Round two. . .

On the road, again, and making a second lap of the South Island. Drove from Murchison to Blenheim on Wednesday to visit Emilene (friend from NZKS kayaking class). I stayed with her until Friday morning. We chatted, ate, and I did laundry - very nice. I then drove to Kaikoura to "whale watch" from a boat. We saw three sperm whales, which was fantastic, but I discovered that I get sea sick, not so fantastic.

Stayed the weekend in Christchurch with some folks that I met on the Waiatoto trip. Three of them share a house in Sumner, which is a little surfing community right outside of Christchurch, beautiful place. Explored the area a little on Saturday. Went down to a rocky beach where some penguins roost - got to see a few of them. Further down, there were rocks just covered in mussels. We harvested a few of them, and had them with our dinner. I haven't been a huge fan of mussels in the past, but we cooked them on the BBQ and they were awesome. Very tasty. On Sunday, a large group of Christchurch paddlers (and I) went up to the Hurinui (sp?) River and paddled a couple of laps on the "Gully" section. Fun, so fun. I successfully surfed myself out of a hole. That was something new for me. I probably shouldn't have been in it in the first place, dropped into it a little sideways, whoops, but I was able to ride it out without too much drama. After that, (and a nap), a group of us went to see the NZ band, Rhombus. I hadn't seen any live music for awhile, so it was great to do a little groovin'.

I'm heading back towards Invercargill to help Sr. Robinson with a few projects on her farm, so I'm working my way back down the East Coast and checking out a few places along the way. Tonight I'm camped in Moeraki Village. First thing tomorrow morning I'm going to walk down to the Moeraki Boulders - huge round rocks that are scattered along a certain stretch of beach. Looking forward to it.

Here's an interesting tidbit that I've forgotten to add to my previous posts - the "mullet" is alive and well in NZ! I know that won't mean much to some of you, but others of you would much appreciate the variety of subtle mullets that pepper the landscape here. There are so, so many! I haven't had the opportunity to take any pictures, yet, (haven't wanted to draw that kind of attention to myself), but I've been making mental notes of some of the different types. At first, I wasn't quite sure that they were considered mullets b/c they are quite creative mullets, but then one of the guys at the raft training was complaining that he needed "to trim his mullet because the business in the front was joining the party in the back". I almost fell over! For those of you not so familiar with mullets. . . think Billy Ray Cyrus during the Achy, Breaky Heart phase. The mullets here are much more subtle than that, but you get the idea.

Anyway, hope things are going well with all of you. Take Care!

Back in Murchison

After the rescue training, I packed up with the intention of heading back towards Invercargill, but I didn't get very far. I camped for the night just a couple of towns away from the Rangitata. The next morning, as I was about to leave the campground, I received a phone call. (Yes, I did get a cell phone here.) A number of kayakers that I'd met and paddled with previously were heading towards Murchison for the weekend. Since I'd been feeling a bit homesick to be spending "Thanksgiving" alone, I thought it would be nice to spend some time around a group of people I'd already gotten to know, so I changed directions and headed north towards Murchison for the weekend.

On Saturday, we paddled the Earthquake Section of the Buller River:

This gives you an idea of the scenery on the banks, but doesn't give you any sort of idea of what the rapids were like. I've recently noticed that I have this tendency to forget about my camera before, during, and after the rapids. Generally, I don't remember to take pictures until we get to a calm stretch where we're all just chatting and looking around at the scenery.

On Sunday, a group of us paddled the O'Sullivan's to Ariki Section of the Buller. Fascinating hydraulics. Huge boils, surges, and swirlies. . . and, yes, that is the technical term.

On Monday morning, I paddled with a couple of folks on the Matiri River. You may remember the Matiri as the river that a group of us ran while it was "out of it's banks, but not quite to the road." This time it was at a super low flow, which gave me a chance to see the huge rock formations that were mostly under water during flood stage. I'd never seen anything like it in a riverbed - massive rock slabs that were tightly touching on the bottom, but then further apart on the top. . . similar to when books on a shelf fall over to the side. . .V-shaped gaps.

That afternoon, we paddled the Lower Matakitaki. I didn't remember to take pictures as the boats were coming through the rapid (was a bit more concerned with their safety), but I finally took some pictures close to the rapids:


Little by little, I'll figure out how to get good kayaking shots.

Rangitata River - Peel Forest

After Invercargill, I drove to the Peel Forest Scenic Reserve along the Rangitata River for the New Zealand Rafting Association's River Rescue Workshop/Training. These pictures were taken the night before the course. We'll call this series - "The Calm before the Storm."

I didn't take any pictures during the course because I wasn't sure that my camera would survive some of the activities. The course was pretty full-on. We practiced knots, rope systems, mechanical advantages, abseiling, assisted climbs, zip lines, assisted swimming, tethered rafts, helicopter safety, wilderness first aid, and then applied them all to various scenarios. The scenarios were played out on the flooded Rangitata River. On the first day of the course, the river was over 1000 Cumecs (close to 35,000 CFS). To give some perspective, the commercial cut-off for this river is 200 Cumecs (7,000 CFS), i.e. they don't raft it when it's over 200 Cumecs. We stayed close to the bank that first day, but as the river came down over the next couple of days, we worked our way upstream and were able to use more of the river. By the third day, we were able to run from the regular put-in with one major portage. The flooding and the steepness of the banks definitely added some urgency to the exercises, but created a pretty amazing learning environment.

Oreti Beach - Made Famous by Burt Munro

On the Sunday of my visit with Sr. Robinson, we went to a Maori mass, which was in a Marae (Maori Meeting Hall) and in the Maori language. Very beautiful. After mass, we had lunch with Sr. Raewyn, and then went to Oreti Beach. (Pictured below)

Oreti Beach is a beach that's firm enough to drive for miles. It's where Burt Munro ("The World's Fastest Indian") and his friends would race motorcycles.

Invercargill - Land's End & Riverton Rocks

For most of the pictures I've just posted, you'll find the narrative in my post on November 20th. After I wrote that post, I had the chance to spend some time in Invercargill with Sr. Judith Robinson.

Sr. Judith, a Dominican nun, lives on a small farmlet where she has created a peace garden and a permaculture garden. I learned of her from an American Dominican, Sr. Margaret, who I met, while I was at lunch with my sister, the day before I flew to New Zealand. Upon Sr. Margaret's suggestion, Sr. Judith invited me to stay with her so that she could show me around the area and explain the work that she does. She grew up in Invercargill, so she was able to tell me much about it and it's history.

Just south of Invercargill is the Southern most point of the South Island of New Zealand - Land's End:

After a wonderful lunch at Land's End, we drove to the nearby town of Riverton to visit the Riverton Rocks. It was here that Sr. Judith blessed the greenstone necklace that she had given me. Greenstone is a type of jade that's found on the West Coast of the South Island. It has deep meaning for the Maori people. There is a tradition here that you don't buy greenstone for yourself. The greenstone should come to you as a gift. Sr. Judith gave me a beautiful whale's tail pendant, and blessed it in the waters here at this beach:

Fiordland - Milford Sound

Waiatoto Trip

Waiatoto Air Strip & Flying In

Okarito Beach

Lake Mahinapua

Quick Update

Here's the quick and dirty since I last posted. . .

Wednesday - drove to Hokitika, explored town a little, camped at nearby Lake Mahinapua;
Thursday - explored paths around the lake, went back into town to get some supplies for the weekend river trip, drove down the coast, had a walk on the beach in Okarito (home of novelist, Keri Hulme, The Bone People), had dinner in Franz Josef, camped in Okura;

Friday - drove to the Waiatoto air strip, met the group (15 rafters, 3 raft guides, and 12 kayakers), helicoptered (in shifts) to the put-in, hiked around a little, ate dinner in the shadow of Mt. Aspiring, and camped at the put-in;
Saturday - guided a raft of 6 people (and their gear) down the first 20k of the 40k stretch of the Waiatoto River. We started with quite a bit of flatwater, but then navigated a number of Class 3-4 rapids. The rapids were mostly shaped by very large boulders. Some were big mazes of boulders and others were narrow, but steep, drops that were formed by boulders. The size of the boulders (blocking our view) made it hard to boat scout at times, so we did a lot of scouting from shore. We (the rafts) portaged one drop, but ran the rest of the rapids.
Sunday - finished with another 20k stretch. There were a couple more big boulder gardens and a huge rapid that brought the whitewater to a big finish. After that we had about 10k of flatwater. That wouldn't have been such a big deal, but we had some pretty burly weather kick in towards the last few rapids - driving rain, howling wind (upstream of course), and a little bit of hail here and there. Eventually we got back to where we started. Once off the river, we threw all of our soaking gear and our soaked selves into vehicles and headed to the Haast Pub. A group of us then proceeded to the town of Wanaka, where we stayed inside a warm dry "backpacker's" hostel for the night. Yay, a bed!

Monday - took a lazy drive to Queenstown with two folks from the trip.
Tuesday - regrouped. Kayaked the "Roaring Meg" stretch of the Kawarua River with the local paddling clubs.
Wednesday - drove to Te Anua, considered the gateway to the Fiordlands.
Thursday - took a tour of Milford Sound. Camped at Lake Manapouri.
Friday - drove to Invercargill, found a computer, and typed this update.

Like I said, the quick and dirty. Those are the bare essentials. I'll try to give more detail when I'm able to upload some pictures, but that'll have to wait until I find a computer that will do so. Let's just say, my recent travels have made me feel as if I could fly home tomorrow and already have had the trip of a lifetime: amazing scenery, challenging whitewater, great people, great conversations, great fun, and a ride in a helicopter. . . who could ask for more.

I woke up this morning with the question of - What next? Why am I here? I went about my morning routine with that question in mind. As I was leaving the campground, a Maori gentleman stopped me. The only other time our paths had crossed was for a brief conversation last night in the kitchen. I was ready to get on the road, but he looked intent on having another conversation with me. I didn't know how to take it at first, but then he told me that, during his morning prayers, "The Great One" asked him to talk to me. He wanted to let me know that, after seeing the "outside of New Zealand," I should learn more about the "inside" of New Zealand, i.e the medicine, food, culture and spirituality of the Maori people. I was touched my his belief that he had a message for me, and I hope to be able to absorb some of the wisdom of New Zealand.

Greymouth

I made it to Greymouth on Sunday.  I left Murchison late in the morning, had a lovely lunch with a family from the UK at a remote cafe, walked on beach, 

took a picture of my new favorite road sign,

and stopped in Punakaiki to check out the Pancake Rocks.

I had planned to stay in Punakaiki to check out some of the hikes there, but it was cold and raining like crazy, so I drove all the way into Greymouth.  Once there, I went straight to the grocery store (priorities) to set myself up for the evening, and ran into one of my classmates from the kayak class in Murchison, Mike.  He lives and works in Greymouth, so it wasn't too much of a surprise, but it was fortuitous because I didn't have his phone number and I'd emailed that I wouldn't be there until Monday.  We set up kayaking plans for the next day, and I was on my way to the campground (here they call them "motorparks"), when I ran into the owner of a local rafting company.  I had the chance to pick his brain a little about my upcoming trip on the Waiatoto and he was able to give me some great advice about the river rescue course that I have coming up at the end of the month.  What great timing!

Monday, Mike and I paddled the Arnold River, a local Greymouth run, 

and then I took yesterday to regroup a little. . . took a look around town and walked along the ocean.

Today I'm heading down to Hokitika, which is heli-boating central.  It's also well-known for its "greenstone" (jade) that's found and carved here on the West Coast of the South Island.

Before I headed out of Murchison, I kayaked a couple new runs towards the end of last week.  I ran the Owen's Pub and the Doctor's Creek sections of the Buller (bigger, wider, more open river), and did another run down the Lower Matakitaki.  I'm hanging back a little on the kayaking this week, but am enjoying being near the ocean.

Moving on. . .

It's time to move on from the relative comfort of Murchison to start exploring some other parts of the South Island. I've been here in Murchison for three weeks, and have settled in a little. I could easily spend my whole trip kayaking the rivers in this area, but I want to see other areas as well.

The travel plans are starting to take shape. The van is packed and I'm heading towards the "West Coast" tomorrow. The West Coast is known for it's steep rivers that require helicopter access. There are plenty of rivers that have road access and/or trail access (i.e. hiking in), so I'm going to take a look at some of those. Next weekend, I've been invited to join a multi-day rafting/kayaking trip on the Waiatoto River, Class 3 (with one Class 4 rapid), helicopter access. It will be my first ride in a helicopter. . . a bit nervous about that part. After that trip, I'll probably hang around the West Coast for a week or so, and then head back towards the East Coast for a River Rescue Training on the Rangitata River. When that's over, I'm hoping to check out the rivers in Queenstown and the southern part of the island.

Those are my plans are at this point, but as we all know - "Things may change." I keep forgetting to take my camera with me when I go kayaking, but I am working on that. Will try to take lots of pictures from now on. Take Care!

Paddler Musings

Who are these people with whom I'm paddling? Good question. I've been doing quite a bit of my paddling with the NZ Kayak School staff. The staff seem to be the most consistent paddlers around here right now.

On the weekends, there's an influx of paddlers from all over. I'm staying at the campground that's a central meeting point for the paddlers who come in from out of town. People stay here, or drive through on their way to paddle. Paddling with an array of random folks is different for me. I'm used to paddling with certain people who I know and trust. Paddling, with unfamiliar paddlers, creates some additional variables when on the river, so I'm trying to save the unfamiliar and/or more difficult runs for paddling with more familiar people.

Paddling with new people, however, is forcing me to face something about my paddling: complacency. I've had a tendency to trust and follow the technique and lines of more experienced paddlers. While that might be a good learning style, when paddling with people of various experience levels, I have to be more discerning about how I make my decisions on the river. Faced with the uncertainty of the other paddlers' skills, I have to be a more self-reliant paddler. For example, in the past, when I've run something that was outside of my comfort zone, I've tended to feel more secure when I was paddling with folks who I knew could help me effectively if anything went wrong. Now, however, when thinking about my ability to run a particular run, my decision is based more on whether I can be in responsible charge of myself and my equipment on that whole stretch of river. Pretty basic, I know, but it's amazing how much I was relying on specific people's presence to determine my comfort level.

All in all, my experience here is making me really appreciate all of the paddlers who were willing to paddle with me in the early stages of my paddling. Thank you! It also makes me appreciate the honesty of the paddlers who weren't willing to have me paddle with them on stretches that were beyond my ability level at the time. I hope to have that same generosity and ability to be candid with developing paddlers.

Reading and Paddling (not at the same time)

In addition to doing some kayaking on this trip, I've also been doing some reading. . . ok, lots of reading. Quite a few years ago, my mom gave me a book called "How to be an Adult." I very gratiously shelved the book and, while I kept meaning to read it, it remained on the shelf. That book and a few others that have been on the I'm-going-to-get-to-that-someday shelf have accompanied me on this trip. I've now completed "How to be an Adult," and wish I would have read it awhile ago. Some of the things that I've learned the hard way were right there in print. . . dang it! It did, however, feel somewhat validating that I've reached some of the same conclusions. I must be becoming an adult after all - who knew?! Maybe a few of you should think about reading it. . . I won't name names or point any fingers, but you know who you are! (Just kidding - kind of.)

Overview since I last posted:

Friday - Paddled the Lower Matakitaki (3+) with Mick Hopkinson. I made most of my lines, and had a great run. Mick (director of the NZ Kayak School) had a few suggestions on how to improve my paddling - always appreciated.

Saturday - Rained like crazy from dawn to dusk. I decided to read instead of kayak. Read the entire book, "The Fox Boy," about the land wars between the Europeans (predominately British) and the Maoris during the late 1800s. The book was generously given to me by Mary Kay Turner prior to my departure from Jackson, WY. Thank you, Mrs. Turner! It's good to know some of the history of this country.

Sunday - Back on track. . . was up bright and early and ready in time to go kayaking with some folks up here from Christchurch. We paddled the Mangles River [2+ (3)] in the morning and then the Lower Matakitaki (3+) in the afternoon, which (as you can probably tell from some of my previous posts) is a popular run around here - apparently great preparation for the more difficult runs on the West Coast of the South Island.
[Boater side note - I'm feeling a little in the dark on the flows around here, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. They measure the flow down here in "Cumecs" (not "CFS"), so even when there is a flow report, I have to do some math. Many of the runs are visually gauged based on suggestions like - runnable when the river is tea brown; or run when muddy; or only run when running clear; or (my recent favorite) best to run when the river is out of it's banks, but not quite up to the road.]

Monday - Ran the Middle Matakitaki (2+) with a couple of kayak instructors who were visiting from other areas. This is the same stretch of river that I ran the very first weekend I was here in Murchison. I had a much better run this time because I now have a boat that fits me well.

[Another boater side note - Their river rating system is a bit on the less forgiving side of things. They don't say Class 3 until they mean really solid and serious Class 3. It's making me very curious to see what they consider to be Class 4. . .]

Tuesday - Finally transcribed my notes from my ACA Instructor Training Course that I took in Jackson.

Wednesday - Ran the Matiri River (Class 3 at low flows, Class 3+/4- at flood stages) with Shannon, Spanna, and Mick from the NZ Kayak School. There was some question as to whether it was really flooding today. Mick said that he's seen it a lot higher. I believe him. To me, the river was running high on the banks (in some of the low lying brush and up to the lower branches of some of the trees), it was brown, muddy, pushy and creating all sorts of crazy boils and funny water. . . we'll call it on the low end of flooding. The rivers here are really rain reactive. They shoot up like crazy and then drop back down. This is one of the rivers that people try to catch at flood stage for the "romping, stomping" waves. It was cold, raining, and slightly stressful, but fun. I finished with a sense of accomplishment.

Still in Murchison. . .

So, I finally was feeling secure enough in my blog to 'release' it's location to you all. I hope you enjoy the updates. Please don't worry if there's not a post for awhile. I'm not always good at getting myself to a computer, but I'll try to be pretty good about keeping you all posted on what's going on with me here in my travels.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was having some trouble finding a used kayak. A couple of days before the course (see last post), I found one on the kayaking internet message board, and the day before the course drove up to a town called Richmond to buy it. I got a great deal and it's turning out to be a great boat: Dagger CFS.

I'm going to hang around Murchison to kayak over the weekend, and then may continue my travels starting next week.

Hope things are going well with all of you. Take Care!

NZ Kayak School

Over the last week or so, I've been talking to the NZ Kayak School about learning their style of teaching, i.e. observing some of their beginner classes. They've been open to the idea, but encouraged me to focus a little on my own paddling first. In order to do so, I signed up for an Intermediate/Advanced Kayak Course with the school. It was a four day course that was definitely challenging, informative, and rewarding.

We worked on so many things over the course of four days: pool session every morning to work on perfecting our rolls; flatwater sessions to work on drills and boat control; river sessions to work on the application of those flatwater skills; and some river rescue/safety skills. (This picture is taken during one of the river rescue scenarios.) We would start at 8am and finish our third session of the day, usually, at about 6pm. That sounds like a normal day, but the amount of focus required and the physical demands had us all quite exausted by the end of each day. The course ended a couple of days ago, and I've been just recouperating ever since. I'm still quite sore in a few places, but really glad for every bit of the course. I have plenty of things now to keep practicing.

The intermediate/advanced class included: (from left to right) me, Emilene (from Ireland), Mike (from the States), and our instructor Zak Shaw. Jenny (not pictured) was taking a beginning course on the same days as our course. We all stayed at the lodge during the courses and had a great time. Even though we were exausted at the end of the day, we all ate meals together and were able to process our experiences and bonded quite well. I now have three new places in New Zealand where I know people and can visit while I'm here. Yay!

In January and February, the NZ Kayak School will have a number of beginner classes going on, so I might be able to observe some of those, but for the next month or so, I have a little time on my hands. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with that time, but I'm guessing it will probably include some kayaking. It might be a good time to check out some other areas on the South Island. I'll keep you posted. . .

Murchison

My kayaking adventures have begun! I drove from Christchurch to Murchison (home to the NZ Kayak School) on Saturday. I arrived just in time to attend the birthday party for Mick Hopkinson, director of the NZ Kayak School. The potluck was a veritable who's who of the NZ kayaking community, and the next day we all did a group paddle on the Middle Matakitaki (Class 2+). Counting all of the kayakers and rafters (one raft for the kids), there were 84 people in all. Here's a shot of some of the folks at the put in:

It was quite a scene. It was fun to paddle with all levels and all sorts of paddlers. It was a great introduction to the NZ paddling community. I was a bit distracted, however, because I was paddling a boat that was WAY too big for me, so I wasn't able to really explore the nooks and crannies, i.e. play on some waves and/or practice with eddies and ferrying, as I would have liked, but it was a good intro to some of the people who paddle around here.

Today I paddled the Lower Matakitaki (Class 3+) with Shannon (employee of the New Zealand Kayak School). Here's the put-in for that run:

Perfect amount of flatwater at the put in for a warm up, but there wasn't much flatwater after that. I stayed upright and on-line for the most part, but it was quite different than most of the paddling I've done. This stretch had continuous and technical boulder fields that created different hydralics than I'm used to paddling. It was a great challenge and I look forward to getting more practice on it. I was paddling a boat that fit quite a bit better than the one I paddled yesterday, so it felt really good to eddy hop my way down this stretch.