The Styx

Apparently one of the must-do's of New Zealand. Brillaint river - although the hike in was pretty tough (took almost two hours).
The river was very much a creek; very tight and technical. Like the Arahura, it was not drop and pool but instead, very continuous (just horizon line after horizon line!). This meant some serious must-make moves and must-make eddy hopping.
The first section was very demanding; grade 4+ and 5 .... very steep. The water was suprisingly pushy, catching me off-guard and bringing Tanner and I close to getting very early pins. Things went well in this section until about halfway down where i took a beating in a particularly technical rapid:- I was knocked off-course and flipped about halfway down. Not nice. The water was very shallow meaning a mouthful of rock; after what seemed an eternaty of being 'cheese-greated' along the riverbed I was able to roll-up (thankfully in time to make the slot-drop and avoiding a potentially aweful pinning). Shortly after this, Tanner had some bad downtime at the bottom of a big drop - but it spat him out with only a couple of scrapes to report.
After the first few km's the gradient lessened - meaning the river eased to a grade 4, then three and finally grade 2. Allowing us to admire the stunning scenery that surrounded us.
It was an amazing trip - and other than a few bruises here and there we were ok!

Taorua River

Scott bruised his knees badly when paddling the Arahura, this has unfortunatly put him out of kayaking for the next week or so. It also meant just Tanner, Doni and I ran the Taorua yesturday.
We had a 50min hike to the put-in, which was an adventure of its own.
The river itself wasn't too demanding; generally grade three with a handful of grade four features. It was a really nice river running through a beautiful, green valley. The run took about 1hr 3omins; enjoyed by all - mellow, relaxing and pretty.

Arahura River

We're at the infamous Hokitika now - the centre of kayaking in New Zealand - at the heart of the West Coast.
We ran the Arahura two days ago - wow!

The river is only accessable by helicopter - meaning quite a dent in the funds, but definitely worth the money! We flew 12km up the river (taking about 10-15mins). The chopper flew directly over the river meaning that we could scout from the air and get a good idea of what was ahead ..... i've learnt, however, that rapids look much smaller from the sky!: 'ripples' in the water from above turned out to be meaty grade 3+/4 from the ground - features that looked big from up high were feckin' HUGE from the river banks!
The river starts with a some challenging boulder gardens - winding and steep - mostly read and run. Then came the first of the three gorges. This contained some narley rapids and three fairly sizeable waterfalls. Alot of scouting was required, as was some portaging. All went well with no serious slip ups; i had a scare at the second waterfall were i almost missed my line and narrowly avoided some serious hole-time. Tanner had some fun on a particular drop, he mannaged to get an impressive stern-stall with his Mystic after missing his boof, (He swears he was just showing off but we know it wasnt by any means intentanal playboating!)
After the first gorge came a nice grade 3 stretch with some bouncy read and run hydrolics, all very continuous - really cool. This, followed by "The Billiards"; serious looking stuff. Big drops and nasty looking seives (the final drop has been classed a grade 6) - we ran the first of the three rapids ... this was challenging enough ... and portaged the others. This lead into the second gorge (grade 4 - similar to the first gorge).
A nice grade 2 'cool-down' section came next and then finally the third gorge. The first of these rapids, "the cesspit", was gigantic. After a long debate we decided not to run it. The portage around this feature was an adventure of its own - we had to climb rocks, duck under trees, cross a stream then seal-launch of a 5/6m vertical cliff then battle to must-make eddy below!
The rapids below this feature were pretty intense even without running 'the Cesspit': A 2m drop lead into a tight 300m S-bend - a very bouncy grade 4 ..... it most certainly had the "whoop" factor!

A really nice run - perfect day - best day I've had in New Zealand yet.

Maruia Falls and the Buller

Im now paddling on the South Island, still with the same 3 friends; Doni, Tanner and Scott. After a very long drive south from Picton we made it to the Buller region. A beautiful region famous for the rafting and kayaking it offers.

First kayaking on the south island we did was "Maruia Falls", and 11m waterfall just outside of Merchison. This was huge!! The line was obvious and not technical - however there was alot of water flowing over the drop and, being so high, it formed quite a hole at the bottom (potential for a serious beat-down!). This meant that you had to hit the right line and that a boof was essential. It took me a while to gather the courage to run it - but im glad i did. All went well, the four of us all ran it successfully - wahoo!

The next day we ran a section of the Buller river - the four usual suspects, plus two Germans we met at the waterfall the day before. The run was very relaxed; with bouncy grade 3 rapids and some nice wave trains. Weather was fantastic and the water was crystal clear making it a really picturesque trip. The only cause for concern was the final drop, something-or-another falls (i dont remember the name). This was a grade 4 drop which required alot of speed and well timed boof to clear a stopper that looked fairly scud-eating. no probs though

Fruit Picking

Plums, plums, plums and more bloody plums.... if i see another plum this holiday, me and my hammer shall insure it becomes nothing more than a sticky mush.
When you say 'Ive picked an entire orchard of plums' it sounds like nothing - you have to be there to understand and respect the meaning of those words... it took 16 people 11 days of hard labour to rid that God-Foresaken place of its fruit: 34 rows of about 50 trees ; each bursting with purple hellballs. I picked sooo much fruit- thousands and thousands and thousands......

We're on the second day of our two days off. Yesturday we returned to the beach where we spent New Years. The weather was fantastic ... the surf was not. Today we're in Napier (hence the emails). Just been to the supermarket to stock up on food, etc...... i found the most amazing pair of spoungebob sandles .... only $5! - ill have to send a picture!

Christmas and New Years

ok - report on the last month....

we spent christmas in Taihape ( it was to be Taupo, but one of our three cars blew up meaning we were stranded). Nevertheless we had a great time - we ran the Rangitiaki on christmas eve, then once again christmas morning. On the 25th we ate far to much food; a massive amount of fried bread and ice cream in the morning and then a GIANT lasange in the evening.
On boxing day we headed up to Taupo and did another Huka run (just as scary the second time, though a little more controlled).
Since then, we've been touring the southeast coast of NZ's north island; stopping off at various points along the coast. its been really nice; meeting lots of people, eating lots of icecreams and having countless evenings chillin' around campfires, listening to the ocean and stumming guitars.

29 Dec -2 Jan was spent on a nice little spot between Napier and Hastings. The surf was excellent and the SCUD performed surprisingly well. New Years eve was awesome with a huge beach party with live music and (too many) free drinks.

other than surfing, kayaking has been scarce - cant wait to start running rivers again!