Okuku River

The Okuku is haled as Canterbury's best run and come Friday was sitting at a medium flow so off we went!

Our fully loaded car takes on one of the many fords. The run has a fairly dauntingly long shuttle and a hand full of fords along the way. Thankfully we had recruited a shuttle driver which made the outing much more enjoyable.

Ben cruising along. The run has some distance to it (24 kms) and starts slow and builds up. The rapids never get to hard and we made good time.

Joho dropping into a mildly spicy drop. I really enjoyed the runs whitewater, it was nonstop, fast, and just 100% fun.

James getting a face full. You can see Ben, in the blue, down at the end of the rapid.

The end to a great afternoon padding.

Mason Creek.... A Diamond In The Rough

During the later half of "study" week the Canterbury area got walloped by a bunch of rain. The storm coincided with the discovery of Mason Creek by one of my mates during a rather slow day at the office and much time spent flying around Google Earth. A low water exploratory probing mission happened early in the week and come Thursday the rain was falling and the show was on!

Nev floats along the start of the run. You put in along side farm animals and the first few kms are flat and braided.

After ducking under some fence that span the river the rapids pick up and before long the action starts. Nick running the first real rapid named "Peau, Peau" this is Peau number one.


Nick setting up for Peau number two...

Here is a shot of the lead into one of the harder drops of the run. The creek has some very unstable and unique geology to it. Lots of big rock around and many more waiting to fall from above, kinda looked like Mars.

Nev keep'n her together in another good drop of the run.

All in all a sweet little new backyard run that hopefully many will be able to enjoy in future!

Dart'ing

Lincoln once again gave us a week off to "study" before finals. As soon as Matt and I recovered from Garden Party we were off to the hills. The destination for this adventure was the Rees-Dart tramping track outside of Queenstown.

Matt soaking up the eye candy, we started the trip by heading up the Dart River valley.


The night before we set out it rained cats and dogs therefore the track was its own river at times one day one.


The rain also made each side stream full of water, including this dozy.

Jump!

It was quite hot, so after the days walk we went for a swim in the river. Here I scope out the potential swing bridge cannon ball attempt.

Are place of residence for night one.


The morning of day two was spent crossing this flat and climbing to bush line where the next hut waited.

Hello big mountain

We got the hut in the early afternoon and took a break. The next days plan was to climb higher and attempt to cross a saddle into the Rees Valley. We took the remaining daylight and tried to check out condition of the pass. What we found was a whole crap ton of snow and lots of reason we should not try to cross over the pass...

A little to much snow for us to handle.

We headed back to the hut and regrettably retraced the previous two days steps all the way back to the car the next day. Having a day still needing to be filled with adventure we headed up a random hill the following day and enjoyed some sweet views of the surrounding mountains.

I bet that sign is there to just scare away people...

The parting shot. We finished the day hike and headed for home

Garden Party!

Garden Party is put on by the university on the last day of school. It is a dress up, drinking, dancing, day in the field. My flat mates and I dressed up and had a day for the record books.

Where's Waldo?

The Jamaican Bobsled Team

A party in a garden/field

Tomato, Tomato, and Tons of Water

Once again heavy rain warnings were up in force on the West Coast so without further-ado a contingent of Canterbury kayakers were in route with high hopes of floods, fun, and a wee bit of fear.

First stop was the Lower Kaka's, which after much deliberation was deemed to be too high. The very large blurry hole that you see did nothing to instill confidence in what may lay downstream.

Next stop was the Totara which was in the bushes and brown. But with no hole at the put-in too scare us away we put on.

A moment of calm. The run was high for sure and was over in a hurry. Somewhere between the start and the stop we found big waves, big holes, and big fun.

Typical ending to a West Coast mission.

Upon running shuttle we saw that the river was dropping quite fast and with ample daylight left we headed back to the Kaka's with hopes of less water and more courage. The put-in hole was much smaller and with some communal peer pressure we put on for what turned out to be a super classy high-side-of-good flood run.

Peering into the abyss. The run starts with a micro-gorge that did not look to micro at this flow. we all portaged and then the fun began!

Bigger waves, Bigger holes, and bigger fun. The run was awesome and we reached the take out with smiles that lasted the whole drive home.

UCCC Hurunui Action

This past Saturday I helped teach some very fun and energetic UCCC folk the basic of kayaking up on the Hurunui. For most in my group it was their first time on moving water. Eyes were wide and swimmers were numerous, but everyone went home with a smile!

It was a great day to be kayaker

Benny, the token Irish member of the trip, has a bum ankle but managed to fit his crutches into his kayak and carry on with humor and happiness to spare

Off we go

Members of team ever ready