About this time each year, most New Zealanders are looking forward to a week or three Summer holiday starting at Christmas and sweeping into the New Year.
And about this time every year I write a piece or two about safety ā too many New Zealanders die in our great outdoors or on the sea.
Should follow my own advice!
Last weekend I was staying at a fishing camp on the Tauranga-Taupo River south of Taupo in the middle of the North Island. I was alone in the camp.
First day, some very hard fishing in a very low and clear river produced a few fish ā so I thought I would head well upstream into the gorge area. Some business delayed my start till around mid-day.
It is probably only an hour and a half walk and wade, if you donāt stop to fish ā but it took me nearly 5 hours, with numerous stops to fish to many, and very visible, fish. I was the only angler on the river.
So at around 6 pm I turned round to get āhomeā before dark at around 8.30 pm.
I had gone only about 100m downstream when a boulder I stood on, rolled under my foot, and I dropped onto one knee, then rolled into the just above knee-deep water. As I stood up I knew instantly something was wrong with that knee, the pain literally bought tears to my eyes.
The, should be, 1.5 hour trip turned into a 4 hour, stop and start, marathon, wet and very cold, and each step in great pain. The last hour in the jet black, no moon night, meant I was constantly tripping, meaning even more pain.
When I got back to camp I realised I was pretty bloody lucky. If the injury had been only a little worse I would not have been able to make the walk-out ā and on the Tauranga-Taupo river there is no cell-phone signal.
Worse still no-one would have known where I was going on the river to fish. More worse still, it was unlikely anyone would be coming to the camp for a couple of days, to notice my absence.
All I needed to do was call someone from the camp, and tell them where I was going, and if they did not get a āHey, Iām backā call by a certain time, to get search and rescue underway.
It is just so easy to forget the simple little things, like a quick call to tell some-one where you are going and when you expect to be back ā a memory lapse that could cost you a night or more outdoors with a bad injury. At worst a simple lapse that could end up ruining your family and friendsā holiday, by attending your funeral.
