Baiting Weekend III: Return of the Cutty Grass

Location: Waitakere Ranges

Date: 21 – 23 Feb 2025

Author: Ben Dodson and Ankia Van Zyl

Participants: Aaron Jackson, Ben Dodson, Ankia Van Zyl, Arin Panda, Varshini Bhat, Max Whatmough, Chris Carson, Charlotte Laws, Rebecca Greenwood, Raphael Powis

Day 1:

The trip started off like any old trip- waiting at the car park for the last few stragglers to arrive. However, this would by no means be ‘any old trip’. This trip would involve traversing seas of cutty grass, many bush-bashing battle scars, definitely not getting lost, intense temptations to eat possum bait, a super luxurious hut (it had showers), monster Bananagrams and, of course, fine dining. In other words, this was a baiting weekend.

For those who are a bit lost, baiting consists of replenishing bait at stations throughout the bush to help control pesky stoats and rat numbers. It involves a good bit of bush bashing, carrying in fresh bait, carrying out old bait and to make it official, wearing a high-vis.

Ark in the Park (who runs these baiting weekends) had us staying at the Alpine Sports Club hut. It was complete with old skis and snowy mountain pics (no actual snow though). It was a luxurious stay. There was a hot shower, a fully equipped kitchen- microwave, oven, kettle- the whole lot, and 3-decker sleeping bunks. A hut? More like a hut-el (cue applause for this masterpiece of complex humour, please).

After devouring a dinner of cardboard-fired pizza (a pizza box slightly caught on fire in the oven) and an in-depth discussion about the absolute limit of possum bait that would be safe for human consumption, we discovered that three of us had, independently, brought Bananagrams. There was only one thing left to do- combine them all into monster Bananagrams with blatant disregard for how long it would take to separate the packs again.

Day 2: 

After a hearty breakfast, we geared up and hit the trail, bright-eyed and excited to bait some rats. Unfortunately, we got so caught up in our enthusiasm that we found ourselves "temporarily misguided" (not lost we swear!!).

Once we found the track, we split into pairs and headed our separate ways, confident we'd got a weekend's worth of misdirection out of the way in one go. 

This totally calculated plan paid off when we arrived back at the hut without losing a single member of the team. This may well be a navigation strategy for the ages. In even better news, we were greeted with caramel slices AND apple cake ever so kindly baked for us by an Ark volunteer. An entire watermelon provided by trip organizer Aaron rounded out our feast. 

This was much-needed, as although we all completed our lines successfully, the local plant life fought back valiantly and left us with plenty of battle scars to remember it by. One of our access trails was accurately named “Cutty Grass Track”, and who woulda thought being a lawyer in the bush doesn’t confer protection from bush-lawyer?

Basking in the glow of a job well done and a stomach well filled, we decided to pile into the cars and hit Piha for a spontaneous sunset swim. On the beach, we enjoyed some rock-hopping and an adventurous pair even did some bouldering wearing the most effective of climbing shoes: the jandal. 

Bean chilli was for dinner, and enough avocados were provided to feed a small village. This left us with only one option - whip up the world's largest guacamole. No lemon juice? No worries. Mojito mix came in clutch to give our guac some much-needed zing. A few more games of monster-grams and we were ready to hit the hay.

Day 3:

We allowed ourselves a Sunday sleep-in as we didn't have much baiting to finish off. Once we eventually started, we managed to again get through the baiting without losing anyone, further confirming the effectiveness of our get-lost-early navigation strategy.

After cleaning up the hut, we drove back to the Ark for a much-needed sausage sizzle. Then it was just a cruisy drive back to uni where we bid farewell until the next time the rats come-a-calling.