Adventure Parenting

My Husband and I are poles apart. I’m a city girl and he’s a country boy. He prides himself with loving the country life. Because we are poles apart, the roles we play in parenting our daughter vary as well. I provide our daughter all there is to know about shopping and vanity while my darling Husband goes to the extreme. What we call adventure parenting!

What better way to show this by getting stuck on Waimakariri River while 4-wheel driving! Pictured above was our truck (or SUV!) that Hubby has managed to pull out of the river behind. You’ll know how he did this….read on…

Here’s a personal account of my Husband of our little Easter mishap or what we like to call some adventure parenting for our daughter..LOL:

The drive over on Friday was eventful as I managed to get the truck full of passengers and holiday gear stuck in the Waimakariri River!!. Damned embarrassing for someone who drive off-road for a living for almost 20 years I can tell you, but its possible that I am following in my father’s footsteps by having these little senior moments every now and then.

Someone suggested (Editor’s note: That’s me!) I drive closer to the main river flow which meant driving through a smaller tributary. No problem, engage 4wd and drive in. Was a bit deeper than I though so circled around to make sure all was Ok then drove through again. Got into the deeper bits and we lost traction when I came up against a couple of rocks. reversing confirmed the loss of mobility and we were stuck! Bugger (or words to that effect) I didn’t let the wheels dig in as it would have made matters worse. Opened my door and we were like a submarine going down as the torrents rushed in, so door was closed immediately!. Embarrassed and very peeved off driver than abandons his passengers by extricating himself through the drivers window onto the roof of the vehicle, leaving the engine running so as not to let water into the exhaust and possibly the engine.

Off I trekked to a fisherman I had spotted about 200 yards upstream. Of course the reception I got wasn’t overly friendly as I had expected. The old guy was a fishing fanatic and a Fish and Game Ranger to boot and he had being trying to catch a certain trout for three days (I got the full story). So a much humbled driver with many years off road driving experience had to admit he should have known better and felt like a right Wally. The old fisherman said he was bound to assist as it was part of the Rangers code of practice (must be like the junior woodchucks manual that Donald Duck used to quote), but I would have to wait until he tried for the elusive trout yet again. I did help him thread the fly as his hands shook more than mine, which might have softened him a little, although he wasn’t showing it.

So off I went thanking him for his trouble and wandered back to the partly submerged Holden. While walking back I started thinking that the truck really shouldn’t be stuck where it was as the bottom wasn’t that soft, and a thought struck me (not s*x this time). Was it in 4 wheel drive ???. The Holden has an electronic 4wd system and you change from 2wd to 4wd using a button on the dash. I had stopped and pressed it but maybe….. I waded back through the river and again entered the truck via the driver’s window. My passengers were a little alarmed as there was several inches of water inside the cab as the door seals hadn’t stopped the flow like I thought they would.

Bea had apparently been worried they would all drown after I had abandoned ship (Editor’s Note: I had to calm our daughter down to tell her that we are not going to drown as the part of the river we were in was not deep enough!). Sure enough on closer inspection, the little (note very small) 4wd indicator light on the dash wasn’t on, so a push of the button and I was able to drive out easily !!! This was after a van load of people had stopped on the bridge above us and taken photos, double the embarrassment.

Luckily it was a fine warm day and everyone pottered around on the riverbed while I drained as much water as I could from the cab and drying things out the best I could.

The fisherman came over and was surprised to find I had extricated the truck without the need for a tow. We had a good chat and I explained how embarrassed I was considering my previous experience plus the fact that I hadn’t engaged 4wd properly in the first place!. Mind you its a trap I wont fall into again and something that wouldn’t happen with the conventional lever system of engaging 4wd. I may write to general Motors and point out the fault.

Apart from a light indicating water in the fuel filter bowl (had to drain it a few times) we suffered no long term ill effects of the event. It was an adventure for my passengers and I guess I could have said it was all part of the real Kiwi Experience

Rest of the trip was less eventful (although I did leave my sun glasses on the bonnet and then had them fall from the truck at speed in the middle of the road, but that’s another story) and as I mentioned we had great weather.

Editor’s additional comments:

Here’s me rummaging for food. You’d think the way I was digging through our stuff that we’ve been stuck here for days!

So all’s well that ends well eh? One thing we can give to our daughter is excitement! LOL…We did laugh it off AFTER the event but at the time when the water level was rising inside the truck and the Hubby was nowhere to be found, I was getting scared but I knew I had to keep calm for our daughter’s sake. If she sees me panicking, I knew she’d panic too. I knew though that we were not in any danger because at the worst, we could’ve abandoned the truck and wade our way to dry land.

What about you? How was your Easter break? Did you have any mishaps you’d like to share?

Images: MrsGooding’s Flickr Album