End of NZ trip

Well it's my last day in NZ, I'm bizarrely looking forward to going home to the cold weather.

We managed to get in a bit of playboating in the North Island this last week. Full James was on a perfect level for a whole day,we spent a good couple of hours there, but unfortunately I was really unmotivated to be playboating - perhaps due to burnout at the worlds? Maybe it was because it's just not Hurley :)). So, we didn't get back on for an afternoon session. We thought about getting on for a quick one the next morning, but there seemed to be loads of people/vans/trucks/portaloos turning up - it turned out to be the filming of a scene for the new King Kong movie which was quite interesting to watch and gave me a valid excuse not to get on the water!

We headed up to Rotorua for a day on the Kaituna, 2 runs of the river and a quick play in the bottom hole satisfied our final day of NZ boating.

Before heading back up to Auckland for Cam to catch his plane, we spent an awesome afternoon on the Rotorua Luges. Go down a concrete course at high speeds on a plastic tray with a couple of wheels and primitive breaks - excellent! I nearly came a cropper on one corner though - picked up a bit too much speed, went up on one wheel and stuck my leg out of the luge (a reaction thing), almost snapped it backwards against the side wall, luckily steered away quick enough and just got a few scratches! Dangerous games!

Today was a day on the beach with a spot of windsurfing - a nice way to finish the holiday.

Flea

South Island Boating

Well, I have been quite slack at updating this site - sorry! I'm still in NZ, have spent the last two weeks travelling in the South Island boating with Cam. We met up with various different boaters and paddled a good variety of rivers. It rained for two days solidly in Hokitika, on the West Coast - proper rain that would see Shepperton on ten gates! (sorry you didn't get that rain guys!). The day it rained we walked up to the Toharoa, a long hour walk through mud, for a really fun 20 minute blast on big water - apparently boulder gardens in lower flows - I think we spotted a single boulder! Thankfully we moved our cars from the bottom of the track we put in on, because when we got to the bottom the track was part of the river.

The following days we waited for the rivers to drop a bit, a quick run on the lower kakapotahi followed by the next day a run of the upper section - a really good short 'skate-park' style river: many boof moves and fun drops, and really horrible heart-stopping portage (well - was for Cam & Graham when I rolled on the grade 2 section above the micro-eddy to make the portage! How did that happen? Never concentrate on the one thing you don't want to do - pink elephant syndrome I think it's called!)

We headed down to Queenstown with Graham and stopped off for an awesome paddle on the Turnbull in Haast. Unfortunately though another walk in - 1 1/2 hours, but well worth it. The river was a bit low, providing a lot of technical moves, but also some possible pinning situations - another couple of inches of water would have made it even better.

The rivers in Queenstown were low. We paddled the Kawarau 'Dog Leg' section (unfortunately no play), and the shotover gorge - a bit too long with the rapids over too quickly, but the tunnel at the end was fun!

Back up to the West Coast for the w/e, and the Mahinapuha campsite was swarming with boaters. We found some locals (actually a mixture of foreigners making out to be locals!) who were paddling the Arahura the next day. Cam's first (and my second - although first on this trip) heli run proved to be a corker!! The local guys proved very useful (thank you!) as it meant many hours saved scouting and pondering which line would go. I had my first swim since 1997! A small slot drop near the top of the river - I didn't have enough speed and failed any kind of boof, so slotted straight into the slot! No way of rolling as the rocks were in the way - so I swam. A couple of recirculations and thankfully Dave was there with his boat to pull me out. The rest of the river was a spectacular succession of tight technical rapids and cool boof drops with only two portages for us (top of Billiards and Cesspit - this portage had a slightly scary 15ft seal launch back into the river!).

Now back in the North Island for our last week. A bit of playboating (if Full James ever gets to the right level) and showing Cam the mighty Kaituna river!

Should be back soon - this could mean Hurley will return to a paddleable level (if James F's theory of the Christmas thermal is correct! (see thamesweirproject.co.uk - reasons for Shepperton not working).

Have fun wherever you are.

Flea