My Solo Camping Adventure with Rudy

Solo Camping with Rudy

By Sarla Donovan

So I decided to go camping with Rudy the 16-month-old Bordoodle* in early December. Summer was finally here and I was itching to get on the road, get out of the city and under the stars!

Kaikoura was our destination, just two and a half hours north of Christchurch. It seemed like a great idea at the time - me and Rudy adventuring together. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, a few things.

A pushy lady told me to get off her campsite. Rudy stole one of my sausages and barked at nearby campers. SH1 was 100 metres away from our campsite and humungous trucks thundered past all night. And I had to put Rudy in the tent with me and he wanted to get up at 5.20am. Arrggghhh!

But you don’t know until you try!

This sleeping arrangement didn't last

I'd booked a site at Peketa Beach Holiday Park about seven kilometres south of Kaikoura township, just as you come out of that twisty coastal section and cross the Kahutara River (shamefully still called the cow-tra by locals...) The holiday park is tucked in beside the sea where SH1 straightens into a long ribbon - and that should’ve been a clue but people, I was all about the sea and the mountains not the highway! Sometimes I overlook inconvenient truths. The Kaikoura ranges are cloaked with white flowering manuka and the ocean washes onto fat grains of dark grey sand and that’s all I was thinking about.

When we arrived there was no one down the southern end where the manager said I could pitch anywhere I liked. I’d sussed out a spot, parked and got ready to put up my tent when a woman marched up and said you have to move, we’ve just booked this entire section, there’s 14 of us. Really???!!! I figured the manager would’ve said something. But I didn’t want a confrontation and a posse of vehicles toting kayaks, dinghys, dogs, kids and tents had appeared. So I marched off and looked around for another site far from the madding crowd, found one under a big old ngaio tree took Rudy for a walk up nearby Kowhai River. 

Cooling off in the Kowhai River

Late afternoon sunshine made the air shimmer like gossamer and Rudy was pretty happy to be hanging out in Peketa. I fed him his dinner then cooked up some pork and apple sausages on my butane cooker, making the rookie mistake of putting the frypan on the ground unattended and losing one to you know who. Luckily I still had three and shoved them into some buttered bread with tomato sauce and ate them on the beach in the last of the sun’s rays and thought this is bloody fantastic. I’ve picked a super spot to go camping with Rudy.

 Dusk began to fall but the kitchen and ablution block was five minutes away and as you’re meant to have your dog on a lead at all times there was a bit of traipsing back and forth with dishes and toilet bags. Rudy got sick of being tied up while I was in the shower, slipped off his collar and went exploring. A kind lady brought him back, “is this your dog?” Yes….

Exploring the beach at sunset 

Then it was night. The stars came out. I hung my lantern inside to read, put Rudy’s bed in the verandah and climbed into my sleeping bag.

Next minute…“WROOOF ROOOOOF ROOOOF ROOOFF!!!!”

The neighbour had arrived back at his campervan and Rudy was barking his head off. I stumbled around in the bushes until I caught him, put the lead on and threaded it through the tent door while I continued to read. But when I switched off the light and tried to sleep he kept tugging at any small rustle in the undergrowth. I grudgingly brought him inside the tent where he squashed up by my feet and promptly went to sleep, blissfully unaware of the great blasts of noise coming from SH1 just 100 metres away.

Peketa is a popular spot for campervans but proximity to SH1 makes it noisy if you're tenting

I lay in the dark. Every few minutes another truck barrelled past; each one sounded like a jet engine with its nose about to rise from the tarmac.

The night wore on, sleep was fickle, dawn broke, Rudy woke. I checked my watch. 5.20am. I pretended to be asleep for another half hour then capitulated. We walked through cold dunes to the beach and I blearily watched the sun come up before brewing a strong cup of coffee and cursing my habit of ignoring inconvenient truths.**

*Border collie/poodle

** I didn’t let this put me off. Later in January we went to Balmoral Campground beside the Hurunui River. But Mr T came too and we wound down the windows of the car and Rudy slept there happily inside his crate while we got a good night’s sleep in our tent.