Rangatata and General Good Times

This past weekend I headed out with the usual suspects for some boating and some low key ruckus. The itinerary was to paddle the Rangatata on Saturday then head to a mutual friends 21st birthday party up at Mt. Hutt for the night and then Sunday, well, we just left it at that.

The get in, we had a crew of seven

Alex and Dave progressing towards the gorge

Shaun taking a look see at a very cold rapid

A side from the air temperature hovering around 40 we all had good lines and good fun. We hiked up and ran the gorge again and then called it a day. Once at the get out we switched out of our boating gear and into our party shirts.

The party was held at a lodge owned by Canterbury Uni just down the hill from Mt. Hutt ski field. The party had the often humorous mix of boaters and civilians and proved to be quite entertaining.

On par with most Kiwi traditions is the "Yardy," a glass one yard tall and filled with way to much beer; all of which the lucky birthday boy gets to drink...

The lodge is in pretty poor shape and probably has seen a few to many party's held at it. Of note is the fact that the running water is no longer running. Luckily it rain over night and we filled up our kayaks with water. Here Ben takes his morning bath strait from the source.

After a slow morning and big push to get the lodge cleaned up we were in need of some adventure. A quick check of the river levels provided no motivation so we headed back to Christchurch where we were informed that the surf was in decent shape. We swapped creekers for playboats and headed to the beach.

Alex, Shaun, Nev, and I enjoyed a few hours of beating in the surf. After that we eat some ice cream and called it a weekend