Wind and Rain, Adventurous Winter Camping with my Dog in a Spacious Warm Tent

Indy and I have just been out getting a bit of a lay of the land, having a look around Temple Campsite. This campsite is a Department of Conservation campsite that's in the South Island of New Zealand and it's about two-thirds of the way down the South Island and right in the middle up against the Southern Alps. Do you want me to throw that stick? So we found our spot to camp. We found a spot that's just tucked away in the trees there because there's going to be a bit of wind coming through tomorrow and there is no one else here which I'm hoping will stay that way so that we get the entire campsite to ourselves. I think there's no one here because there is heavy rain forecast for tomorrow. It should be quite crazy weather if the forecasting is correct. So strap yourselves in and get ready for a great adventure. I'm really looking forward to it and I'm glad that you guys are joining us. Thanks for coming along. Dog treats. So the local supermarket, oh hi, you can't see her. I have a very well-behaved dog down here. The local supermarket has like a bulk bin that's got all these unpackaged dog treats of all different descriptions, all natural stuff and you can just pick what you want. So on behalf of you guys that have bought Indy treats on Buy Me A Coffee, I bought her a bag of treats. to arrive in the middle of the night. I want to be prepared so I'm going to guy out the tent and just put all the guy lines out and get it set up for the worst conditions just in case. The night is disappearing, it's getting it's getting late so we don't have a lot of daylight left. I'm going to just get a move on and get that done. I'm also going to put the rain fly over the top of the tent. Hello, hello. Actually should I Indy? No I'm not going to put the rain fly on just yet. I'm going to open up the roof skylights so that we've got a little bit more light coming in and when it gets dark I'll put the rain tarp on for the rain that's coming at about 9pm tonight. Indy is sniffing away madly. What have you found? You've been out exploring. I can see you over there by the river. I don't think we're going to be able to show these guys the river because it's too dark. We'll have to do it in the morning. because I don't want to use up my water and I'd like to go wash my hands. The grainy sand at the bottom of the river is a really good sort of a, what do you call it, like a scrub. It's really effective for getting your hands clean. Let's take some of this. It doesn't take much to get the fire going tonight so I don't think I'll need all that much in the morning. Home sweet home. Look at that little toasty fireplace. Some snacks waiting for me. Come on you mate. Good girl. Spot by the fire. It's so lovely listening to the sound of the river in the background. It's like one of those soundtracks that you use to put yourself off to sleep. It's lovely. I'm going to get to go to sleep to the sound of the river and wake to the sound of the rain. Yeah, I better get that rain cover on before it starts raining so I don't get caught out. 9pm. What time is it now? It's 7.20pm and nine o'clock is when the rain is forecast to start. Just drizzling at nine o'clock and then thundering down in the morning. What do you think of that? The fire is amazing but I've decided to let it go out because it's actually really hot in here. I've got the whole front open and there's a bit of a breeze coming in and then the two side windows are also open but I'm really warm. The wind has definitely picked up. So it's not so much that the wind is supposed to be heavy tomorrow, overnight tonight and tomorrow. It's more that it's going to be gusty. So it's only like five knots of wind gusting to like 40 knots, 50 knots. Actually I don't know exactly how strong it's going to gust but gusty anyway. I picked a knife and fork and thought I'll just bring a small spoon but now I've got this entire pot to eat with a small spoon. So probably when I stop filming I'm just going to drink it. It's really nice. Have you seen Indy? I think I've figured out why she always goes and lies on my bed because her bed is actually really soft and comfortable and I think it's because back at home we have a bit of a routine that in the evening after our family's had dinner because she sort of stays downstairs with us while we have dinner, then after dinner she goes upstairs and waits for us to come to bed and then she hops on our bed for about 10 minutes or so and gets a little pat and cuddle before she jumps off onto her bean bag to go to sleep. So I think this is sort of part of that nightly routine of getting onto our bed. She's actually got a foam mat under there, a reflective foam mat to keep her warm and then her nice bed so she'll be fine as well as a sleeping bag. This is actually the underquilt, the one wind underquilt that goes underneath my hammock but it's good because it's a perfect size and it's got little poppers that you can kind of snap together so I can actually put it around her and then snap it shut. It's a bit lighter, more compact and more versatile than an ordinary sleeping bag. Was I talking about you? It's okay, you can go back to sleep. So on my last video I mentioned that I was heading up to the North Island. So this is the South Island of New Zealand and what's today? Monday. Last week I went up to Wellington which is our capital city. I flew up there and then picked up a hire car and drove north and I asked you guys whether you would be interested in seeing a bit of footage of the North Island, whether I managed to get out on a camp or not and it seemed like everyone who commented about it was keen. So tomorrow morning I will share a bit with you. I went on a trip, I won't tell you anymore. Tomorrow morning over breakfast I'll tell you all about it and show you a whole lot of footage. Right now I'm just going to enjoy dinner, hang out with Indy and then basically it's actually quite late. It's now 8 45. As I always say everything takes longer outdoors so I'm going to go to bed soon. Once I've had dinner I'll read for a while and head off to bed because I think tomorrow is going to be a big day. I have got a surprise for you guys tomorrow. Let's just say it's going to be a big day. So I'll say goodnight now and see you guys tomorrow these massive gusts of wind coming through. The tent's just been buffeted by big gusts of wind. I haven't been able to sleep. I'm not sure that I've actually been asleep yet. Just when I think I'm falling to sleep another big gust comes through. You wouldn't know it now, it's so quiet but you hear the gusts coming down the valley and you know they're coming. The tent seems really solid. I'm not actually worried about the tent it's just really hard to sleep. So I've got my book. Indy can sleep through anything. I'm just going to read for a little while. I've got a cup of decaf tea. It's really thirsty. I just realized how thirsty I am. I'll just read until I'm tired and then see if I can fall asleep. I'm just contemplating whether to make my coffee over the gas or over the fire. I should do it on the fire, shouldn't I? I should. The fire's actually cranking. I thought it would take a while to warm up but it's really going for it so let's get coffee going over the fire. That was an interesting night. For that exact reason, wind. The base wind is fine, it's just breezy but every now and then we get these massive gusts so it goes from like almost nothing to just massive gusts. This is my first time being in this tent with big gusty winds and it handled it absolutely fine. It's just that it was noisy and I didn't realize until this morning when I was rolling up the sides of the rain tarp that there's a string but a cord that you can pull that cinches in the two ends because they were flapping like mad last night and in the end I had to put my earplugs in just so that I could get some sleep. I slept well between 2.30am and 7.30am I just remembered the trick. I'm supposed to put a splash of cold water in there to get the grinds to settle to the bottom. Let's see if that works. Well it looks like it's going to be a day for knocking things over because I woke this morning to the sound and feel of my kettle which had just a little bit of water left in it from last night's cup of tea in the middle of the night. It was just sitting on the table and I don't know whether I knocked it or Indy knocked it but it went flying all over the end of my bed. Oh did I say walk? Yes. Stretch number. Yeah let's go for a walk. Take the coffee. Actually there's more in here. Hang on I'm just going to top up and then we'll go for a walk. Speak in your language. For once I didn't make my coffee too strong. This is so nice. I haven't been having that much success with my camping coffees. This one. Phenomenally good. Good coffee as well. Yeah yeah this is good coffee. C4 Coffee Company. They make really good coffee. This is the Kula Region Columbia. Milk chocolate, black cherry, caramel and sweet melon. Espresso stove top. This is only half of it. So this one here on this side is the North Huxley and then you can see the South Huxley across on the other side by the trees and they join up down there. I thought the umbrella was a good idea but it's not. A. I can't hold my coffee very easily and B. I'm going to take off. Umbrellas are never a good idea in the woods. I'm going to stash it down here by this log and pick it up on the way back. go up North Temple Valley and then you get to a circ. You get up there and then there is an unmarked route over, I think it's called Gunshot Pass and that'll take you over the top of the where there's a hut. It's so nice to get out for that walk. Since I've come back I've just been packing a few things away and just tidying out the tent a little bit. Hi there. The only thing is that now that the rain is gone and the wind is gone, the sandflies are back. Hi there. So I have a little device called the Flextail Tiny Rappel and unfortunately the button that operates it has like fallen off and I've tried to put it back in so that it operates and it just means that it falls out all the time and the last time it fell out it, I don't know where it went. So unfortunately I can't use it anymore and I did not think there'd be sandflies at this time of the year. You always get them in summer but I did not think they'd be here in winter, the middle of winter. Welcome to New Zealand. So my trip up to the North Island, if you didn't watch my last video you wouldn't know, but I was heading up to the North Island to visit my parents and I wondered whether I might get out into the mountains. I wasn't sure I'd get out for an overnighter. I was open to the possibility but I did end up getting out for a day trip and it was fantastic. I went up to the Tararua Forest Park. There's little black things in here and I have not put any paper in yet. Sandflies are in my eggs. So the Tararua Range is a really interesting range because it runs north-south and on one side, up on the west side, you get strong winds that come in off the Cook Strait which is the body of water that separates the North and South Island and that can bring some pretty intense weather. On the eastern side of the Tararua you've got the winds coming up from Antarctica up alongside the east coast of the South Island and that also brings some really intense weather. So the Tararua are not for the faint-hearted. They're a lovely range of mountains. They're mostly in the bush. You've got to put in a bit of effort to get up onto the tops. They're wet. They can be muddy but they're beautiful. And on this occasion for my day walk I went up to Holdsworth Camping Ground and walked up to Donnelly's Flat. Those of you that live around that area and know that area know that it is the easiest walk ever. It's lovely. So those of you that were keen to see me doing an overnighter in the North Island, I'm sorry. Hope I didn't disappoint. So I told you that I had a surprise for you at the end of the video and this is the surprise. Not that I'm drinking during the day. The surprise is that this is not the end of my trip down here in the Temple Valley. I'm heading out for another night. Because of the effort to get down here, as I said it's a five-hour drive for me, I wanted to make the most of it. So some of you might have noticed my backpack in the corner of the tent. You might have already guessed that I'm heading out for a backpacking trip. So the tent will come down. I just ate a sand fly. It's going back into the boot of the car and I'm going to head off up the North Temple Valley. So if you guys want to see that video make sure that you are subscribed. Make sure that you have notifications on and keep a lookout for it. I'll try and get it out within a week of this one. It is going to be a very interesting night if the sand flies are like this. Oh no. I turned around for 20 seconds to put some things away. Look how many sand flies have dive-bombed into my hot chocolate. Can you see them all? Someone thinks we're going home. Well, that's done. Thanks for coming everyone. Thank you so much for watching right to the end. Thank you so much for all the support you give me, for the lovely comments, for the treats on Buy Me A Coffee, the YouTube super thanks and channel membership. I really appreciate it all and stay tuned for the next adventure. Until then, bye everyone.