Queenstown

Quueenstown was a massive culture shock, after so long surrounded by only kayakers living in tents in small villages it felt like me, Nick and Tes had arrived in New York. Travelling as a kayaker is a different experience to travelling as a tourist, and you meet a set of people who may be from all over the world, who whether from Enlgand, New Zealand or anywhere.
In Queenstown I paddled with a group of guys from the Czech Republic who had come to New Zealand for kayaking . We managed to find our own little piece of heaven in Queenstown and the take out of the Chinese Dog Leg section of the Kawarau river, a tiny free campsite with only a long drop toilet and no running water, unless you count the river running by of course, but for us it was better than 5 star accomodation.

Ross drops in on the Kawarau

Whiltst in Queenstown we kayaked on the Kawarau and Shotover rivers, both of which are home to white water rafting, as well as trying water ski-kayaking thanks to Paula an Austrian girl on exchange, who we had met in murchison, who's host parents had a motor boat.

Camping at dog leg take out

Kayak water-skiing on the lake

Of course one thing Queenstown is famous for all over the world is as the home of bungy jumping, I couldn't resist and bought a ticket to jump off the third highest bungy in the world, a 126m high cablecar suspended above a deep valley. The anticipation grew as me and Paula, met kayaking, were driven up to the base, kitted up and taken to the jump site. We spend 10 minutes watching others jump, and psyching ourselves up. Paula was called up first, and after a tense few second shuffling to the edge threw herself off the edge on the count of 3, when she came up she had a massive grin on her face and I was up next.
The fear factor of a bungy jump is very different to what I have experienced kayaking, and no more or less intense. With kayaking your fate is entirely in your own hands, there is a risk of injury or death but with experience and self confidence you learn how to manage that fear. Bungy jumping is, in theory, incredibly safe, I'd just watched 10 other people jump and come up safely, but the fear is still there, and as you come to the edge, you start to think you won't be able to jump, that you'll freeze. However once the guy at the edge counts you down there's nothing to do but jump, and thats what you do almost automatically. The falling sensation was quite amazing, seeing the ground rush up towards you is something you don't forget in a hurry. When the bungy goes tight and you stop falling, the feeling of relief is amazing because you know you've done it. If you get the chance to do a bungy jump, do it, its worth it.

Nevis bungy jump

Nick, Nick and Tes Go South

Me Nick Maday and Tes Themes then decided to head south on a pligrimage to Queenstown driving down the West Coast for some surfing and taking time out to admire the incredible block of ice that is Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. Which grinds its way down the Southern Alps. It was slightly scary to see just how far the glacier had retreated in just the last 150 years.

Nick, Nick and Tes say no to Didymo

Didymo is something I had never come across before I came to New Zealand but is a major problem particularly in South Island. It is an algae which chokes up the water, destroying ecosystems and is present in some but not all South Island rivers. This means kayakers MUST wash all their kit when changing between rivers.

Gates of Haast- Runnable?

Auckland - Wellington the road trip

My first port of call on the journey south was the town of Rotorua, where I met up with Ellie's penfriend Debbie. Its really amazing to be able to head to the other side of the world and still meet people who know people you know.
The next day, Christmas eve, I headed down to Taihape, again, where I was going to buy a new boat, a Bliss Stick Mini Mystic creek boat for the rivers of the west coast. I arrived just as my boat came out of the mould, just about the last Bliss-Stick boat made in 2008, and I helped put the seat in to make it.

I was planning to stay at River Valley Lodge in Taihape, but on arrivel I found it compltely empty, except for a few new arrivals who were as confused as I was about why noone was there. I decided it wasn't the most lively place to have Christmas so roared off in my new four wheel drive Subaru to get to Wellington.
I had unfortunately forgotton that my Subaru was not a higly tuned rally car, but an old wreck, and after a few miles of driving like a rally car the steering wheel started to shake, and it became undriveable above 30 km/h. I nursed it back to a hostel and realised there was no way it was going to get repaired around Christmas, getting to South Island was going to be more of a challenge than I imagined.

I woke up the next morning and realised Taihape was no place to spend it. I decided to risk driving to Wellington, if the car broke down/blew up, whatever. Somehow the car seemed to heal over night and made it down to Wellington with no major problems.

I arrived in Wellington on Christmas day knowing noone. It only took as long as it took to park the car to find a Christmas party though. I parked the car next to a van full of strangers who invited me over for a drink, it turned out they were backpackers from France and Germany who had all met by chance over the past few days. More people turned up throughout the day till we pretty much had all the countries of Europe reprosented in a gathering on Christmas day under the sun in a New Zealand car park. One thing we didn't anticipate though was that it is illegal to buy alcohol on Christmas day in New Zealand. Our stockpiles of beer rapidly ran out as I ate my Christmas dinner, a chicken kebab turned out to be the closest thing available. Just after 12 we managed to find a kebab shop which could sell us alcohol and we finally had our Christmas party.
i woke up on boxing day with a ferry to catch in a few hours, I bought some roofracks and wandered around Wellington by day before heading to the ferry where I would meet some random guy called Pete from AUCC.

Goodbye North Island

AUCC in Murchison - cause thats how we roll

We started off spending two weeks in the quiet town of Murchison. A small town with one shop and two pubs which in summer becomes a mecca for white water kayakers from all over New Zealand. The days were spent sampling the many sections of whitewater on rivers such as the Matakataki, the Glenroy and the Buller, and the evenings were spent relaxing at the campsite, drinking and telling stories. New Years eve was a memorable, if not remembered night spent and the Commercial Hotel, followed by an early morning hungover paddle on the Glenroy on New Years Day.

James Rae drops in
Ross & Keys on the Matakataki

Later that week I made a brief trip two day trip to sample the helicopter accessed rivers of the famed west coast, hoping to join some of the people from Murchison oto test myself on some o0f the hardest rivers in New Zealand on the West Coast. I paddled the Kakapotahi and the Styx river. The Upper Styx can only be accessed by helicopter and 15 of us flew up on one day, many of whom were extremely experienced kayakers from all over the world and New Zealand, I was a little intidated to say the least. The river itself was incredible, a big step up from what I'd paddled before, with over 3 hours of solid class 4+ with so sign of easing off and a few mandatory portages. Its the type of river where mistakes do not go unpunished, and I made the mistake of paddling into an eddy too small to fit 2 people and was pulled into a seive, held under water for a few seconds and subsequently spitted out and someone grabbed my boat and pulled me into the side. Unfortunatelt I lost my paddle and was forced to use a set of splits for the remainder of the river.
I'm very grateful for all the extremely experienced paddlers who looked after me that day and who I learnt alot from.