GLENORCHY RIDE WITH JANE CAMENS

FEATURE

Trail Riding in the Land of the Long White Cloud

JANE CAMENS recently saddled up for a five-day ride through New Zealand, meandering her way through the beautiful scenery of the South Island.

Kia Ora koutou! In other words, ‘greetings’, New Zealand style. We’ve been four days in the saddle, riding through spectacular glacial valleys, when our guide Jess announces: “Tonight, we reach Paradise.”

That sounds perfectly possible. Everything so far has been glorious. We’ve seen the afternoon sun light up snow-capped peaks, watched the moon rise in a crystal-clear night sky, ridden through ancient forests, cantered across grassy plains featured in the movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings, swum our horses in glacial creeks (some of us), stood beneath waterfalls, and experienced numerous Middle Earth moments for the soul to hold onto.

We do reach Paradise. It’s a lodge on a manicured historic estate. Apart from fresh scones, jam and cream laid out to greet us, we are offered massages for aching limbs, then shown to beautiful private bedrooms where our duffle bags have been placed for us. Hard, perhaps, to imagine how fabulous this is unless you’ve spent two nights camping, as we just had, with a bush toilet, and an open air shower where bandit sandflies hung out.

But here In Paradise there is a candlelit lamb dinner, with all the trimmings, served in a charming separate building that was once a schoolhouse. This is our last night before the ride back to base, High Country Horses.

Looking back at the photos of this five-day riding holiday through the Glenorchy Back Country, I shake my head in wonder that the trip went without a single hitch. We were all well mounted, and we had the opportunity to join a couple of good canters every day. We all got on well and helped each other, and we were blessed with the best multi-skilled guides, Jess Mullins and Bijmin Swart.

The horses were selected for us based on information we’d provided almost 12 months earlier. Every one of us had forgotten we’d given these details so each of us was pleasantly surprised when the horse we were introduced to our horses. I was mounted on Solly, a thick set 14.3 paint, a bit like my little quarter horse back home. He was the only slightly grumpy horse in the group, but Solly and I dealt with that, happily riding in our own bubble.

Others were mounted on partPercherons, one on an Anglo-Arab, most on horses that were crossed with a heavy breed. The horses needed to be sturdy to carry riders for up to five

or six hours each day for five days. They were a happy herd of horses, all of them content to canter off independently, in part thanks to Jess and Bijmin who do natural horsemanship work with them when they are not out on the trail. In the summer the horses get the weekend off before they are off again with another group. Ditto for our guides. A: One of many creek crossings.

‘ ‘ The horses needed to be sturdy to carry riders for up to five or six hours each day for five days.

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The eleven of us on this trip were all Australian women (between 40-70) who’d booked the holiday through Globetrotting, The Glenorchy ride is run by High Country Horses, the oldest horse trekking business in the area. It’s owned by Deana Insley and is now run with the help of her daughter Casey. Deana’s husband Duayne, who helped scope the Globetrotting ride, sadly died within the past 12 months in a jet boating accident.

You don’t have to book with Globetrotting to book with High Country Horses, but the Globetrotting ride is their special boutique ride, not listed on the HCH brochure. The accommodation over the four nights was comfortable. The first night’s accommodation was at Rees Valley Station, a 37,000-acre working sheep station that borders the World Heritage Mt Aspiring National Park. Our campsite on those two starry nights in tents was beside a musterer’s hut and waterfall. Our tents and beds were made for us, and we were given comfort kits containing a blanket, hotwater bottle, a beanie, bed socks and, mercifully, a New Zealand product called Goodbye Sandflies.

The catering too was excellent. The scones and lamb roast in Paradise were fancier but no more delicious than the excellent meals and snacks prepared for us the other evenings. Jess and Bijmin made us a hot breakfast with eggs every morning and we were given a fresh spread of food with which we could make our own lunches.

We were lucky with our group. Jess laughed that on another ride one person didn’t understand the concept of a hot water bottle, thinking it got hot by itself (that is, without the addition of hot water), and one woman grumpily insisted that Jess apply bandages to her chaffed bottom. Fortunately, I can apply my own bandages, if and when needed. And while I mention pain, we were forewarned to bring anti-inflammatories, which some of us took like lollies. Not necessarily recommended by GP’s I’m sure but helpful for Women of a Certain Age, with all our accompanying aches and pains.

We were also lucky with weather. A full wet week was forecast, and on the first evening, as the sun set behind snow

B

‘ ‘ ... where many movies have been filmed, including the spot where The Hobbit village was located and a field where Hugh Jackman ran naked in an adventure film

B: The stunning scenery of the South Island.

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peaks, a bank of cloud did set in. But as we rode out in the next morning, the skies cleared and remained fine for the entire week. If it had rained, we would have ridden on regardless, with Drizabones and gumboots provided, but it wouldn’t have been the same.

We rode about 100 kilometres in all, which isn’t pushing it over five days. But the mileage wasn’t the point. We circumnavigated a mountain and explored pristine backcountry that stretches from the Dart Valley through to the Rees Valley, with Mount Alfred sitting in the middle. We travelled up glacialfed rivers, crossed many streams, and ventured through the wild, untamed beauty where many movies have been filmed, including the spot where The Hobbit village was located and a field where Hugh Jackman ran naked in an adventure film.

Jess and Bijmin also told us Maori legends of the land and spoke about its value to New Zealand’s First People’s for its greenstone. Bijmin, being South African, and his partner Jess, American, are conscious of their status as working guests in New Zealand. Theirs is a partnership that is entwined with their love of horses. They met when they were both independently guiding ‘Man from Snowy River’ rides through the Victorian High Country in Australia. Since then, they’ve guided horseback trips in other remote and spectacular places – and they’re most definitely bitten by the horse trekking bug.

Here’s the funny thing about sandflies. They only start to itch after you get home from a five-day ride. Then comes the desire to scratch, and scratch again, and scratch again. A bit like the addiction to trail riding. Once you’ve started, you can’t stop. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

For more information, go to www.

globetrotting.com.au/galleries/theglenorchy-back-country-ride/

D

C: The Globetrotting group on a day’s adventure. D: Writer Jane Camens on Solly.

FEATURE

Back to the Wild

Later this year, the two young guides from High Country Horses are setting out with a small herd of Kaimanawa horses to ride the length of New Zealand.

While we were doing the Glenorchy ride, it was easy to chat with our guides Bijmin (pronounced like Damon, but with a B) and Jess. They told me that they will begin an epic ride later this year. It will take them the entire length of both the North and South islands of New Zealand with some of the country’s famous wild horses, the Kaimanawas.

Their long ride will start in November at the top of the North Island, and they will slowly work their way south.

Bijmin has dreamt of riding the length of the both islands on horseback since he arrived in New Zealand a few years ago. “It’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world,” he says. “It’s impossible to drive through all of the rolling green hills without envisioning yourself galloping along one of the ridgelines.”

Kaimanawas are known for being some of the hardiest horses in the world. “Growing up in the wild, only the smartest, most resilient horses survive,” says Bijmin. “Natural selection has bred a horse that can take just about anything in their stride. In a way, they will be our guides in this re-wilding process.”

Jess and Bijmin are both eminently skilled to do this ride. They’ve worked alongside each other guiding horse treks in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. They come from different backgrounds - Jess trained in forensic anthropology and Bijmin in digital media and marketing - but horses have always been a passion for both of them. Jess devoted any free time to equestrian