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
Monday, April 26, 2004
Monday, April 19, 2004
Mount Ollivier
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 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.
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.
Friday, April 16, 2004
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.
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.
Thursday, April 8, 2004
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.
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.
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