Matakana Island 09

While busily preparing to go away on Thursday morning I managed to hurt myself rather badly.
There was the most unpleasant waves of pain ripping through my back and I knew it wasn't going to be good.
It took me 3 attempts to get from the shed where I was back to the house where I immediately took Voltarin, grabbed some frozen peas and tried to lay down till the spasms eased.

I decided after some time that I felt better but still couldn't walk more than a few paces without collapsing in pain.

The packing to go away continued at a much slower pace and most of the things I had planned to do that day were obviously not done.

A not very restfull night was followed by an early rising. I struggled to stand upright, swallowed some more drugs and tried to keep going. At one point I bent down to pick up someting of the floor and cried out in agony. I was very miserable.
A stick helped me to walk around a wee bit better and I had resolved that I was going to go on the ride no matter what.
Even if I didn't feel up to riding across from the mainland I knew I could get someone to lead Trapper and I would go over on the barge and try to ride the next day.

We arrived at the meeting point and I swallowed more pain killers. Thank goodness for good friends who helped me to saddle up and park the car etc. I got on and found the rhythm of the walk quite soothing so decided it was worth attempting the crossing. I had so many pain killers on board I shouldn't have felt a thing but any sudden jolts sent waves of pain through my body.

We stayed at a different location on the island this time. I looked at my mattress on the floor and wondered what the heck I was doing but hey, I was there and I stayed on my horse the whole way over.

Getting up the next morning was extremely hard. I tried to make a couple of attempts before anyone could notice me struggling but didn't do very well. Eventually I had to just get up and tried not to cry with the pain. What the heck was I thinking :(

Breakfast though and some more pain killers had me in a better frame of mind. Codeine is great like that! Walking was still a major problem but sitting was OK so I figured I should be fine up on the horse again.

We had a nice ride. Trapper handled it fairly well. Its all still very new to him so he did have some babyish moments which I tried to avoid and not deal with as I was only capable of being a passenger.

I didn't take many photo's as I just couldn't handle it. We tied the horses to some pine trees for lunch. I was just heading out to the beach to find somewhere soft to sit when I heard the shouting and looked up to see a tree shaking. I knew it was the tree I had tied Trapper to and tried to hurry back. He was being held up by 2 men who were trying to release him. It looked like he had rubbed his head (sweaty and itchy) and got hung up by his rope halter. Thankfully he stood and they freed him. He had a few scrapes but otherwise was unharmed.

After lunch a few of the horses went for a play in the water. I took Trapp down on the lead to watch so he didn't get anxious being left tied up. He seemed pretty keen on the water and his mate Shadow was swimmin out in the waves so I asked Ellen if she wanted to take him in the water.
I was thinking she would just play in the shallow part but Trapper just headed straight into the water.
Then he either got scared by the waves, Ellen's hat blowing off , or something else but he seemed to be trying to jump the waves and Ellen had no hope of holding onto him. He was catering in quite deep water and then lost his footing or something because he went down into the water.
I dropped the camera at that point and stared in horror.
Ellen swan away from him and Trapp just panicked and headed toward Shadow. You can see Ellen swimming out to the right of the photo below.
Jan bought him in and I had the task of removing everything from my saddlebags which were wet. My cell phone wallet, dry boots and socks............WET
So that was Saturdays entertainment. Good for any woulds of course but my phone is completely dead.
The rest of the weekend was fairly low key after all that. Sunday, Trapp was obviously tired. Mentally, just over it all. His head was nodding all over the place and he just stopped thinking. All good though as I was starting to feel a bit better and more able to cope with him and my still damp sadde.
Going to Matakana is like stepping back in time. You live on Island time and the pace of life is much more relaxed than what most of us experience.
The kids are great, interested in everything and great fun to be around.
I have spent Monday washing and cleaning. By the time you get back to the mainland you and the horses are all covered in mud flats grey goop that doesn't smell too pleasant either. But its all worth it for the great experience.
One thing I didn't expect to have to deal with was every single person on the trek asking me what happened to his rump. I am used to the scarring now but it must be a lot more obvious than I realised. They did all say nice things about him though as well, but I hope its not going to be always like that when I take him somewhere.
Waiouru coming up extra fast now. It better stop raining as I have lots of things to get dry!