A week in Auckland

I arrived in Auckland on Friday 12th of December where I was met by my cousin Maddy. Apparently all play and no rest had taken its toll as I spent the next week recovering from illness. That didn't stop me from getting to know the city of Auckland. Auckland is one of the most spread out cities in the world covering a large area for a relatively small population, its possible to walk from the West coast of New Zeland to the East coast without leaving Auckland. Seeing Auckland with an Aucklander meant that I got a different experience of Auckland to the typical tourist and got to know the people a bit more whether chilling out at the beach or playing a crazy game of cranium. Auckland also served as a base from which to plan the next part of my trip. It also gave me the chance to hear about the reputation of Auckland Uni Canoe Club "they do more drinking than the drinking club" who I'd been put in contact with by Jono who'd spent a year at Auckland. I experienced this first hand on a trip to the Wairoa leaving on saturday evening. I wasn't feeling too good when I woke up on the Sunday and realised I had to paddle some grade 4 water whilst trying not to be sick. It's amazing how quickly the feel of cold water and the prospect of painful collisions with boulders can sober you up though.
Next I needed a car, after a quick look on trade me I decided a Subaru was the way to go, so after visiting the car arranged an AA inspection. The mechanic was shaking his head the whole time as he looked at it and by the end the list of problems wouldn't fit on one page, still it was cheap and it had roof bars, I just had to hope it would last for two months, even then the odds didn't look great.
I was now ready to go and so after packing up I left Auckland on the 23rd of December on a road trip to the ferry on the 26th where I was going to meet up with some of the guys from AUCC.

The first six weeks - Travels with NRA

I've now been in New Zealand for just about 10 weeks and I have had an absolutely amazing time, done loads of kayaking and met some awesome people.

I arrived in New Zealand at the start of November to meet with the New River Academy and travel with them across New Zealand for six weeks taking in the rivers and the culture of New Zealand.

We started off in Rotorua, a city built in the crater of a volcano which is easily recognised by the ever present smell of sulpher. There we paddled on the Kaituna river, which drops through a spectacular gorge through a series of rapids into an 8 metre waterfall. this was the highest waterfall I'd ever paddled at the time. I was really excited to paddle it and on my first run I followed the line from left to right and dropped smoothly onto the boil at the bottom, awesome. I was so pleased to have styled the falls that I forgot about the rest of the river and promptly got pinned in an undercut and had my first swim for 5 years!

Playboating on the Kaituna

We then headed to Raglan, a surfer town on the West Coast of North Island. There we surfed some huge waves on the longest right hand break in the world, whilst staying at a campsite run almost entirely self sufficiently. It was fascinating to see how they build their own bricks from clay which were as hard as concrete whilst requiring much less energy.

After that we drove through the central plateau headed down to Taihape, home of Bliss-Stick kayaks, where we got to watch kayaks being moulded before our eyes.




A ferry from Wellington to Picton and a drive through the stunning hills and islands of the Marlborough Sounds took us to Murchison, the centre of kayaking in New Zealand and home of Maoria falls, a 35 foot waterfall with series consequences if mistakes are made. With videos cameras at the ready it was time to see who could pull of the most audacious tricks off the waterfall. Jason Craig, Eli Spiegal and Keegan Grady attempted Hail Mary's off the lip (a front somersault off a waterfall) with varying degrees of success, and a few broken noses. I threw a freewheel (a cartwheel off a waterfall) and despite going so deep my ears popped I came out upright.

Maruia Falls

Next we went to Hokitika on the West Coast where I had my first helicopter kayak trip on one of the rivers of the Southern Alps, the Whataroa. The mountains rose up like sharp teeth as we came to land, and the river was an amazing opaque turquoise due to it being melt water only a few degrees above zero. The paddle itselfe was a beautiful grade 4 with many challenging drops and made the perfect end to my time with New River Academy.

The NRA Crew

Made it to New Zealand!

Made it to New Zealand! Flying with a kayak was less of a challenge than I thought it might be, though guesses at the airport of what was in the kayak bag included a dead body and Tutenkhamen.