That's it. It's over.
We did our last river trip yesturday; the Kaituna (again). Luck was kinda against us; the Wairoa wasnt running and we sold the car before we were able to get back to Taupo to run Artiritiri.

We sold our car! Im still in awe of how that happened, some holy, upper presence is the only explanation; we got $200 for it.
Let me explain: the Red Barren, although still Warrented, is hardly road-worthy: It has four holes in the roof, a boot that doesnt close, a bonnet that doesnt open, faulty electric windows, leaking doors, a dulled headlight, a stench from two guys living in the car for 3 months and, most importantly, a fluid leak that prevents the car from changing gear properly and totally disabling her ability reverse. But the torment is over. Shes gone.

Getting to Aukland without a car was pretty difficult, but thats a different story! We're here now - in a hostel until friday (when Doni leaves). Plans are just to get organised and enjoy our last few days in NZ.

A Happy Easter!

Saturday night we met up with Phil's brother Collin and Greg, both paddlers from Palmerson North. En convey, we drove north together and camped somewhere between Taupo and Rotorua. It was a really good evening, sitting around a fire with a large box of beers.

The next morning we headed to the Rangieki. We drove first to a waterfall near the bottom of the river. Its a 9m drop that Doni and I had already ran, however we got there to find levels pretty high. This meant the drop would have been very challenging; the line was far right, but at that flow the water was fiercly pushing left. So, after alot of umming and aahing we decided to give it a miss (im still wishing id gone for it).

Dry and frustrated, we drove up to the Jeff's Joy section of the river. Its a really nice run, mostly grade 3/3+ boogey water apart from the grade 4 Jeff's Joy rapids at the top. All but Greg had run the section before, but with my memory it was like a new river to me too. No horror stories to report, everyone got safely and happily down.

That evening we travelled to Rotorua (to paddle the Kaituna the next day). We went to the cinema to see ''300'', a very graphic ancient war movie - plenty of blood and guts, well recomended.

The next day we hit Rotorua's gem, the Kaituna. We ran it twice. I had forgotten just how good the river was! What a river. Man, it's perfect. Beautiful river, big drops, big boofs and playspots galour. Soo much fun ... i could stay on that river forever.

On Tuesday we scouted Artiritiri. Its massive! Steve Fisher claims it to be one of the most challenging runs he's ever made (apparently he got worked pretty hard about half-way down). Doni and I are probably going to run the bottom bit next weekend, its the easiest part of the section and has a nice pool drop at the end. (looking forward to that).

Catch Up

wow, im falling behind with this blog!

Left Abel Tasman AGES ago. Next stop was Wellington, where we spent a couple of days with Aunty Penny and the family. We had a great time just being lazy - chilling out around the house and doing very little (perfect!).

We left fed, watered and showered - totally refreshed for some more paddling. By late afternoon we reached the WhiteWater Environmental Park 10mins from Palmerson North. Described as "a river on steriods", the park was just that. It was a 400m section of river thats been modified with boulders and concrete slabs to form some awesome waves and holes. We ran it a total of 3 1/2 times before hitting the road again. It was great fun, even in SCUDs, and actually doing some playboating again was quite a novelty. One hole was particularly good, Doni threw a sick space-godzilla and i pulled off my first aerial-loop.

That night we reached Taihape and crashed at Phil's house (Bliss-sticks designer). The next day we ran the Rangitiki River, levels were low but still enjoyable.