Your my boy Blue: The Blue River

Today's level: 2.99ft (from outfitter website)

John, Jay, Beastie and I ran a very short section of the Blue today, from the surf wave, which now I know where it is, to a pull off on the side of the road before the bridge. We should have continued on another mile to the Blue River chapel where access is very good. Well now we know the lay of the land. The run was quick, less than an hour, but the rapid was fun and it splashed the hell out of Jay. I hope to get beck and surf on that bitch real soon. 2.99ft is a great surfing level I would say. I just wonder at what point it becomes too low.

Beach Fork Cruise: Rio Grande Prep

1500cfs

Today Jay and I ran this. It was a good trip with good flow. I thought it would have been higher since the gauge read 5600cfs 2 days prior. There were some kids camping at the put-in and we talked to a policeman who was also there. The police man paddled, he told us about some trips he had made down the Beech Fork and the Elkhorn. This may warrant expanding the Bardstown Boaters when I move back to Bardstown one day. Anyways. I ran the dam, which Jay has named the Edge Rapid, after Edgewood. The thing was rocking, scary, but after you crash through on the far right it is fun. I almost wrecked my first time, slamming into a a rock and getting sideways on it. Took a little bit of cold water, but managed to get off. The second time was cleaner, opting for a better line. Jay watched from 10 feet away. Good trip today. We must be the envy of all our friends.

Elkhorn Running While Sick

1450cfs

Jay and I ran the Elkhorn after John backed out at the last second. John has become as bad as other wannabe boaters I know. Anyhow Jay and I still went and had a great run on a day when the waves were in and the rapids fun. But I was sick and got sicker as the day went on. I vomitted getting in my boat, again half way down river while in my boat and then one last time after driving home. Then I went to sleep for 20 hours. Still it was fun to be out there. The weather was very warm and the sun peeked out a few times. Jay had a swim at rootball. Kyle from the Vikings ran with us as well as a man named Richard from Indy. He drives 3 hours to run the Elkhorn. I admire that.

I hope there are some more warm Elkhorn days left out there.

Beech Fork Festival 2004

20cfs

Zach, John, Jay and I celebrated the spirit of the Bardstown Boaters in the annual Beech Fork festival. We canoed from Manton to the 49 bridge, fishing, drinking and chillin out along the way. We camped on the river and played spades over the fire. The water was low and we had to drag in spots, but the trip was a huge success. We'll do it up even bigger next year!

Russell Fork Rendezvous

950cfs (release)

Bubba and I went to Elkhorn City this past weekend for the fest. We left early Saturday morning and met up with Darrin, his girlfriend and two others and ran from Flannigan Dam to Garden Hole. Good run with no swims or carnage. The run is very technical on the Russell Fork, while the Pound is easy and has lots of play. That night we did the field party, drank moonshine and go drunk. Had fun there. Day two I hiked into the Gorge section and got to see about 30 runs of El Horrindo. Pretty amazing rapid to say the least. I picked up the crew and then headed home. Awsome weekend.

Red River Middle Section

130cfs

Jay, Sarah, Beastie and I did this section of water. They canoed, I kayaked. It is a very interesting run. Very easy flat water, with good current and scenery. Jay and Sarah flipped early on, but after that everything was good until we had to portage a mess of trees that were river wide. Overall, it is a great run. I'll head back to it when I want to teach some newbies. Will make a good training ground and has good camping.

Cumberland Below the Falls

550cfs (falls gauge)
370cfs (williamsburg gauge)

Me and 29 other Viking Canoe Club members ran the Cumberland river. It was a great day boating. The rapids were not too hard or scary. Though they could change a lot at higher levels. Jim Gunn dislocated his shoulder on Screaming Right, playing in the hole as we left after an hour of playing in that hole. The raft company took him out. The shuttle is slow. I guess that by paddleing out you could save time and money, but be extra tired after a long 5+ miles of flat water paddling. I think the lake needs to be lower than 705' for all the rapids to be in.

Cumberland Falls - Class V-VI - Put in below here
Eagle Shoals - Class I+
No Name - Class II
Initiation - Class II
Center Rock - Class III
Bradfords Rock - Class II
Willy Nelson - Class II
Dog Slaughter - Class II
Surfers - Class II
Pinball - Class II-III (Level Dependant)
Screaming Right Hand Turn - Class III-IV (Level Dependant)
Stair Case - Class III
The Last Drop - Class III

Elkhorn Run

271cfs

Jay, yesterday after work. The only real significance of this run is that Jay demoed a boat, an RPM, and has decided to buy it. Also of note is that though I think it I have been on the Elkhorn at lower readings than 271, I am certain that the water was lower than I have ever seen it. There was no current in the flat stretches and the rapids were pretty bare. I think I'll stick to 400cfs and above from now on.

Kings of the Rockcastle

David Jury, John Mathews, Ryan Hamilton, Spalding Hurst

Saturday 400cfs
Sunday 275 cfs

I've had the idea of doing a two day over night boating expedition all summer long.  Well this particular weekend we decided to do it.  I chose the Rockcastle because it is a long stretch which provided time for camping and taking in the scenery of the most beautiful river in Kentucky.  The class II rapids of the lower narrows would provide some excitement for us and the new boaters.  I thought the lake level would be high and the long stretch of drops at the end would be buried under the lake.  This however was not the case.  So with the lower narrows running and the water level at a very technical 400cfs I would have to bump Sundays run up to class III.

We started out way up at Rockcastle Adventures.  We hired the guy here to run our shuttle.  They ended up locking my keys in some random car at the take out, but I got that sorted out.  There was also a large group from Bowling Green putting on about the same time as us.  So we set off at noon at Saturday.  We are paddling the two Blue Hole Canoes, the Crossfire and my Inazone.  The canoes carries all of the gear, food and beer, held in 4 dry bags and a cooler.

The first day of paddling is all flat water and class I riffles.  So no excitement, but David and Ryan got to feel out their boats.  After 9 miles of paddling, a little more than half way we decided to camp on a huge rock in the center of the river.

On day 2 we began to see some class II rapids.  David and Ryan did really good with these.  Then we came to Beech Narrows.  John ran it no problem.  I had to decide if my kayak could punch the hole that it was forming.  After attempting the run I found out I could not clear the hole.  I almost rolled out but instead washed upside down into the next rock.  I thought I might get pinned so I bailed and had my first swim this summer.  Sucks too cause I should have held on a little longer and rolled.  I would have had only one chance though cause the next rock that my boat ran into was even worse.  Good experience though.

Then we came to a whole bunch of class III stuff through the lower narrows.  This type of run would have been heaven for John and I, but after a few flips from David and Ryan they did not want to run anymore of the rapids.  So We had to continually run there boats down with no one in them, then recover them and wait for them to walk along the banks.  We made, but it was tiring and it took along time.  John also got pinned somewhere in there.  I didn't see it until right before he got his boat free cause I was up stream towing a canoe back to Ryan.

The trip was awesome.  I can't wait to go back and run the lower narrows again.  These rapids are just sitting right below the noses of a lot of Kentucky boaters it seems.  It is an easy day trip to some great whitewater when the lake level is low.

I'm just glad we got our 2 day adventure in before the summer ended.  Maybe we can squeeze one more in there.

Beginners run on the Elkhorn

1500cfs

David, Ryan, Chris, Toby, Patrick, Jay, Spalding

We had a great turn out on Saturday for a run on the Elkhorn. This was 5 first runs on the Elkhorn and we had lots of carnage to attest to that. David swam, Ryan swam and Chris swam... more than once and more than twice. Patrick swam once and almost broke a boat. Jay went from beginner paddler to advanced rescue river runner through the course of the day. Toby just tore it up, never flipping. David lost his glasses and along with them his desire to run rivers. But we are working on changing that. Truth be told after the first 2 rapids everything got much easier for everyone and soon they all mastered the waters. Now hopefully we have a strong Bardstown Boating core ready for some more action.
Also, John and I scouted Tewell Creek near Bardstown. Turned out to be a dud of a creek and some old man told us to never return there. He'll be dead soon, but we won't be back anyways since the creek didn't pan out. We are currently exploring every body of water through Nelson County, searching for our flagship whitewater run.

Pigeon

1200cfs
Release Level

John and I ran the Pigeon along with 13 others of the Viking Canoe Club. It was a good run that I felt was challenging while still being pretty tame. I started off the day flipping at the first rapid then attempting my roll 6 times before getting it. I wasn't going to swim on the first rapid as an introduction to all the Vikings. I combat rolled a few other times as well and in all had a great run. Got some surfing done as well. I do need to learn some new rolls and hopefully some roll sessions will be available to me soon. On the hardest rapid, Lost Guide, I had a roll that really saved me. After hitting a small slot you have to paddle hard river left to avoid some rocks. I flipped after the slot, but quickly rolled back up and had just enough time to paddle river left. There were two swimmers about as I did this. No one else saw it, but I am proud of that moment. We skipped out on the French Broad because the level was low.

Elkhorn

280cfs  Just another day on the Elkhorn.  Jay was with me again.  We have started parking before the flat water, it really makes the trip more enjoyable.  The 4 Runner is the perfect kayaking vehicle as well.

4th of July Elkhorn Run

Well it was actually on the 5th, but Jay and I rant the Elkhorn on Monday at 480cfs. A small bit of rain and lightening came in, but nothing too threatening.

Beech Fork Camping and Canoeing

Finally got this thing in for the year on Friday and Saturday July 2nd and 3rd. The Beech Fork was low at 120cfs but always runnable. The rapid was too low to pass over, we had to carry over it. David Jury, David Jameson, Jay Thomas and I went. Add to that Beastie and Keiser. Great trip, I want to do this sort of trip again soon on a more sceneic river, like the Green.

Welcome to the Elkhorn

On Saturday June 27th 2004 I took Jay down the Elkhorn for his first trip on what should be one of many more to come. We had a great run at 1000cfs. We met up with some BWA boaters and ran with them. One of them even ran the dam against the corner wall. We'll be back very soon, I'm sure of it. Maybe now Jay will be more persuaded to buy a kayak of his own now that he has seen such a great creek so close to home.

Ocoee to the Hiwassee

Saturday, June 12th 2004

After not getting the raft down to Tennessee last year, this year we made sure to continue the tradition of rafting the Ocoee. It was the usual suspects this year with added newbies of Casey, Brandon and a couple of burg boys who had never gone whitewater rafting before. We made three trips on the river on Saturday, everyone left on Sunday. Ryan, Brandon and Casey punked out on us on Saturday and went home early. I stayed and kayaked the Hiwassee on Sunday. Casey and Chris Voit swam. River Rats was very good to us this year. After Brandon and Ryan kept everyone up all night they let us stay the next day, but they moved us under a pavilion out front. I am beginning to feel that I can run the Ocoee soon.

Sunday, June 13th 2004

The next day I went up to the Hiwassee and kayaked with Meagan and Darrin. The Hiwassee was cool easy run, which what I was looking for. Good little surf spots, side surfing and some ledge drops.

Elkhorn Creek: after the storms

3300cfs

After work on Thursday I ran the Elkhorn. The waves were big, this is a great level for the Elkhorn. The damn was a little tight. Not much room at the portage.

In attendance:
Bubba
Megan
Darrin
Spalding

Cheating Death on Harrods Creek

1400cfs (6 feet)

Little Goose Creek was at 89cfs

Last night John and I ran Harrods Creek.  We have been getting lots of rain and to go with it lots of storms.  Harrods Creek isn't bad to run at this high level.  It's all easy class II, but you have to watch for downed trees.  The thing is we bumped it up a level last night because we got caught in a storm while on the water.  Tornados were in the area and it was hell on the water.

It starts off fine.  I can see the storm in the distance but figure we will be off the water before it gets bad.  Not long after paddling through muddy class II drops, the storm catches up with us.  Lightening is striking every where.  That was the worst part.  The Lightening.  We keep going hoping it will pass.  We come to a tree laying across the river.  We have to portage.  I am the first to re-enter my boat after the portage.  I go downstream a bit around the bend and stop and wait... and wait.  Then bam!  Lightening strikes very close.  It was incredibly loud.  I wait another second.  John still hasn't come around the corner.  I start to think he has been struck by lightening.  I jump out of my boat and run around the bend.  He hasn't been struck, but it is almost worse.  The canoe is flipped, broached and swamped.  And there is John in the water pulling on it every which way trying to get it free.  To make a long story short it didn't look like we could get it free.  But we did, using my throw rope and John's strength we got that thing out.  I'm glad we did, I don't know what we would have done otherwise.



Now the rain is coming harder.  We can't see shit.  It is dark as well.  Don't go kayaking at night kids.  And don't go kayaking in storms.  But we make to the end and don't get hit by lightening once.  Thank you Jesus!  It would seem that all the madness is over now that we are out of the water, but it is not.

Now it's raining harder, trees are falling down everywhere.  John can't see out of his car window for shit.  We head back but are blocked by a tree that has fallen across the road.  We turn around and go the long way.  The way that has little trees spread all over the roads.  Every ¼ mile we have to stop, get out, get soaked again and move trees out of the way.  We do this for an hour until we finally reach my car.  But right before we do John's headlights go out.  So now he has no headlights, and today he has no car cause thing wouldn't start this morning.

So we begin putting the boats on my car and the damn roof rack slides apart into four pieces.  So in the rain, in the dark we have to take the boats off, reconstruct the roof rack and put the boats back on.  The we slowly drove home as the storm finally began to pass.  John had to follow me closely because he had no lights.

It was a good trip, scary but good.  It was stupid to be out in the storm, but I don't watch the weather channel so how could I know that shit was coming.

Elkhorn Creek: Why I don't golf.

On a beautiful Sunday after noon David had to sell us out on the trip because his brother was having a baby.  Besides it was his birthday so he can cancel if he wants to.  One day David will join our ranks.  But until then John and I are going strong with our river trips.  Michael and Zach joined us again, Zach got his first combat roll.  John brought a friend from work, Katie with the cool ass Jeep.  Hopefully she is down with boating now and can paddle again soon.
Water Level: 1000cfs

Great water level.   A lot of good waves at this level.   Lunch Stop is smaller, but that next wave spot is good.

Attendance:
John Mathews
Michael Mathews
Spalding Hurst
Katie Renfroe
Zach Wimsett

Back To The Rockcastle

Jay, John and I ran the Rockcastle river on Saturday May 8 th .   The level was at 600cfs.   John ran the Beech narrows, the class IV rapid of the river.   It looked pretty scary, but John made it look easy in the Blue Hole canoe.   Check the video below and pictures in the gallery.   The trip was awesome.   The Rockcastle is a perfect river to run.   The lake was up and so the last rapids on the lower narrows were not there.   But in all we had a great river trip.   Jay got his first roll on his third time trying.   I am a good teacher I guess.   I can't wait to return.

Water level: 600cfs

Attendance:


Jay Thomas

John Mathews

Spalding Hurst

Elkhorn Trip

The Mathews clan, Zack and Myself did a run on the Elkhorn this day.   The weather was perfect and we had a great water level.   I paddled the Crossfire because my Rpm has made it's way down to Texas with Eric Abell.   This marks the first "American" boat trip for the year and really the inaugural boat trip for the club.   It can only get better from here.

Water Level:   1330cfs

Attendance:
John Mathews
Johnny Mathews
Michael Mathews
Spalding Hurst
Zach Wimpsett

Mount Ollivier

This write up was originally posted on a website I made while I was in New Zealand in 2004. Since then I have moved all those entries to this site and somewhere along the way I lost many of the pictures. I do have all of the video I shot while I was there, and that was my main focus anyway.

Saving for what could be billed as "the best", for last, I know there are a lot of pictures on this one.  But we had four cameras going on this trip.  It was a good trip too.  I know that you guys only care about the pictures anyways.  You probably skip right over the text and go straight for these:

This is Mount Cook.  We didn't climb this monster, but we climbed to Mueller Hut close to Mount Olivia, which we did climb.  It's only about 1800 meters.  Mount Cook is 3700 meters. The weather was great for the whole trip, so no crazy weather drama this time. The red building is the hut.  That was our base camp for the night.

Some say there was some good scenery up along these ridges.  I wonder where it was. Peeking through the clouds there is the summit of Mount Cook. Peeking around this rock is James from England. At the top. Two rotary scholars.  Sam and Justin. Chillin' out for lunch on the rocks. Those three that is the crew minus Justin. Special instructions for using the bathroom up on the mountain.  Justin wasn't able to follow them. Justin got a telephone call once we reached the top.  It was his dad calling from thousands of miles away in Kentucky. This is camp the day before the hike up. Sunrise on the ridge.

Wanaka Baby

After leaving Picton I headed back to Christchurch with Justin.  Along the way I gave him a crash course on how to drive a stick shift.  He did all right.  Everything is on the opposite side here, so that could have made it more difficult to learn.  Even doors on places open in the opposite direction.  I can't count how many times I have tried pulling on a door to get it open while a bunch of kiwis looked at me in wonder.  When you flush the toilet it turns in the opposite direction as well.

So we arrive in Christchurch.  It's a Friday.  Good Friday.  Christchurch has a huge beautiful church in the town center.  And since we were around at the time the Friday night mass was beginning we stepped in to check it out.  Old and beautiful was the church.  Good singers that  night.  But they don't have anything on St. Joseph's cathedral.

For some reason all the hostels are being booked full.  My guess is the incoming foreign exchange students in Australia going on their spring breaks.  Most of these kids are American.  So due to the difficult nature of finding accommodation in Christchurch, we moved on.  Further south to Timaru.

Not much happened in Timaru.  Nice place, boring place.  We did meet a really nice older couple at the hostel there.  The guy had the funniest story about a trip to New Orleans in the 50's.  You will have to hear him tell it.

Dunedin came next.  Awesome town.  Got drunk with the people at our hostel and the caretaker at the pool hall under the place, while mixing that with visits to the local museum and seeing the historic city.  Scottish influences all around that place.  I met the first person from Kentucky here.  A Louisvillian no less.  The weather was crap.  Rainy and cold, so I had to buy a big jacket.  It has Valvoline Racing on it.  Cool heh?

After two nights in Dunedin, we spent to two nights in Queenstown.  Queenstown is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Ever.  It seems that each place that I visit becomes the new favorite.  But Queenstown will be hard to top.

This is a party town for sure.  Lots of tourist attractions like Bungy jumping and paragliding.  All the extreme stuff.  Plus they have tons of bars and even two casinos.  I went to one casino.  I lost no money.  I never made it to the tables.

Next came Wanaka.  Many wild stories to be told about this place too.  It seems lately that I have traded away early mornings and outdoor adventure for late nights of tasting the local brews.  Tui, sucks.  Montieths, good.  Speights, king of beers.  Steinlager, worst.  Makers is hard to find, but they do have it.  Everyone has Jim Beam.  Everyone gets those Vodka and Red Bulls, just like home.

Wanaka is on the lake just like Queenstown.  They call it the smaller version of it.  They have the most amazing movie theater here.  Lounge chairs and couches for chairs.  Even a car with comfortable seats in it.  They make the best homemade cookies.  Someone needs to open a place like this up in Louisville.  I saw the movie Cold Mountain.  Very good.  Made me miss home for a bit.  They have an intermission during the movie.

My car is starting to suck.  It over heats on hills.  It will die soon.  I know it.  But it has gotten me all this way.

Right now we are 20km away from Mount Cook.  Four of us are doing a trek around the mountain tomorrow.  The view from here is incredible.  The view from the top of Mt. Olivia will be even better.

Right now here is our crew:  Justin, Sam from North Carolina, James from Devin, England and me.  Tomorrow we climb.

This the Lighthouse at Castlepoint.  Justin took this photo.  We sat at the top of the cliff the night before with a six pack of beer and tried name our high school graduating class.  We couldn't remember them all. 

This is the scary ass swinging bridge.  It's the longest of it's kind in New Zealand.  I had already crossed this thing when kayaking here before.  This was Justin's first crossing.

This is Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch.  The Good Friday mass was held here.

Christchurch

I miss baseball, but I did get to watch the Reds season opener on tv.  At 6am though.
 
Let's see, what have I been doing the past days and weeks?  Since the climb I have been hanging out in bigger cities some of the time and doing some walks in the parks.  I haven't been able to kayak much.  And as of today I probably won't be back on the water.  I sold my kayak today in Christchurch.  But as I write this I am in Picton, the ferry town waiting for Justin to come in.  We now begin the tour of the south island.  It is defiantly getting colder.  Today it rained like a mamma jamma. The weather has been terrible all week.  Hopefully it will get better.

Last weekend I went out to the east coast and checked out a lighthouse.  It was cooler than it sounds.  The small town Castlepoint, far away from normal civilization, was a very nice place.

These guys were fishing off of a rock.

After Castlepoint, Justin and I did a two day hike into the woods.  We brought everything we needed in our packs and set off into the deep forest.  Basically it was 6 hours of walking to eat a bowl of soup.  Well that makes it not sound fun or interesting.  It was though.  It got dark as we hiked and we were not sure if we would find the hut or be able to eat our soup.

We found the hut!

While I was driving to Christchurch I saw this seal on the side of the road on the beach.  There were heaps of them.

And in Chrischurch I saw this Church.  It is the main attraction and at the city center.  It is a very nice place.  New Zealand's 3rd largest city.  300,000 people.

What crazy adventure lies ahead.

The Climb

Yesterday will go down as a very memorable day for me.  I climbed a mountain.  A real mountain.  It is Mount Taranaki which is the Maori name for volcano.  It was 2518 meters to the top and the weather can change eraticly, and it did just that as I made the decent from the summit.  Climbing it was one of the hardest things I had ever done.  Also one of the dirtiest.  It wasn't much fun actually doing it, but it felt great when it was all over with.  I was smiling the whole time though.

You begin at a car park with restrooms and information on all the walks around the mountain.  But Justin and I where set on reaching the summit.  From here you can see the top with no problems, as there was nothing but clear skies all around.  It was a warm and beautiful day.  I had begun to think that all the warnings about temperature changes and wind were a little much.

The trail begins very easily with clearly marked by gravel pathways and wooden steps, slowly moving up and around the mountain.  This is a just a trail leading to the starting point.  The Hut.

At the hut you look up in awe and at the stairs before you that lead to the summit.  Here you sign the log book, detailing your plans of travel on the mountain.  I sign in and Justin and I head up.  The weather is still wonderful and warm and sunny, there is a little bit of a cloud coming in around the corner.  Now the experience begins to get hard.  We are not even off of the wooden steps that have been placed for climbers.  Slowly we climb the steps and soon enough we are off of them.  Now we are walking on slippery volcanic rock that gives way with every step.  One step forward is half a step backwards.  And it is very steep and extremely windy.  Dust is blown all over the place.  They should recommend goggles for this climb.  We have to rest at what seems like every two minutes.  I keep looking at my GPS to see the meters slowly climbing towards our goal of 2518.

A cloud has crept around the mountain now, but the amazing thing is that it is below us.  I am standing above the clouds.  It was incredible.  And the view to the east is breath taking.  There would have been an awesome sight of the ocean, but it was covered in clouds.

Okay so we are dirty, grimy, tired, hungry and we still have 400 meters to go straight up.  Justin and I have met up with another climber, Henrick, a Swiss backpacker.  We have a team meeting and Justin decides to leave us at this point and head back down.  He was a little suspicious of the clouds coming in.  I am crazed with the idea of making it to the top, have plenty of food, water and extra layers of clothes with me, so I decide to continue on with Henrick.  So we climb.  Slower and slower as I become more tired, but I am now off of the slippery ashy rocks and am now rock climbing up the steep mountain side.

Snowy patches begin to cover the ground.  We climb on.  We run into some other climbers who are coming down.  They give us encouragement that the summit is only a ten minute climb away.  We climb on and soon we are there.  We have made it.  I have climbed a mountain.  All the way to the summit.  The view has only gotten better.  The whole way the weather has been beautiful.  I shoot some video and eat my lunch.  It has taken me 4 1/2 hours to go from car to the summit.  I felt I had really accomplished something.  It was awesome.

But, wait.  This story is only half done.  We still have to come down.  No problem, you just go down.  Simple enough right?  I thought it would be.  But the weather is changing.  Clouds are rolling in.  No, they have rolled in.  We are in them.  In the clouds.  I have never been in one before.  They look very pretty in the sky.  They can't be that bad inside of them.  No dice.

It is so windy that I can't keep my sunglasses on.  I layer up and hurry to put away my food and camera.  We decide we should get out of here right away.  The wind is knocking us around and misty rain is being blown all over the place.  Our dry sunny day has turned into a wet windy whiteout.  You can only see about 10 meters in front of you.  What was a wonderful view of the landscapes below is now endless white.

Basically what follows are miserable cold conditions with slow descending amongst ducking behind rocks to keep dirt from flying into our eyes for a second.  It truly was miserable coming down.  But I knew that all I had to do was keep moving and get there.  So we kept going.  And the wind kept blowing, hard.  Harder than I ever experienced.  Sometime during all the wind and water I had wished that I turned back with Justin.  That I never even began to climb this thing.  All I wanted was to be at the bottom.  Warm and dry.

Eventually we did make it.  Justin met us at the hut, he was with two other guys he had met.  It took 4 1/2 hours to go up and 3 hours to come down.  It was the best experience ever.  Can't wait to climb another, just as soon as my legs aren't sore.

Aimless North Island Tour

I'll call this week my tour my aimless tour of the north island of New Zealand.  I never really knew where I should go to or where I would end up.  Every time I consulted my guide book I would end up passing my turn off or find that the place wasn't really what they described.  So I stopped consulting the guide book and just went with my own instincts.

I stayed away from bigger towns and went for the smaller ones to eat and sleep at.

This method helped me stumble onto some cool free camping and a stay at some wacky hotels.  One hotel that I was at was huge and I was the only guest.  The place looked like it was once nice, but had since been run into the ground since the mid eighties.

Hotel rooms seem to come standard with an in room sink here.

I met up with two Scottish fellows that I had met earlier in the trip in the south island.  I hung out with them in Rotorua at Sunspots the local kayaking gathering place.

I almost went kayaking with them, but the area is known for it's crime rate and since I felt so uneasy about all my stuff being stolen from my car while I was on the river I didn't make the run.  While driving to the put in, the biggest Moari I have seen yet, and mind you, they are all built like tanks, well this one was cursing at me I guess for driving too fast down a dirt road.  I knew that if I got in the river he would come down to my car and jack my shit.  I think I dodged a bullet there.

I am going back to Wellington right now.  I am going to see Passion of the Christ tonight with Justin and zee Germans.  Then he and I are going to climb Mount Taranaki this weekend.  Hopefully we can make it to the beach as well for some kayaking in the surf.  I've never done that before and have always wanted to.

The temperatures are beginning to drop a little here.  Hopefully it won't become full on fall for a while longer.  It will be nice to come home to warm weather after leaving two months of warm weather here.

Camping at Huka Falls

I am in a tent right now camping beside a river.  I thought I should take a moment before I go to sleep to write on here a little bit.  Yesterday was a very cool day. I stumbled across this small town that reminded me of Bardstown.  They had lots of little antique stores and cafes.  It looked like all the big city Wellingtonians had come there for a Sunday retreat from the city.  Just a bit outside of Greytown is the beginning to the Waiohine river.  I thought I would go there and check to see where the put-in and take-out points were so that Justin and I could kayak it later on in the week.  There was this very cool swing bridge there.  I thought the last one I saw was Indiana Jones like, but this one was much scarier.

Anyways I was about to leave the gorge, a little confused about where the run began and ended, here come a group of paddlers.  So I kayaked with them.  They were a group of teachers from Greytown.  For many of them it was there first trip down a river.  They were led by a very cool rafting guide named Tom.  He is the first Maori I have paddled with.  So what was going to be a simple drive in and check it out, turned out to be a great day of paddling.  I think I will certainly go back to Greytown on my way back south from where I am.

Last night I stayed in a small town called Ekabana or something like that.  They had a very cool hotel with a bistro and bar connected on to it.  I ate a steak, drank Old Dark, my current favorite New Zealand beer, and watched rugby highlights while the bartender explained some of the league rules to me.  They had a guest registry with names of guest dating back to 1976.  They only averaged about 5 guests a month according to the ledger.  The place was very old.  It had a bathtub, but no shower.  I took a bath.  I haven't had a bath in a long time.  But I had one in New Zealand.

Today I really wanted to see some NCAA tournament action, but I could not.  I tried, but it just isn't on over here.  I was sad that I was missing it all.  But then I found out that Kentucky lost to UAB on the internet.  And Louisville lost on Friday.  So I was not sad anymore.  Because the tournament is over for all of us.  Except you guys are still in Kentucky (most of you) and I am still in paradise.

Today I drove a lot.  I am going to Rotorua and I am almost there.  Hopefully I can get in a good kayaking trip there and then head back down south.  Tonight I am camped at a free campsite 500m down from the most hellacious rapid I have ever seen, Huka Falls.

That thing is crazy, and the fact that some people have kayaked over it is even crazier.  The falls are not what are so wild.  It's the chute leading into it.  I'll get some video of it in the morning.  Good night, well you guys are getting ready to wake up and go to work, so, good morning everybody, I am going to bed.

Touring the North Island

I am in Wellington right now.  I am leaving soon, like in an hour.  I don't know for sure where I am going yet.  North from here though.  Maybe Napier.  I'll keep ya'll posted.

Sometimes when your setting up the shuttle for these kayak runs you can get your vehicle stuck.  Don't let this happen to you!

Here are a truck load of sheep being shipped across on the ferry.  Beside it were a truck load of cows.
 
My car stereo setup.  It bumps!
 
Sunset from the ferry heading across to Wellington.

Back in Murchison

I'm sitting back at camp on a Wednesday morning, getting ready to go kayaking.  I'm back in Murchison doing the boating thing again.  I don't know what river we'll hit today, but we should be heading out soon.

The past week has been days filled with kayaking.  I bought the kayak I was after in Nelson.  The Piranha Ina Zone.

Middle Mtakitaki

I got back to Murchison after getting my Inazone in Nelson the night before. I remember pulling over in a field late at night after buying the boat and setting up camp in my car. In the morning I finished the drive to Murchison and reconnected with the group at Holiday Camp.

Section paddled
Matakitaki River - Middle Section

Date
March 15th

Flow
The flow for the area was medium low about this time.

Difficulty
Class II+


Who with?
Pierre and the girl from Canada.

Kentucky Eat-A-Ways

For the past few days I have been hanging out in the Abel Tasman national park.  Currently I am chasing after a kayak in Nelson.  I sold the last boat I had.  I did not like the Flip-Stick.  It Flip-Stunk.  So I am going after an InaZone. 
 
As for the weekends travels, Justin and I spent the first night, Thursday, chillin' in Picton, a port town where all the ferries come in from Wellington.

Not much happens in this sleepy little town except when a ferry gets in and a small rush of people head out through the town and towards their destinations.  At a local bar that night I talked about bluegrass music with a local guy.  He plays Mandolin in a group here.  He was amazed that we had actually seen some of his favorite bluegrass artist live back in the states.

So the next day was slowly spent making our way towards the Abel Tasman National Park for some sea kayaking.

Making stops along the way at this Indiana Jones type hanging bridge, the beach in Nelson where a bunch of guys were Kite Surfing and finally Motuaka.

Next, was the booking for a sea kayaking trip and a stay at Old MacDonalds farm.  Complete with all the farm animals, including a donkey and a Llama.

Saturday was spent sea kayaking along the beautiful coast of the Abel Tasman. Then back to Picton.

I checked out a QK Stealth kayak that some guy was selling.  That boat sucked, so I passed it up.  Now I'm here in Subway, in Nelson, New Zealand that is, not county.  I have to go call this guy in a minute and hopefully I'll have a boat I like real soon.  Then it's off to Murchison again for you guessed it, more kayaking.  Tonight I am sleeping in my car.  I can even wake up tomorrow to a sunrise over the beach.  Now how can you beat that?

Everywhere I look I am reminded of home.

Holiday Camp

This just could be the life for me.  Sleeping in till 9:30am in my little hut in the holiday campground.

Getting up and finding out what the morning run will be.  Today it was the Buller Earthquake run.

Afterwards, get back to camp for lunch a small rest then find out what the second run of the day will be.  Today it was the middle Matakitaki.  Then come back to camp to warm up and have dinner.  Onion and cheese sandwiches tonight.  That has been the itinerary each day this past week here at the Buller Fest in Murchison.

Tomorrow I am leaving here for a bit for a drive back up to Picton to pick up Justin for some sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman national park.  It is supposed to be some beautiful scenery up there.  This weekend will be Justin's birthday so it should shape up to be a good one for him.

One remarkable thing about being here is that I have no sense of time.  I don't have a watch, so I rarely know the time of day.  I usually don't even know what day it is.  There is no rush to get any where or do anything.  I can take as long as I want to drive down some dirt road and see what is at the end of it.

I can stay out on the river all afternoon and be late for nothing.  It is great.  I love being able to take my time as I go.

Yesterday I made a video for some of the guys I am boating with.  I promised them I would put it up on the web so you guys can check it out as well.  The rapid featured in this bit is the main rapid on the lower Matakitaki earthquake run.  I ran this section the past Sunday.  I swam it in two different sections.  I think I could run it no problem next time.

(updated 2/21/2006)
I am trying to recall the exact runs I made this day.


---------------------------------------
Section paddled:
Buller Earthquake Section

Date:
March 10th

Flow:
The flow for the area was medium low about this time.

Difficulty:
Class III
Gunslinger, Steve guided through the sneak route today.
I paddled a Bliss-Stick Huka that I borrowed from the Hamilton guys

Who with?
Hamilton kayak club, Pierre Pechon, Steve Venton
Waikato Kayak Club (was Hamilton CC) PO Box 9497, Hamilton


Murchison Video
---------------------------------------
Section paddled
Matakitaki River - Middle Section

Date
March 10th

Flow
The flow for the area was medium low about this time.

Difficulty
Class II+
Playful stretch of river.

Who with?
Don't remember, but I'm sure Pierre was one of them.

Buller River - Earthquake Run

This is written from memory now some 2 years later. I went back through my NZ guidebook and am trying to recall all my runs on New Zealand rivers.

This is a very popular run here in Murchison. I joined up once again with the Hamilton club and paddled this in the morning. I also began paddling with Pierre Pechon around this time. Pierre was an interesting dude from England who wore one of those Darth Vadar helmets on the river. Not really by choice, we all used what ever we could rent or buy or find or borrow in Murchison and there wasn't a whole lot of gear around.

I walked the hardest rapid on the Earthquake run this day, Gunslinger. I was still nervous about the rapid from the day before. This one had a cheat line but was harder than Granity.

Later on this day I filmed some guys run on the Matakitaki.


Gunslinger Rapid


Murchison Video

Section paddled
Buller / Earthquake Run

Date
March 9th

Difficulty
Class III

Who with?
Hamilton kayak club, Pierre Pechon
Waikato Kayak Club (was Hamilton CC) PO Box 9497, Hamilton

I just ran across this story of a death on this section:
A bad day on the Buller River

Buller River - Granity Creek Swim

This is written from memory now some 2 years later. I went back through my NZ guidebook and am trying to recall all my runs on New Zealand rivers. I am pretty sure that this was the day that joined up with with the Hamilton paddling club who were in Murchison for the Buller Festival.

I was nervous about Granity Greek this day. It showed too because I set up with the most horrible line entering the rapid and ended up flipping right in the meat. I swam and lost a show trying to squeeze out of my tiny Bliss-Stick Flip Stick. I hated that boat after this day.

I did get some awesome surfing in down the river at this perfect glassy wave. I also got in with this Hamilton group who became my paddling partners for the next days.

Murchison Video
---------------------------------------
Section paddled
Buller / Granity Creek

Date
March 8th

Flow
Lower than 2 days before

Difficulty
Class III+
One large rapid at Granity creek.

Who with?
Hamilton kayak club, Pierre Pechon, Steve Venton
Waikato Kayak Club (was Hamilton CC) PO Box 9497, Hamilton

Mangles and Matakitaki

Today, Sunday, was a day full of boating.  I first ran the Mangles river with Zack here from the hostel.  We met up with two Scotsmen and two Canadians.  The river was very easy and a good warm up to my new boat.  Then we tried to check out the rodeo down where the main festivities were going on.  But we missed it.  So we then headed for a run on the Matakaitaki Earthquake run.  A good class III run with a class IV double whami at the end.  I swam both of those.  But it was a great run still.  Basically today all that I did was kayak, which is good.  I'll probably hang out in this place and boat some more while I wait for Justin to come down.


Granity rapid.  Big water.  I ran it real clean.


Took this while driving to a town on the west coast to get some cash to buy a boat.

Earthquake run on the Mataikitaki.  The guy behind the boat is a local paddler from Nelson.  He is a cook.  He said he lived in Australia for a couple of years but became homesick and had to move back home.

This is me on the Maitakitaki.

Murchison Video


(updated 2/17/06)
Mangles River
Class II+
Level: Scrappy
Paddled with Zack, 2 Canadians and 2 Scotsmen
Did this river 1 times during my whole stay in New Zealand.

Matakitaki River
Earthquake Run
class: IV
Paddled this with Zach and 2 guys from Nelson. This is a short run with tins of play.
Later the next week the NC couple got their van stuck on the side of the hill while setting up a shuttle for this run. I bailed out of running this at that time because I figured it was destiny that got that van stuck and I was to help the guy and not run the river.

Zack taught me all about catching eddies and peel outs this day. I learned so much about kayaking in New Zealand. I really was a noob when I went over there. Still am!

Granity Creek

I left Wellington a couple of days ago to come here to Murchison where I am now.  This is a kayaking paradise with the Buller Fest going on right now.  The trip began with a ferry ride that wasn't too pleasant.  I went out in downtown Wellington to some bars with Justin and a whole other slew of transfer students.  We drank the night away there, but I had to call it a night early so I could catch my 3:00am ferry ride to Picton.  I slept in the parking lot and on the boat while they showed some movies.  One of them was Sweet Home Alabama I think.  At 6 am I was in the South Island of New Zealand.  It was dark and the town didn't seem to offer much.  I was ready for some kayaking action so I headedon to Murchison.  A 3 hour drive through some beautiful scenery.

The South Island is much different from the north in the fact that there are hardly any people.  I passed 1 car during my 3 hour drive from 6am to 9am.  1 car and thousands of cows and goats.  The drive was good.  Murchison doesn't even have an ATM.  When I bought a kayak, I had to drive an hour away to get some cash.

I arrived in town early yesterday morning.  My plan was to now buy a boat.  The festival didn't seem to have an epicenter.  I talked with Mick Hopkinson the owner of the kayak school here, and a local legend in the kayaking world.  He had some boats for sale, but nothing I really wanted.

I couldn't find much anywhere else.  So I decided to spend that day checking out the area and it's many rivers.  I saw a guy running a 30 waterfall in his kayak.  I video taped it, but my camera crapped out and didn't actually get the footage.

I talked to that guy.  He was a boater from Washington state.  And one crazy character.  Yeah, that picture is what he went over.  So the day grew on and I still had no boat.  I knew I would need to get a lead on one so I could start boating.  I decided to take a nap back at the hostel.  I am staying at the Lazy Cow, the only hostel in town.  It's like living in a house with ten roommates.  All from all over the place and a new set of ten each day.  Well one guy I met at the hostel is Zack, who has become my paddling partner for the moment.

Through him I got a lead on a boat which I took for spin today on the Buller river.  For the kayakers that care, it is a Bliss-Stick Flip Stick.  I've never boated in a playboat, but this one seems to suit me well.  I just returned from paying the kid for the boat.

He is with a group from a poly-tech school in Christchurch.  A tech school for outdoor adventure.  They don't have that back home.        So I ended the day yesterday with a good lead on a boat, some fish and chips at the local restaurant.  The only restaurant.  And watched a game of rugby while I ate.  Super 12 rugby, the same that is playing in front of me now.  This morning I woke, went and got the boat and hit the Buller with Zack.

I met a guy from England and his girlfriend from North Carolina on the river.  We gave them a lift back to there car.  So after my first day of boating I sit here waiting for my steak to come off the grill.  So far so good.  More boating lies in store tomorrow.  Internet access isn't so good out here.  Hopefully I can get connected soon.

Oh yeah, some where in there I celebrated my birthday.  It was a good one.
 
Murchison Video
Section paddled
Buller / Granity Creek

Date
March 6th  11am-2pm

Flow
Normal

Difficulty
Class III+
One large rapid at Granity creek.  I flipped leaving the eddie, but bounced right back up and ran the thing like a champ.

Who with?
Zack, a paddler from Massachusetts.

Comments
I hit a rapid equal in size to anything I ever have done before.

NZ 2 days in...

I have now been here for two days.   The place is beautiful.  As soon as I claimed my baggage on the first day I was met by Nathan and Tarrah, a young couple from Canada who were here backpacking.  I was to buy my car from them.  So we took it for a test drive around the suburbs of Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand, but by no means large.
 
The car is nothing to look at, but it seems reliable.  I have already driven in 600km down to Wellington, where I am now.
 
So after I test drove the car on day one I headed south for a bit to Hamilton, stopped in for the evening at a hostel.  Or a backpackers as they seem to be called here.  Besides the terrain, things aren't so different here.  They have the same music, tv shows, restaurants.  What is different is that you have to drive on the left side of the road.  Confusing at first, but you get used to it.  I'll probably have a hard time re-adjusting to our way when I return.   On my drive down to Wellington I picked up some hitchhikers.  A couple from Switzerland.  So we were all off and on our way, driving through some incredible scenery.
 
The landscape changes every 20 minutes from lush green hills, to a drier desert road with high mountains.  All kinds of weird looking trees grow everywhere.  And sometimes you would think you were in Kentucky with all the cows and farms.  There are also a lot of sheep farms.

 Day 2 was spent in Wellington, the capitol city.  The weather has been great everywhere but here.  This place seems to like the rain and the wind.  But today is actually really nice.  I guess the weather changes here like it does back home.  The locals keep apologizing for the weather.  They say it's not normally like this.  So Yesterday I met up with Justin and then met some friends of his here.  A group of students, all of them German.
 
You would think that Peter Jackson is the king of New Zealand these days.  That is all anyone is talking about here.  Since Lord of the Rings swept the Oscars, this place has gone crazy over the news.  They also have those dragon things from the movie mounted on the tops of buildings through out the city.  And driving here I saw a mountain or something that was in the movie.  More to come!

Heading to New Zealand: In The Airport

So my journey begins... in the airport.  Right now I am pretty tired and I still have 30 of 36 hours to go.  My next flight takes me from a surprisingly sunny New York City to Souel Korea.  But I already feel like I'm in a foreign country, because I am the only American in this whole terminal.  And if not the only American, certainly the only one with red hair.  This next day of traveling to New Zealand will not be the most comfortable or relaxing thing I have experienced.  It will probably be closer to the worst.  But I hear it's all worth it when you get there.  So I'm looking forward to that.  The Korean Air logo looks like the Pepsi logo.  Not a whole lot to say about the trip so far.  Just trying to get there right now.
 
Half way there.  I'm in Seoul Korea.  I am only getting to see the airport of this county, but they have some great design.  Even the shape of the urinals put ours to shame.  There graphic design is great too.  Even on something like the store front of a KFC.  You have got to give it to them on there design.
 
I have totally lost track of time and date.  I know that it is 6:54pm here.  But what day is it?  What time is it to me?  It feels like it's late and I should be sleeping.  I am dog tired, my eyes hurt.  I vow to get some good sleep on this next 12 hour flight.  The trip from NY to Seoul was miserable really.  I would sleep for 30-minutes here and there, but you are too cramped to sleep well.  I watched School of Rock 4 times I think.  Plus three other movies.  It will all be over soon.  My ears are killing me right now.  I can't hear anything.

Big Water Elkhorn

3500cfs

Don't remember this one very much. Must have ran it with Bubba.