Taupo Joust 2011
Jan. 24th, 2011 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stellar_muddleThe short version: Good start but flooded out at end so headed home early - you can see why here (video link). We had left by an hour or three by that stage but were definitely packing up in about 2 cm deep water. Taupo got 150mm of rain by the end of the day.
Weds: Not a bad day out. Packed in the morning and departed round noon. Uneventful drive up, pausing to catch up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bloodrage and co on the way through. On site and set up tents easily before dinner, then catching up with people. I went thud early but Z enjoyed moonlight soaking in thermal springs with people.
Thurs: Setup day. Groceries, sewing tunic and general setting up living history stuff for public etc the next day. Dinner for 11 people cooked successfully by me andbasal_surge over open fire. Blackberry pie for dessert due to an surfeit of blackberries. All good. On and off quite breezy, so Z had to rig the viking text to spill the wind...
Fri: Public workshop day. No jousting/main displays, but workshops by various re-enactors. Thermal springs soak just after getting up was good given the lack of showers. I started warping up the warp weighted loom. Decided that doing 20 threads at a time, measuring them out, attaching them to the frame, attaching weights and tying on to the heddle at a time, meant that I went far less mad trying to do all the threads at each step. Z played with his calligraphy set up. We got warnings for rain and strong winds for the evening, so battened down the hatches and got everything up off the ground well beforehand. All good for the evening when the forecast rain (but not wind) arrived.
Sat: Woke up to about 2cm of water covering all the ground as the site took a while to drain and the rain had gotten heavyish overnight. Just as well we had gotten everything up. Only 1 corner of the swag had gotten wet, so a slightly soggy corner of sheet, with the rest fine. Breakfast was done on the gas cookers as the firepit was a small swimming hole, but bacon, eggs and pancakes went down well. Rain stopped and drained off fine by midmorning (and the firepit was emptied, so the display was open for punters, where we had a steady but small stream of public through. Didn't want loom stuff getting wet, so hadn't unrolled it to continue warping. Just as well it stayed packed up for the rain that arrived late afternoon. Drizzly soggy evening and the cooks did an amazing job of of cooking dinner in the firepit in the rain. Some surface water but still not that bad by the time I went to bed.
Sun: Hello 2cm deep water over everything (I posted a couple photos to facebook) and this time it isn't stopping. Mid breakfast announcement (9:30am-10amish?) is that the weather will really turn to custard in the afternoon and if we didn't pack down and get out now, we wouldn't be out til Mon due to not being able to get the cars out. Unanimous verdict to bug out. Fast packdown in the rain over the next few hours. By the end, we were getting the tents (8 (getelds and a-frames) + awning) down like clockwork while not getting them muddy in the pouring rain. Stressful and more stressful (and with Z getting some distressing news in the middle - see his locked post/Facebook for details) and the rain got heavier over the last hour or so. By the end it was a case of get stuff into vehicles and trailers and it would be sorted when everyone was home the next day. Left site round 1pm and headed straight for the public (pay loos) where for $1 towel hire, 50 cents soap, $2 for 4 min shower we were luxuriously clean and far less soggy. Then we drove home. The Desert road was somewhat hairy, with 2 car crashes driven past and surface flooding. Made it home ~7:30pm and unloaded, getting some stuff drying upstairs, then went thud and slept - me somewhat later than Z who had been up socializing til ~3:30pm and had been somewhat hungover through the packup, just to add to the fun. Taupo ended up getting 150mm of rain that day, with ~50+ mm in the ~5+ hours after we left... Rained all the way back too, with some variation in heaviness.
Mon: (Wellington Anniversary, so a public holiday) Laundry and drying things. Rain earlier on, but getting sun by mid afternoon after picking up the remains of our stuff from fellow soaked out travelers. Internet hits and updates.
So now the sun is out (since ~4pm), much tentage is outside draped over the fence and there is laundry left, right and centre...
Back to work briefly tomorrow. Then with CF coming up shorting, things will get very busy...
Weds: Not a bad day out. Packed in the morning and departed round noon. Uneventful drive up, pausing to catch up with
bloodrage and co on the way through. On site and set up tents easily before dinner, then catching up with people. I went thud early but Z enjoyed moonlight soaking in thermal springs with people.Thurs: Setup day. Groceries, sewing tunic and general setting up living history stuff for public etc the next day. Dinner for 11 people cooked successfully by me and
basal_surge over open fire. Blackberry pie for dessert due to an surfeit of blackberries. All good. On and off quite breezy, so Z had to rig the viking text to spill the wind...Fri: Public workshop day. No jousting/main displays, but workshops by various re-enactors. Thermal springs soak just after getting up was good given the lack of showers. I started warping up the warp weighted loom. Decided that doing 20 threads at a time, measuring them out, attaching them to the frame, attaching weights and tying on to the heddle at a time, meant that I went far less mad trying to do all the threads at each step. Z played with his calligraphy set up. We got warnings for rain and strong winds for the evening, so battened down the hatches and got everything up off the ground well beforehand. All good for the evening when the forecast rain (but not wind) arrived.
Sat: Woke up to about 2cm of water covering all the ground as the site took a while to drain and the rain had gotten heavyish overnight. Just as well we had gotten everything up. Only 1 corner of the swag had gotten wet, so a slightly soggy corner of sheet, with the rest fine. Breakfast was done on the gas cookers as the firepit was a small swimming hole, but bacon, eggs and pancakes went down well. Rain stopped and drained off fine by midmorning (and the firepit was emptied, so the display was open for punters, where we had a steady but small stream of public through. Didn't want loom stuff getting wet, so hadn't unrolled it to continue warping. Just as well it stayed packed up for the rain that arrived late afternoon. Drizzly soggy evening and the cooks did an amazing job of of cooking dinner in the firepit in the rain. Some surface water but still not that bad by the time I went to bed.
Sun: Hello 2cm deep water over everything (I posted a couple photos to facebook) and this time it isn't stopping. Mid breakfast announcement (9:30am-10amish?) is that the weather will really turn to custard in the afternoon and if we didn't pack down and get out now, we wouldn't be out til Mon due to not being able to get the cars out. Unanimous verdict to bug out. Fast packdown in the rain over the next few hours. By the end, we were getting the tents (8 (getelds and a-frames) + awning) down like clockwork while not getting them muddy in the pouring rain. Stressful and more stressful (and with Z getting some distressing news in the middle - see his locked post/Facebook for details) and the rain got heavier over the last hour or so. By the end it was a case of get stuff into vehicles and trailers and it would be sorted when everyone was home the next day. Left site round 1pm and headed straight for the public (pay loos) where for $1 towel hire, 50 cents soap, $2 for 4 min shower we were luxuriously clean and far less soggy. Then we drove home. The Desert road was somewhat hairy, with 2 car crashes driven past and surface flooding. Made it home ~7:30pm and unloaded, getting some stuff drying upstairs, then went thud and slept - me somewhat later than Z who had been up socializing til ~3:30pm and had been somewhat hungover through the packup, just to add to the fun. Taupo ended up getting 150mm of rain that day, with ~50+ mm in the ~5+ hours after we left... Rained all the way back too, with some variation in heaviness.
Mon: (Wellington Anniversary, so a public holiday) Laundry and drying things. Rain earlier on, but getting sun by mid afternoon after picking up the remains of our stuff from fellow soaked out travelers. Internet hits and updates.
So now the sun is out (since ~4pm), much tentage is outside draped over the fence and there is laundry left, right and centre...
Back to work briefly tomorrow. Then with CF coming up shorting, things will get very busy...
