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