New Zealand Kayaking: July 2007

The Crooked Round Two

Winter has been very dry here on the South Island and has provide very few opportunities for kayaking. After way to long of a hiatus I jumped on a recent rain warning on the went coast and headed to the Crooked River. After the obligatory 2 hour hike-in we put on with descent flows and had a really good time.

Alex at the put it, this was his first NZ run

Nick taking a look around

Nev doing the Limbo to Boof combo

Nev rocking it out, in route to a sweet air-plane boof

The weekend ended with some good bourldering at Castle Hill

July Updater

July has been a fun month, cold, clear, not a lot of rain or snow, my birthday, some good weekend adventures and a wee bit of kayaking. Take a look see...

One weekend I had a field trip up in Arther's Pass which proved to be really fun

We went to Castle hill and talked about parks planing and other fun stuff

We hiked up to this frozen waterfall too

On the drive back we stopped at this frozen lake and had some fun sliding around on the ice

Another weekend I did some climbing up in the Port Hills outside of Christchurch.

Trad-ing it up!

The view from the top of the climb

Another weekend another mission, this time up to Mt. Thomas

Looking across the plains as we near the top

We brought some lunch trays along and went sledding all afternoon.

For one of my classes we get to take 20 some high school students on an outdoor "journey" so as prep work we have been out in the bush getting lost and practicing all kinds of fun stuff!

We stumbled up on this hidden curling/ice skating lake on one navigation mission

a tramping we will go

I got very lost and loved it trying to get to that peak in the center.

Caples - Greenstone

As soon as I got to Queenstown I was ready to leave. The bus didn't get in till late so I crashed in town for the night. The next day consisted of some hitching and a lot of walking but in the end I found myself at the trail heard for the Caples - Greenstone track.

The lake that I walked along for the greater part of a day.

First morning on the track.

After a somewhat taxing climb I reached headwaters of the Caples and made it up on top of the saddle between the two catchments.

I traversed across the saddle and dropped down into the Greenstone valley.

This lake is the head waters for the Greenstone River and marked the end of day two.

Nearing the outlet of the lake where the hut was waiting.

Day three I walked down the Greenstone valley. I was told the river is known for its amazing fishing.

Night three was spent at this fine abode.

Well that's all she wrote. I hiked out the next day, got a lift to Glenorchy, spent the night there, got to Queenstown the next day, and then caught a bus back to Christchurch. I'm now back to the grind at Lincoln.

Stuck in Milford Sound

As the title foreshadows my break switched gears a bit after finishing the Kepler. I checked the weather forecast in Te anau after the tramp and it was not looking good for anyone hoping to be outside much. On the Routburn I stopped at hut for lunch on the last day that proved to be only about an hour from the road and had a fair amount of coal and wood in it. The plan was to hitch up to the trail head and hike to the hut and ride out the storm there.

I got picked up by a young woman named Coco and we headed up the road. Long story short; I ditch the hiking idea due to there being almost 2 feet of snow already on the ground at the trail head and proceeded to get stuck in Milford for the next three nights due to the road being closed.

Not a bad place to get stuck.

Coco worked for one of the tourism operators which has tons of extra living space seeing as it is winter. I was given my own room and access to all the food I could eat. Life was good in Milford. The storm was raging all across the bottom half of the South Island and had trapped about 20 tourist in Milford plus the winter staff. No one in, or out.

The pub opened at noon the first day, which made for a good time. These towers of power were amazing and just kept coming...

Still a great place to be stuck.

Waking up the next day wishing the pub had not let us start drinking at noon I trudged over to the sea kayak guide area. Where I found Jess gearing up for a day of fishing. Before I knew it I was jetting out onto the sound for a day of fishing. The day was amazing! We caught all kinds of weird stuff.

First catch of the day. We pulled up everything under the sun and had a great time on the water.

Two sharks on one line. We probably caught 15+ of these over the day.

The scenery was just as good as the fishing.

This was the catch of the day! Strait out of the Pleistocene era, flipping dinosaur.

Crazy! That sound is home to some really weird things.

This thing could eat a softball. We ended up putting everything back except for this dude and a few fish Jess knew were yummy tasting.

The morning of the third day I awoke to hear that the road was open and that afternoon I was able to snag a ride all the way back to Queenstown. In the end my time in Milford was super fun and proved to be nice change of pace during my break.

I would get stuck in this place any day.

The Kepler Track

After the Routburn I headed down to Te anau and did the Kepler Track which is another of NZ's "Great Walks." The track takes four days and proved to be quite fun and adventurous

Beech is the dominant forest type in New Zealand and made for a good picture.

Most of the first day is spent climbing up to this hut/castle.

Day two is the alpine day and we awoke to some low clouds and a nice sunrise.

More snow slowed our travel a tad but all went well on the tops.

The cloud cover was constantly changing and made for some cool shots.

Rainbow with an emergency shelter almost at the end (look closely).

Window in the sky.

The track stayed on the ridges for most of day two

Enjoying my time on the Kepler

The second emergency shelter of the day. From this point the track plummets down from the tops into the neighboring valley where the next hut was waiting.