If you were anywhere in Te Anau this past weekend, you probably heard a very loud Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! being screamed from a long drop on the Kepler Track.
A friend from the States was visiting New Zealand and we reunited to hike across one of New Zealand's Great Walks. Mirjam and I met a few years ago through triathlon and crossed the finish line at the same Ironman Lake Placid race. Clearly, we are two tough chicks and, clearly, we can take on anything. Right?
Our party of four began its first day of a three-day tramping trip. After a short walk through the bush it was time to take a break, so we stopped at the first shelter for a snack and to use the "bathroom". But, the sandflies in the toilet were so bad that other people refused to use it. Wimps. I wasn't about to let a few tiny bloodsucking insects stop me from doing my business.
So, I walked over to the long drop and opened the door, saw the the flies, and took a step in.
Now, there wouldn't be a story if I had taken a moment to check my pockets before I walked in. See, for some reason I thought it was a great idea to put my camera and a muesli bar in the front pocket of my jacket and not pull up the zipper. But, since checking my pockets isn't part of my usual bathroom protocol I didn't think anything of it.
As I leaned over to inspect the condition of the toilet seat (hey, I have no problem sharing tight quarters with sandflies, but I refused to put my butt on a wet toilet seat) both items on my pocket slid out and bounced off the toilet seat. One item landed on the floor and the other landed in a pit of poo.
WHY DIDN'T THE MUESLI BAR LAND IN THE POO?!!!
After I screamed, I tried to think quickly and rationally about the situation. That's when I emerged from the loo, grabbed the closest long stick and returned to the scene without a word to three other people standing there in utter confusion.
I shoved a stick roughly the size of the length of my arm into the brown muck and fished around for my camera. I wasn't too sure how I'd get my camera out with the stick and I wasn't sure what I would do after I got the camera out with the stick...maybe get it to the lake, drop it in the water and rinse it off??
Truth be told, I was kind of relieved that I couldn't find the camera (the stick didn't reach the bottom of the pit, boy it's deep!); and, I was kind of relieved that the camera didn't float because, in all honesty, it was probably going to require help getting it out and there wasn't much space for two adults to fit in there with at least four arm's length sticks.
I emailed the Department of Conservation in Te Anau when I got back to civilization to let them know what happened (I worried that rubbish would clog something up, mess with bacteria breaking the "matter" down, etc).
Sara:
Hi, I just wanted to let someone know that I dropped my camera in the toilet at Brod Bay this past weekend... I tried to fish it out with a stick, but... I couldn't find it.
DOC:
Hello, thank you for your email. I am very sorry that happened! Thank you for letting us know. The toilets usually only get emptied once a season so I fear your camera may be lost.
I made sure to reply that I did not want it back!
Thankfully, I had a backup camera. I'll post pictures from the other camera later soon!
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