier but I just really need something hearty and warming. So rather than save my hot chocolate for after dinner, I'm going to have it now. Which means going down to the tarn to get some water because that lemon water is not going to be all that nice in my hot chocolate. So let's go down to the tarn, collect some water and then I'm just going to chill. I'm going to chill because it's still raining and the rain is lovely. This is the really nice part of rainy camps when you're all set up and you're sitting under the tarp listening to the rain. So that's what I'm going to do. Spend some time listening to the rain and reading my book while I have my hot chocolate. And I'll probably catch up with you again closer to dinner time. I can't even speak properly because I'm a bit cold. I'm going to catch up with you closer to dinner time. If the rain stops especially if the sun comes out because it is forecast before sunset it is forecast for the rain to stop at least to ease off quite a lot and possibly for a little bit of sun to come out. So if that actually happens I'm going to take you guys for a little bit of a wander to have a look. But stick around because tomorrow morning I'm going to take you for a walk, a proper walk. So we'll get up and go for a really nice walk because this place that I'm in is absolutely magical. Absolutely magical. I still need to tell you guys about why I don't have any pigs with me. I still need to tell you more about this area but let's chat again when I'm having dinner. Man that is some rain. That is some rain. This is awesome. I'm loving this. You see this makes it all worth it. Oh my gosh. There's a camp and then more beautiful waterfalls. Those lovely misty clouds coming across. Gosh you can't see much. You can't see much when I look over the sky. Sorry. There you go. How's that? That's the best I can do. Gosh it's beautiful isn't it? Sorry if my hand's not very steady. So pretty. Right. I'm going to make my way back to camp. It's time to make some dinner. Look at that. Doesn't that look fantastic? It's still a bit windy as you can probably tell. I'm not sure. I've got the wind buff on my microphone but look at how quickly the tarp has dried off. There's hardly any moisture on there. Ouch. I didn't put my boots on. I'm walking around with no shoes on. I'll just get up here. Look at that. Look at how quickly it's dried off. She says and then it rains. So there's still a little light dusting of rain every now and then. It comes and goes. OK. Dinner time. So dinner tonight is a selection of beautiful potatoes, meat and carrots that were left over from a family pre-Christmas celebration. So my very clever brother-in-law does the most amazing smoked yeah I mean it is. It's smoked. It's like a slow cooked I think it's a beef brisket but he's got a barrel that he smokes it in all day and honestly it tastes incredible. It's got a beautiful glaze on it and so I snuck some leftovers. OK so the story the story about the pegs is linked to the fact that I've got this leftover early Christmas meal. So my husband's got a big family and because there's so many people it's really hard to coordinate like Christmas day for everybody to get together because everybody's got other halves that are also wanting to get together with their families for Christmas so by the time you try and coordinate all these multitudes of people yeah we can never find a time on Christmas day and so what they do is we have Christmas with that side of the family on the weekend that precedes Christmas day so that's what we've just done and because the family's so big where we stay the house where it's hosted somebody has to sleep in a tent and guess who that is the person or the family that enjoy camping and so all the pegs got left and that's why I have no pegs with me today the convoluted story of why I have no pegs. Now I'm just watching I've put my food down and I'm just watching the camera because there's these little bursts of rain I think I might run out there with this world's tiniest umbrella because the last thing I want is my camera to get damaged I'll tell you what I'm going to do I'm going to move myself out here. Now for those of you who are looking at me and thinking oh my gosh she is completely mad no shoes on in the middle of winter just remember this is the southern hemisphere we're in New Zealand and so it's summer I think it still blows people's minds that the southern hemisphere has a hot Christmas day It's not overly warm here but I've just spoken to my husband because there's actually cell phone reception here which is amazing and he told me it's 29 degrees back at home. That's hot really hot Thanks for coming along on this trip and joining me you guys. I really appreciate it I appreciate everybody watching the videos I appreciate you watching the videos even when Indy's not in them because I know how much people love to see Indy and trust me she is going to be in lots of videos going forward because we're going to be away for a while living in a different part of the country for a bit and that's going to give me access to some more places that she's allowed to go to so even though it's only little old me you guys are still watching so that's amazing, thank you I want to say a huge thank you to everybody that supports Adventure OT we really really appreciate you guys man, it has been a crazy year and the channel has come so far and I'm sitting in the rain the channel has come so far it's doing really really well, but I'm discovering lots of things, like how incredibly taxing this kind of camping is on my gear, I have so many breakages so many things going wrong and the stuff that's the most heartbreaking is the electronic gear, like the camera, the microphones almost every trip there is something and that's as a result of the conditions but also the conditions as in sometimes I fall, trip, things fall over, they break, the wind knocks the camera over water gets in stuff so that's the main thing, water gets in stuff so I really appreciate you guys supporting me, in whatever way you do, watching the videos, liking the videos sharing them, watching the ads or giving us a little bit of a donation on youtube super thanks or buy me a coffee because those things help me to be able to fund the videos and to pay for new gear to repair things, if you are wondering about how you can support the channel if you're not sure what youtube super thanks is or buy me a coffee I'll put some links for them I'll put some links in the video Christmas cake truffle Christmas cake with lovely dark chocolate amazing good morning my hiking pants are still a bit wet they're just that yucky damp my socks are just a bit wet that yucky damp I'm so reluctant to put them all on I'm so cosy I had the best sleep, it was fantastic, even though I didn't get my fancy bed that double duvet, I mean that double sleeping bag honestly, that was amazing so as you can see from around us, it's a really moody morning I've just been hanging out in the tent and drinking a coffee the rain keeps coming and going lightly but we've got a break in the weather now and I think I should pack up it used to be straight I think that's what's happened in that wind yesterday hey the sun has come out just in time just in time for me to take you and show you around I don't know that the clouds are going to lift enough for you to see much but let's go for a wander I want to show you around this area and tell you a little bit about it it's absolutely beautiful if you think this little town and this little area is pretty, you should see up that way I'm not sure I'm going to go all the way up the valley it is incredible right up at the very end but I might save that for another trip I'm just going to take you down to the river and show you a bit of the forest along the way here you are, there's the warning sign one or more avalanche paths cross this track so you can go up there, which takes you further up the valley and then to the unmarked part of the track OK, it's going to get noisy another trip has come to an end and what a fantastic trip it's been I have had a wonderful time even though it didn't turn out like I had planned there's something about the challenges when you're in the outdoors that are just so awesome I mean I'm actually really pleased that it didn't go perfectly to plan because I find when things don't go to plan I really learn things, it really grows my character and it also helps me to appreciate what I do have and be grateful I'm grateful for so many things, I'm grateful to be going home to a lovely family I'm grateful for this incredibly beautiful place that I live in and I'm grateful to be able to share it with you guys I'm grateful for everything that you guys have done to support Adventure OT over 2023 and I just want to wish all of you and your families the best 2024 possible. I look forward to lots more adventures and I hope that you can join me So I'll see you then Bye everyone