North Island Kayaking

“Bro it was mean, we just did laps on the Kaituna all holidays”

These were that words that I heard all the time when the crew came back down to study after the holidays. So I decided to put my A into G and head up north for a week paddling to see what all the fuss was about. It all started back before exams when Ben Craddock and myself decided to head up but after new years bens funds become some what depleted and it didn’t help that his van got stolen again and sold to a scrap metal place so with Ben fighting off guard dogs to get his van back, I took off up north with a mate who just happened to be driving to Napier so with 7.30am start we finally arrived in Napier 14 hours later just in time to hit the piss in Havelock.


Me just after droping the falls

With a 4 hour trip in the morning to the Wairoa the night was some what cut short at 3.30am. We arrived at the Wairoa at around lunch time and managed to get 4 runs in before they shut the water off. After waiting at the hospital for Sam to get 9 stitches in his eyebrow from a wee slip up on the river, we rolled onto Papamoa for the night.

Kaituna hole

From Papamoa we went to hit the famous Kaituna up we were there for 2 days and managed to get 10 or so runs in over the 2 days. Big ups to Libby for letting us crash at her place
On the Wednesday we busted a move and headed south to the Rangitikei after 5 hours of driving we were glad to see some water. Levels were low but never or less it was still a mean day with 20 more cfs this run would be one of the best runs in the north.
Thanks for the sweet trip crew

Swiming in the dam .... so much fun

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO

On rare occasions, being a student has its advantages. Sure sitting in the lounge breathing steam, (because heating costs money) and having to check your account just to get a coffee are not massively inspiring. However, on the upside for us as Rec students is the fact that here at CPIT there is a little known fund, to which every student at the polytech contributes. This fund exists solely to give money to students for extra currcular activities. Consequently, to access this fund all one has to do is apply to the friendly people at CPSA and providing they approve... has everyone figured out where this rambling explanation is going yet? Thats right. West coast on!!!We started off with some bad news, one car had issues with the brakes, and in our car Jamie found a big split in his boat. But we didn't let this stop us at all, Gus traded cars with Soph and Jamie had an attempt at fixing his boat at the trusty dairy factory in Hokitika.Once our problems were sorted we hiked into the Styx for a quicky at low water.This was the first trip down the Styx of many for Sanga as he discovered the joy of more rocks then water and sphincter tightening lines!On Sunday we gave Dando a call and flew into the Arahura for once again low water, this offered less push but tighter lines for the day. But with calm but overcast weather, we were in for a primo day.

West Coast shuttle

the put in

but but on the first drop of the day

the low dent falls

thats y its called dent falls jordy going center on billiards

mmmmmm

jamie rockn billiards

these next shots are me stokn billiards

jordy on cesspool
All in all it was a mean weekend with heaps of sweet lines and only a couple of minor mishaps. Thanks to the CPSA for hooking us up with some funding and Soph for lending the sentrizz for another choice coast trip!

Mystic Ridge

With the weekend approaching but but, scotty and myself decided to head into the hill in search of what ever we can get our hands on armed with a 7mil 08, 223, and the most famous mystic ridge we new she was going to be a goodie . well on the mystic ridge front anyway , well here some pic enjoy setting off

scotty and me day one

myself day 2

camp day 1

WHEN THE RAIN COMES

with storms smashing the country side, texts flying back and forth and some one pulling a sicky not naming names, the okuku was all go, on the thus the old girl got up over 200 cfs , with the normal flow being around 3 to 4 cfs we decided to put it off till Friday and it was well worth it. With the river flowing around the 55/60 mark we new we were in for a good day but we had one small problem a shuttle driver hmmm (Hannah " year ill do, year sure ") turns out she wasn't a big game player (wrap it up) any way my good old mate smithy pulled through as we only told him it was an hour shuttle, woops sorry smithy we may have lied lol,
upon arriving we found the okuku at a good flow , as i had dune it the week before so kind of new what to expect but the river was about 15 to 20 cfs at a gess higher . it starts off with some fun class 3 boating until u get to the 1st gorge where the first main rapid awaits. with gus optioning to walk myself Chee and Murphy hit the sucker up the river then continues with some class 3+ wave trains/big holes. things start picking up as you enter the 2nd gorge with some nice long class 4 rapids we enter the first crux raped. hey gus eddy out bro! with gus running it first with out an option and living on a paryer made it down. with some cool rapids to come before the big one ,fun was had .arriving at the hardest raped we jumped out for a look it fair to say shit was big, some massive holes and huge waves Murphy and my self ran that shit after this the river starts to flatten out and we arrive safe and sound.
big ups to smithy for driving thanks bro and thanks for a good day out boys .

ED MURPHY AT "WORK"

LETS PLAY FIND JARED

OOOO THERE HE IS

Rangitata Gorge

Rangitata gorge

We had Sam, Jared, Ash, Chris, josh and Hayden .We arrived at the get out and explained to the crew the plan, loaded up the wizard six up and headed to the get in.

Here are some picts of the day...... and well done josh for stepping up and styling the pinch. (chur)
Getting on the water

Getting on the water


Josh running No.1 rapid

Hayden Running 'Roosters Tail & Pigs Troff'

Jared Running 'Roosters Tail & Pigs Troff'


Cheers to every one for a mint day on the water.

WEST COAST

Well...It's that time of year again when it snows quite often, heavy frosts are not a rarity, and we decide to go kayaking! The plans were delayed a day because of the closure of Arther's pass but this didn't stop us from having our winter adventures in the mountain valleys behind Hokitika.It all started with Jarred bowling into jamies room Sunday morning, driving through snow and ice, losing a boat off the roof at 110, and some very to quality white water to be kayaked with not a moment to spare.

On Sunday we started walking at quite a fast pace into the Styx at 3 for an hour to get the trip started. With a good flow we continued to move just as fast down the river to get to the car with not a second of light to spare.With not much else running we decided to check out a new run, gave Dando a call, and before we knew it (or the sun knew it) we were waiting on a frosty morning for the humm of the helicopter.

For a not so cheap fare we were picked up by Dando, flown as high as we could get to the bottom of Toaroha canyon, dropped of with our kayaks going even higher to a small beach somewhere, in search of the biggest drop thus far in Jarred's kayaking career.After an hour of exploration we found what we were looking for. A sweet 25footer that flowed out of the bottom of the canyon. After a few descents of this and a swim we were off down the river in search of that illusive winter sunshine.

The river was awesome with some cool pool drop moves and a couple of fun boulder gardens to boot.The next day it was time for a sleep in to see if it would be any warmer if we let that sun have a crack at melting some of that frost... the only problem was the sun doesn't really penetrate very deep into the steep valleys of the west coast, especially not the Styx valley.After a later than usual start we hiked on in to the Styx, a little higher this time, unfortunately with less water. It really is true, the higher you go the steeper it gets. With this in mind we started as high as we could force ourselves to walk giving us awesome, continuous, steep, creeking which was just what we want! With Jarred giving me some inside local info we traveled down some of the most fun white water I have ever done back to the car just in time to catch the sunset. Choice!

BY JAMIE GARROD

Queens birthday mission
After a bit of humming and haa-ing, Jarrod, Dave(our American friend), Ben and Butters decided there could be no better way to spend the Queens 'b' day than boating. We headed over to the coast with the intentions of running the styx on the Sunday and a fly in on the Monday. However we ended up doing two missions on the styx.....Dando's chopper got driven into by a house bus at full noise. Dam tourists!!!!

Butbut lining up the grind

Jared busting the grind

Anyway we managed to walk into the styx (with a large amount of moaning from Butters) to start with. Then on the second day it was Jared turn to moan due to the dent in the front of the magnum. Jug of hot water bro?...The water was low but the trip was still sweet.

Jared dreaming of Cali