The Crooked

With the feel of spring in the air and the boys inching to do some paddling Jamie butters and my self headed to the coast for a couple of days first on the list was the crooked. The crooked in the passed hasn’t had the best rep with CPIT students but hey that’s a whole different story. The walk! Well if you haven’t been in there it probably one of the best walk-ins, (HA year rite) you should do it. Knee high mud and steep banks to craw up provided some of the days best entertainment. Water levels were a little low but all in all a grate day.

From here we headed to hoki and meet up with the 2^nd year boys to hit up the styx.

Sorry for lack of action shots but here are some pictures of the crooked

jamie chilln 10min into the walk

jamie getting it done

jamie and but but laping up the rays

oooooooooo year

yep thats a whole heap of mud

Mountain Days

I think I may have had one of the best week snowboarding. First it started at mount Lyford where the days menu was powder with a dump of around 50cm the night before how could we resist. Getting up the mount with Scotty’s old lady’s truck with road tires on was a piece of piss and with the thought of staying the night in Hamner that night and a dip in the hot pools we just new she was going to be a ripper. As first thought the day did turn out to be one of the better ones I have had I think this was because of the hottest lifty i have ever seen. You know those chicks you see up the mount that look hot but you don’t know if they are hot, the boys know what i mean. Well she was hot, a great tan and oooo boy as for the body holey s%#t .Scotty summed her up in words of Alf Stewart “flaming crows, she’s a cracker”. The day was then topped off with a few ales or five and a cheeky dip in the hot pools.

Porters was the next steep on Friday and then again on Monday. Porters again offered some more grate riding i hadn’t been to porters for quite some time so a newish field and grate snow what more could you ask for, well I suppose a hot lifty would have topped it off but hey beggars can’t be choosers . On Friday it had been a skied out a bit but with a dump on Sunday night allowed for some good riding on the Monday.

The Wanganui

The UCC had planned a trip into the lower Wanganui river with 16 or so beginner kayakers so with cheaper flights on offer how could I decline. A crew consisting of myself Jordan Chris and Simon went into the upper part. Water levels were low but still a good day out. Here are some pictures to check out there isn’t many as it was too cold

Any Given Sunday

Sunday Hurunui trip usually consist of two or three really hangover people. The plan is usually made in the early stages the night before and then as the night goes on more and more people get on the bandwagon. But this wasn’t the case for trip which had me in too minds for some reason maybe it was because I got the shit knocked out of me the day before at rugby by a dirty cheep shot. But hey I can’t remember! With the gully at around 90 cubes it’s got some sweet waves so it was time to dust of the cobwebs off the odd play boat and throw it around.

The Last Heli for the Summer

With one day up his sleeve Jamie was keen to hit the coast before heading back to welly so after a big weekend in chch we headed to the coast for a day mission into the Arahura. But we had one small problem getting there so after hunting around until 11pm that night we found a super keen Simon, this was to be his first coast mission and what a good introduction to coast boating.

Upper Waiau

Here is a trip me and a few boys did a at the end of last year

Pre-expedition planning, or lack of it, showed as boats were packed and boat-carrying systems fitted for the two hour walk( cos we were so fast) to the put-in. After labouring up Maling Pass with a hail-beating norwesterly in our faces and nearly 30kg loads on our backs the sight of the river 6km away and 400m below us was surprisingly refreshing. Down in the valley, two hours of scraping down the humble beginnings of the Waiau saw us cold and tired as we pulled in to first gorge. From here class III+ boulder gardens provided plenty of entertainment up untill our camp for the night, which there just so happed to be a hut not to far up in the bush,
Day two: Still more bouncy wave-trains and boulder gardens brought us into the 'Narrows'. The guidebook offers the advice 'don't swim in the Narrows' and the reason became obvious as we scouted the first 500m of narrow bedrock gorge with some sizeable hydraulics and no opportunities for bank rescue. The crux move, called The Weir, was successfully run,. The next section was the narrowest on the river, the whole river moving through a slot less than 6m wide pushing off both sides for probably over 20m.
From here unique bush-clad gorges with fun rapids, it was with great reluctance that we paddled out of the mountains to the open valley and the Hope River confluence.