West Coast - And then the rain came

Eventually, the rain did come, lots of it. The rivers were flooded.
We started off with Blue Bottle Creek, usually the river is just a trickle, in flood in truned to a chocolate coloured torrent with no eddies to be found, and rocks invisible and it took our first casualty, Ross took a swim after being caugt on some submerged rocks, his boat carried on downstream, hotly pursued by Toni, and was rescued, his paddle also floated off, not to be recovered until a week later when we returned to the river, which had emptied by then. Ross then had to walk out through though thick bust to get out.

Charlie B getting some air on Airmail on the Kakapotahi

The Upper Kakapotahi was next on the hit list. Despite advice from Yan, who had paddled the river before and insisted it was too high, me Toni and Steffan were determined to paddle it. After waiting a day for it to go down (about a centremetre) we got on at late afternoon. On the first of seven drops, Toni swam after getting stuck at the bottom of a drop, all was fine and we carried on through the second and third drop sweet as. The fourth and fifth drop, Postmans Falls and Airmail are known to be the hardest. We got to postmans and realised it was impossible to pick a line down the rapid from the boat. We had to climb up the steep walls of the canyon to try to have a look but when even this failed, we were forced to haul our boats out with throwbags and try and make our way to the road. The next day we were back with lower levels and this time conquered the river. Success.
That week continued with an awesome paddle on the Toaroah and another walk into the Styx.

Toni George drops in
Into the tunnel on KakapotahiWaterfall on the Toaroah

World Famous in New Zealand

Me and Toni then left to the West Coast to head to Bullerfest, a kayaking festival held in Murchison, New Zealand. Which included a number of competitions as well as massive parties.
First up was the boater cross, a short race with 5 kayakers at a time going as fast as they can down a rapid of the Matataki river. In my first race I came second out of four, giving me a good heat for the second race. In the second race though I got off to a bad start which Icouldn't make up for and ended up coming 4th out of 6 and being knocked out. The big air competions was also a lot of fun, with a specially built ramp being used to pull flips, spins and airscrews before landing in the water, I went backwards, and attempted a flip, but it didn't quite happen. I also entered the slalom, and raft race, however our raft had a big hole in and we sank and had to be rescued.
Everything kicked off in the evenings first at the Commercial Hotel and then with a neon party hosted by Ultimate Descents and building human pyramids in the middle of the road.



It was now time to head back North for the plane on the 20th and for the legendary Fuljames trip the weekend before. Toni had a plane to catch ridiulously early in the morning, so we drove up to Nelson and camped in a park by the airport to ensure we could get there. I made my way North by ferry accomponied by dolphins and headed back to Auckland. On route I paid a visit to Katrina in the Wairapara and we raced sticks down a stream to get our fix of whitewater.
It was then on to Gisborne where I stayed with my cousin Celia, where I attempted surfing (its not easy) swam with a dolphin (he found the kayak really interesting, and tried to capsize me) and visited the Rere waterfall, and Rere rockslide. I then headed back to Auckland to sell my car

Rere rock slide - photo by celia

My final weekend in New Zealand was spent at Fuljames near Taupo and AUCC's annual trip and excuse to get excessively drunk and go kayaking. My mission was to run the famous Huka falls, where the Waikato river narrows into a steep gorge before finally dropping 25 foot.


Four of us were keen to run it, Me, Toni, and Pete from AUCC and Eric, a slalom paddler and friend of Toni and Pete. We waited till evening, as that as when the flow is at its lowest, before getting on. Eric and Toni went first, followed by me and then Pete. As I set off I could see Eric and Toni going down the gorge seemingly OK, I failed to boof the first weir and got, briefly recirculated, before coming out, shaken but fine. I then headed down to meet Eric and Toni in the last eddy before the drop. With a bit of effort I made it and watched Pete come down. Pete got rolled on a drop called Pencil Sharpener and got pushed sideways into a recirculating eddy. He tried to get out but every time he tried he got pushed back, he couldn't get out. I was watching from the eddy below, but couldn't do anything, and it was getting darker. The next 15 minutes felt like an age. I paddled down the falls, in fading light and came out at the bottom. Pete ended up having to be pulled out of the gorge by throwbags. Me, Toni and Erik then had to make our way thorugh bush for almost an hour in the dark, to get out of the river. In the end though everyone made it to the party that night and we all appreciated the power of the river a lot

A few more days to sort stuff out and it ws time to say goodbye to all the people I had met in New Zealand and head back to the UK to plan my next mission.

New Zealand is a beautiful country, with some stunning rivers. But it was thanks to all the awesome people I met and paddled with that I know I will definately go back, it was sweet as.

"I'm like gold...

"I'm like gold... ...I'm maleable, precious, girls like me and I can sometimes be found in rivers"

We arrived eventually in Nelson, in the north west of South Island after a relaxed drive and stay in Christchurch and up the East coast, where we picked up Toni George, and after a few days warm up in murch headed south to Hokitika where the plan was to paddle some of the challenging techinical West Coast Heli rivers.

Heli Tripping on the West Coast

River levels were low but we managed a successful mission on the Hokitika Canyon and me and Toni also paddled the Wanganui river which was a fantastic glacier fed river which turned from a tight technical creek into big water as it joined another river, made all the better by the sunshine beating down on us all day. We tried to walk into the Styx, but an hours hike with boats only gave a scrapey river, it was clear more rain was needed to make the rivers paddleable.

This meant a chilled out few weeks, hoping for rain whilst keeping ourselves occupied by builidng shelters on the beach, learning gymnastics, playing singstar, going paintballing and learning to slackline as well as a trip to paddle the freezing cold meltwater of the Franz Josef glacier, where you had to watch out for pieces of ice floating down with you.

Ross Whitome paddling on meltwater from Franz Josef glacier

Touristing up the East Coast

We left fiordland to head up the East Coast, via Slope point the most southerly point in New Zealnad (and furthest South I had ever been) and back noth. On the way north we did some sightseeing.

Dunedin was our first port of call, a famous university down based on Edinburgh, we visited Cadbury World (and found that New Zealand chocolates don't get close to British chocolates) and drove my old beaten up Subaru Legacy up the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street, down which we also raced Jaffa's, hard red couloured sweets.

We continued north to the Maoraki boulder, amazingly spherical rocks which look the the eggs of some giant dinosour and seem to have been placed in a cluster on a beach.

Ross Whittome, Katrina Allen and Nick Roberts on Maoraki Boulders, photo by Victoria Anderson

Fiordland

Leaving Queenstown, Nick flew back to North Island, Tes headed for Christchurch, and I headed south to Fiordland and the Hollyford Riverwith Ross, Katrina and Victoria. Fiordland is a magical place where steep mountains rise up from the ground, including the famous Milford Sound. almost uninhabited by humans, but by billions of sandflies, and famous for raining almost every day.

We spent a week in Gunns camp, which really feels like the middle of nowehere kayaking on the Hollyford river and taking in the epicness of the surroundings. We also went to Milford Sound, which while beautiful was somewhat spoilt by the hordes of tourists taking a way the tranquility.

Waterfalls off the mountains in Fiordland

Kayaking the Hollyford River

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?