Fred the friendly Possum
Trip Start
May 18, 2003
1
85
272
Trip End
Ongoing
Hicks Bay, East Cape, North Island,
New Zealand
Monday, February 23, 2004
We were woken up in the morning by a peacock roaming around the tent and the rumbling sound of sheep being herded down the road. I don't think I have ever seen sheep run so fast before, and they didn't make any vocal sound. All we could hear was a low rumbling of small hooves on tarmac.
Once leaving the tent it seemed as if we had been transported to a different location during the night. The scenery, which we could not appreciate when we arrived by night, was simply stunning. Then we realised that we were camping on a hillside above the riverbank. Dotted around the hill we found half a dozen old tree stumps that had been carved into thrones, each one facing a great view. The rest of the cars, campervans and tents were parked in an area below us, nearer the river
EastCape03
.After breakfasts and showers we packed up the tent and loaded up Pam (including a watermelon that we seemed to be carrying with us everywhere) to drive to the car park nearest the waterfall. Once there we did very short circuit to the falls, which were not all that impressive. Soon we were leaving the park and on our way further east towards the coastline.
As we drove along the coast road we were treated to gorgeous beach scenes and stopped the car a couple of times to take photographs. The sun began to set and we started to wonder about where we would be camping that night. We were quite keen to find a suitable place before it got too dark. Having just passed one campsite we decided to stop at the very next one on our route. Unfortunately there did not seem to be another one as we continued to drive into the falling curtain of night. We carried on driving regardless and then decided to head for a site that was marked on our map, but a little out of the way. We were driving in complete darkness now, with few sign posts on the gravel road; not entirely sure of where we were actually going.
We could not actually find the place we were looking for
EastCape04
. When we stopped the car in a car park to scrutinise the map, Robert stepped out and found a friendly possum that seemed to be quite tame. As we approached to get a better look an old man emerged from his shack and introduced the animal. "That's Fred that is. He's been fed by people, he can't fend for himself. I look after him now". Fred seemed quite used to people but was a little camera shy and refused to pose for a photo.Back in the car we decided to try one more side road in a vain attempt to find this campsite. What we found at the end of the side road was a gate with no less than three signs hanging from it, warning trespassers to keep out. Too tired and car weary to keep going we decided that we would pitch our tent in the adjacent field and worry about any consequences in the morning.
It was extremely dark, which gave ideal conditions for some night time photography, and Sebastian took some pictures of the illuminated tent. This was our first night of camping in a random field and as we went to sleep I had visions of being woken up by a herd of sheep or cattle trampling on the tent guidelines...
