By Robyn Surcombe & Jack Goodeve, 04 April 2026
BUH BUH BUH BUSH CRAFT!!
Day 1 Bushcraft, By Robyn Surcombe.
Welcome to Beginner's Bushcraft 2026! We had a great forecast ahead of us and a neat little teaching plan prepared. We would be covering: fire lighting, first aid, foraging, knots, setting up fly sheets, and navigation.
After a breezy walk in, we found a good and sheltered spot to set up camp. The afternoon was spent in groups doing two of the three planned activities. Jack and I taught first aid, going over common tramping ails (sprains, burns, hypothermia) and how to treat them/when to call for help. Using the infamous DRSABCs, we simulated a range of creative first aid scenarios.
After we finished the activities, we began a grand scheme: to construct a shelter! Logs and large sticks were (tenuously?) held together by paracord amongst some trees, and fallen fern leaves made for effective walls. The structure was something to behold.
Just before dark we started on dinner. We made pasta and everyone added their own toppings! The campfire was lit, many marshmallows were toasted, and conversation lasted into the night.
Day 2 Bushcraft, By Jack Goodeve.
After an amazing sleep under Te Whanau Marama. I awoke feeling well rested; the leafy green confines had protected myself, Hunter, and Martijn from the cold displeasure of the surrounding forest. We had truly channelled our inner bushcraft. I cannot imagine the disconnect the others experienced under their nylon flysheets, they were not in touch with nature like we were. We were truly grounded – bushcraft truly realised.
Yet one must eat. So, we ate. For breakfast we had roasted and slightly toasted porridge with whatever we had opted to carry in. I engaged in my inner feudal lord and taxed the punters of their raisins, brown sugar, and bits of apple to supplement my humble oats. In return I brewed up a cauldron of coffee, featuring the finest blends that Newtown Woolworths had to offer.
After the horde satiated their appetites, we broke camp and moved to complete the final station; Hunter teaching navigation, Finlay covering what you can and cannot eat, and Max, Robyn, and yours truly teaching First Aid and firecraft. The final station went smoothly; yet again flint and steel proved a difficult task to get right, and First Aid was taught with much theatrics, and ceremony. But those we taught would well be ready for the small range of emergencies’ we touched upon.
But the final hour approaches, and with it the last hurdle these intrepid bushcrafters must face.
The hunter becomes the hunted. Alone in the bush, somewhere the Easter Bunny from Pennsylvania was dying of hypothermia, only a skilled group of punters could save him.
To start, we told those who were being instructed to locate their lost comrade, to assist in this endeavour we told them the grid reference he may be. What followed was much planning by the group, with Martjin and Louis taking lead with the maps, and getting all the bearings set to go the right direction. Soon enough they set out to find this disappeared bunny. They had to cross a raging river (it wasn’t but we imagined that it was), which they did so slowly and carefully, as they had been taught.
As they crossed the river to Waerenga Hut, heard the pained cries of a easter bunny. So They rushed to action finding the Easter Bunny with a broken ankle and suffering from advanced hypothermia. Everyone sprung into action and started on the first aid that Easter Bunny needed.
They managed to revive the easter bunny and carry him to a spot that LSAR could locate him and save him.
But finally, all had been done. The punters had learned what to do so it was time to go home.
The End
BTW if it isn’t obvious this was all a simulated excursion simply done so I could make Hunter wear a bunny costume.
Untitled – Jack Goodeve
Why were you lost in the bush
Was it your compass broke
Or abandoned by your hope
Mayhap the light of the morn will guide your way
Through glistening ferns - they won’t lead you astray
Across rivers, like arteries that feed the sea
Oh, how forlorn the great forests feel
But if only you knew some tricks
Perhaps you'd be joyous and free
At home in the forest amongst the trees