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!