By Neve Hopman, 09 March 2023
If you walked past the Hunter car park at 5pm on the 10th of March, you would have probably noticed a large swarm of fresh faced, doe eyed students decked out in sparklingly new gear.
If you walked past at 5pm on the 13th, you might have seen a handful of sleep deprived, sweat soaked stragglers.
So what happened in between? Well, 113 (by my count) wanna be hooligans embarked on Feshers, the biggest, most social tramp of the year. And 2023 was no exception. For the first time since covid we had exchange students which meant that this was many people's first New Zealand tramp ever (and I would say hopefully not their last but I will be honest there were definitely some people on this trip that I haven't seen since…). It included a 2 hour bus ride, a pre party night party night, a 4 hour walk, lots of river swimming, the actual party night, a few drunken freshers, a big ol bonfire, open fly camping, a dusty walk out (with the dustiest having to run to catch the bus in time), and a long, quiet bus ride home. 113 (by my count) came out of the bush (mostly) unharmed, so in my books it was a success, and I think the pictures back me up. Despite the forecast downpour, the Tararua Ranges put on their best show, giving the international students and doe eyed first years a delectable lil taste of NZ.