Solo Rainstorm Camping in a Hidden Shelter - New Zealand Wilderness Survival

Hey everyone, Charlie here, and I'm solo camping deep in the backcountry of New Zealand. I'm hiking through stunning forests to find a hidden shelter that's not on any maps. I'll be sleeping on hardwood floors, cooking delicious food, and staying warm through an overnight rainstorm. So this is actually where they filmed Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings. It's cool to know that all the actors and film crew would have been right here when they were making the trilogy, and I think it's pretty fitting that I'm starting this adventure in Middle-earth. Wow, this has got to be one of the biggest trees I've ever seen. I believe it's an ancient rata tree. There's some pretty massive ones around here. In fact, the biggest rata in the whole world is located only about 20km that way. Well, the shelter I plan on staying at isn't on a marked trail, but I'm looking for these little pink tags to tell me where to turn off, but I've seen about 30 of them, so I hope this is the right one. Well, the forest is dense and dark, but you get these little pockets of sunlight that come through, and down below there's all these ferns that absorb all that sunlight. The rain is persistent and heavy. These ferns hold so much moisture, so when I brush through them, it just soaks my shorts. It's actually quite hard to find the path through. Well, the dense undergrowth has really given way to this quite nice open forest here, but with it being so open, it lets in a lot more rain, so I'm getting soaked. The trees are getting fluffy, and so is the ground. My maps indicate that I'm at spot height 641, which I know is my turn-off point to head down one of these spurs and hopefully find the shelter in the river below. Looking forward to getting down, getting dry and having some warm food. The shelter, I can just see it poking through down there. Quite a drop down here, and it's really slippery. Just hoping these trees will hold me. Well, I managed to get down, but it was quite scary in the wet. Look what we have here. Home for the night. It's a bit dark, but hey, it's dry. That's what I want to see. We've got a nice river right there, and I even see some waterfalls on the other side. It's lovely. It's actually quite a bit windier down here than it was up the top. I suspect the wind's getting funneled up the valley. Well, as you can see, I'm absolutely sodden, and now that I'm not moving, it's starting to cool off a bit. As beautiful as this place is, I'm starting to feel really cold, and I need to recognize that and do something about it. I'm going to get changed into my dry clothes, make a hot chocolate and have some of mum's baking. Oh, the sleeping bag has a lot of moisture on it, which isn't good. It's not great. The inner of my pillow is separated from the outer. Well, I don't actually have all my layers on yet, but I'm already really warm. I'm feeling dry, and I'm actually pretty comfortable in here. One issue I have is that the wind is coming straight through, funneling through the shelter. Oh, and there goes my pillowcase. So I think I'm going to shift to the other side, because there's a bit less wind. I just remembered I've got another pair of hand warmers. Put that in my pocket for now, let it heat up. I think it's time to get the down booties on. Well, this is news to me. Instead of the beanie, I've got a full balaclava. Lastly, I've got some new waterproof fleece gloves. What's nice about this place is I can be curled up in my sleeping bag and cook some food at the same time. So I'm going to make a hot chocolate and try some of mum's baking. I actually forgot to put water inside my pot. Oh no. Oh, that was foolish of me. Well, I went to pour my water, and I thought I saw gas still coming off of this, so I moved it out of the way, and forgot that the top was already off, and I spilt some. Ah, well. That was close. Seems pretty warm to me. What a collapsible cup. Lots of hot chocolate inside of there. I'd like mine quite strong, I think. Oh, it feels good to get hot food, or hot water down me. I almost forgot. Got some more of mum's amazing baking. This time we've got oat and raisin. It is probably my favourite flavour of biscuit ever, so I am looking forward to these. That is seriously incredible. That hot chocolate was really nice. In fact, I think I'll have another one. I found some marshmallows to go with this one. There's a log behind me that's actually fallen down from the bank, but it's a nice backrest, so I'm going to keep it here. I've got to save some for tomorrow, but I'm going to have another half a biscuit. I just remembered I packed my fly in, in case of an emergency, but I'm thinking I'll lay it down under my bed, just for a tiny little bit of padding against the hardwood floor. Well, it's a lot later now, and I'm getting hungry again, so I think it's time to have some dinner, and I've got something really special for that. A nice brioche burger bun. Don't want to light my sleeping bag on fire. Definitely don't need it that hot. Crisped up nicely. Nice and toasty. Leave those there, and now it's time for the patties. Got them wrapped up in this bag, so should be all good. It's quite hard with this being on a bit of a lean. I'm going to move this even more central. Press it into a nice ball. Flatten that out a bit. Well, I brought some cheese along as well, so I think I'll put that on top while it's cooking, so it melts around the patty. You can see the cheese bending as it's heating up. Oh, I think that looks pretty good to me. We've got our buns here, and our patty with melted cheese. Cheese is melted, patty's juicy. Oh, I can't wait to try this. Oh my goodness. That is seriously incredible. I don't think I've ever had anything quite as nice as this while in the bush. Boy, does hot food feel good when it's raining, cold, in the middle of nowhere. I'll be honest, I ate that way quicker than I should have. But good news, I've got another one. You know what? My only criticism for the last burger was that it wasn't cheesy enough. We're going double, because why not? There we go. Finish off the burger. Well, here I am again with another burger, this time with a lot more cheese. All right, time to dig in. I don't think I'll ever go back to two-minute noodles after having stuff like this, and the venison steaks that Brendan and Hamish and Jono made last time. Well, that dinner was amazing, but I have made quite a mess, so I think it's time to pack that all up. Well, I haven't packed up the cooker just yet, because there's something nice I'd like to make for dessert. I've just been sitting here, listening to a bit of music, and, yeah, just relaxing for once in a while. It's getting a bit later now. I think it's almost time for bed. I think all that's left is a little bit of dessert. I got these. They're little waffle biscuits. They're super light, and they just taste like Christmas for some reason. But I'm going to be more creative than that. I've got marshmallows, and I've got some Nutella spread, so I'm going to make my own version of some s'mores. Now, I am in a forest, so there are sticks, but I'm a bit lazy. I don't really want to get out and get wet, so I'm going to use the knife to skewer the marshmallows. Get some Nutella spread. That is really good. It's a pretty good marshmallow to me. Ah, no! Ah! Well, if you run out of the biscuits, you can just eat the marshmallow right off the knife. Always eat it horizontally, not vertically. And make sure you don't need a sneeze, unless you want to look like the Joker. Well, I'll give you a fun fact about me. I'm not big on insects, and I'm really not big on spiders. Just over there is a spider, one more, and one hanging from a web over there that you probably can't see. I'm definitely going to sleep with my balaclava over my face. This is my mattress for the night. I think I'll scrunch it up and put it down where my hips are going to be, since that's where all the pressure will be. It's not going to add any warmth, but it'll be a little bit more comfortable. Well, it looks like I'm all ready for bed. Well, it's been dark for a while now, and there's not much more for me to do, so I think I'll turn the lights off and head to bed. I'll see you in the morning. Well, it's still night time. It's like 10 o'clock, and I just got woken up. We had some heavy rain really, really briefly, and it was just pounding on the roof. But other than that, I'm pretty cosy, and I think it's going to be a warm night. Touch wood. Good morning. It's around 7 o'clock. It's still pitch black outside. These valleys just get no sun at all during the winter. Well, the top half of me is boiling hot, and the bottom half of me is just getting all of my heat drained away from the cold wood below. But I do need to get out of the sleeping bag soon and make some breakfast. I'm really looking forward to some warm bacon. The quickest one yet. Oh, no. It smells so good. I think it's time to dig into some bacon. Oh, wait. I forgot. How could I forget? Still got some maple syrup. That is just what I needed. I didn't realise how hungry I was. It's a bit sad, but I do have to take off the down booties. Well, I was hoping I might not have to, but it is still raining, so I'm going to chuck the jacket back on and grow out my winter warrior. It's a bit dark, but I did notice yesterday there was some firewood under here, but I chose not to use it or make a fire because I had my gas cooker, and it would be a bit unfair on others who came here who didn't, who would be relying on it. Well, I came down that kind of cliff face over there, but I found what looks like a much easier way up. Look at just the sea of green around me. It's beautiful. Wow. It's even climbing up that tree there. I'm surrounded by all these trees. They're called tarphi, or silver beech. Areas like this make the going quite tough. There's no ground trail at all, no markers, and lots of windfall blocking the way, so I have to find a different way up. Windfall is any kind of trees, branches, debris that's been blown over by the wind and blocking the trail. Well, the rain's started up again. Don't know what this is, but it must mean we're close to civilisation. I'm right near the bottom now, and I've found a more open track to get down. I don't know where it's going to put me out, if it's going to be passable, but it's a lot easier going than the way I came up. I'm a bit stuck here. There's a big rock wall kind of stopping me from going anywhere. I think I'm just going to go back up and find the way I came down. Well, it's annoying. I've made it back to that main road, but there's a cliff right here, so I've clearly come the wrong way. I need to bush-bash further that way. Well, that was a pretty brutal 20 minutes, but I see a gravel path, finally. Maybe this pink square marks the turnoff I should have taken yesterday. This lower area that I'm in now is a pretty popular campsite. I used to come here a lot when I was younger with friends and family. There were some cool water holes to swim at and jump off the rocks. I was always quite scared to jump off the rocks, but my friends Joel and Sean weren't. That looks like the bridge to me. Thank you guys very much for watching this adventure, and if you want to see more, be sure to subscribe. I'm out almost every weekend in the hills doing what I love.