The amazing Upper Hokitika

Well im back up north sitting in rainy Okere Falls thinking creeking thoughts, and I thought I would chuck a bit of a post up about the Upper Hokitika river while I wait for the rain.

Stephan, wilzy and I, after a lazy recovery day on the Upper Kakas, decided on the Upper Hoki for our last day on the coast. With only the 3 of us we cruised through the run, paddling on a pretty juicy flow, making some of the holes pretty damn massive.

Sick day out and we got to the bottom of the run realising none of us had taken a roll. Choice!

The very busy class 5 "Viagara Falls" section

Fun sneak line drop

The always impressive Gates of Argonath

Stephan and Dando

Wills entering the sick gorge below Mikeys drop

Me on Viagara Falls

Stephan in a artistic shot

Big entrance waterfall to the first gorge

Stephan getting his Viagara right

Random South Island Photos

Out of my zone and into some big water

Trying to crank as much power out of those lettmann blades as I can

Me partaking in the Citroen Race

Looking down into the unknown - Hokitika Gorges

Gettin my airmail on

Illuminated by whitewater

Battling it out on the Matakitaki, I actually managed to take this dude, and the guy in front too. 

Stoked!

All photos courtesy of Louise Urwin and Tyler Fox.

The Kokatahi River... A big day out.

Hanging out at the Hokitika campground, me, willzy, si and stephan were wondering where to fly the next day when jordie rocked up and decided we would paddle the Kokatahi... well ok then, if we have to.
We woke up the next day to get to the river at the ridiculously early time of 9am and started flying at around 10.30am seeing as dando had a slight hold up. No worries, just mean we had to bomb all that much faster. The Kokatahi is a huge day and is full of solid class V water, helped by the fact we had a very juicy medium flow. Too many rapids to name, all big and scary. Check the sick photos!

B-E-A-utiful Kokatahi Gorges

Cave on the left, freedom on the right!

Simon clearing one of the MASSIVE holes on the Kokatahi

Wills lining it up

Jordie on his home(ish) turf

Helis are a great way to scout. Fun too.

Flying up the Kokatahi Valley on a super nice easter sunday morning

Jordan Searle about to test his luck against a huge hole in space.

Where it goes...? Who knows? Almost wills.

Chur bro!

Simon entering Carnage gorge. Shes tight in there.

Stephan gettin his boof on

Portaging on the Kokatahi is super fun.

Shes steep, gnarly, full of holes, seives and undercuts. Also bloody good fun.

Wills making the cover shot

Arahura River

The Arahura river is a great first heli trip, and seeing as tillsy had never been up in a whirly bird it seemed the logical choice to spend a nice sunny Saturday. Sweet run, I took a massive beatdown in the top section and swam out of a nasty pocket after going for a couple of laps round without my boat. Hamish and Simon both stepped up and run cesspit which was awesome to see. See the photos for our fun run in the sun.

Wilzy exiting billiards

Me running cesspit, hoping to not become cess.

Simon davidson ladies and gentlemen.

Stephan in billiards, seive city.

Arahura rapids are all class

Me on curtain call

Stephan getting sick air in the top section.

Magical flying machine

Tillsy stomping his boofs

The elusive wad of cash that kayakers can never hold on to.

Back on the coast

So im back down on the coast now after flying into chch to meet Willz on the 7th. First day here it snowed like crazy and the alps were coated making the rivers high and the water bloody cold! Me and Willz went for a sick run down the Kakapotahi River yesterday and snapped a few pics.

Wills going into the tunnel rapid

Willz on Postmans falls

Airing it out on Airmail

Me boofing a hole on kakas

Me on airmail, trying, and succeding to land in water

Snow on Arthurs pass

Today we were gonna fly into the Arahura but it was a little on the high side of good so we just walked into the styx for a couple of laps which made for a fun day, Arahura tomorrow if the weather goes to plan.

Citroen Extreme Race

After a steller week on the coast we headed down to Queenstown to the Kawarau River for the Citroen race. Citroen is a class 4+ big water rapid which is super fun to race down with a line choice between the easier but slightly slower right line around the big boulder at the top or the fast and tricky left line which if you stuff up can see you getting pounded against the wall in a big recirculating eddy. First off you have the time trial which despite taking a roll I still had a pretty quick run down ending up seeded 15th. Then it goes to the Head to Head racing.
Looking at the draw I saw my number was up against #2, which turned out to be wills!
Winning the paper sissors rock at the top I had the good start and got a bit of a lead on wills, heading left while he headed right. Nailed my line through the left but hit a wave and took a roll, missed it and tried again getting it, luckily, because I was already out of breath. Looking behind I was still slightly in front of wills, then got smashed by another wave , ripping my paddle out of my hand and sending me back under. Rolling up I saw wills was sitting on my tail and we were coming up to the finishing gate. I quickly sprinted as hard as I could and just managed to take the gate before wills.
Next race was against Ben, a quick coast boater. I had the bad start position and as soon as I pulled off the start ramp Ben was already sprinting his way down to the start of the rapids. He had a perfect race and kept a decent lead on me the whole way knocking me out.
Finals was Brad vs Jamie and in a suprise race Jamie managed to take the win with brad in the lead most of the race. It was a quiet party with most of the competitors pretty tired out and we headed back to Okere falls at 10.30pm driving for 20 hours to be back here by 6.30pm the next day!

West Coast

We arrived in hoki on Sunday after bullerfest prizegiving and got to bed nice and early(ish) to recover from a weekend of partying hard.
Waking up Monday morning all the rivers were cranking so we went and jumped on the styx which is a fun run with a not so fun walk in.

Tuesday it cleared up to a super hot day and we made our way up the Arahura with a massive group of 14! After like 3 hours of shuttling people up to the putin Sam, Brad, Ryan and I jumped on the river and started bombing it to try and pass everyone. It was pretty cool running some super steep stuff blind like that, and more or less sprinting down none the less. Arahura was a awesome run with rapids like curtain call, billiards and cesspit the highlights of the day.

Wednesday was a cruisy day to rest up before a big Thursday so we went and ran the upper Kakapotahi which is one of the coolest gorges I have ever seen. Everyone had good lines through postmans falls, airmail and we got to the supposedly sieved out tunnel rapid to find out that it had cleaned out and all bombed through to end a super sick run, and then attempt the hard man challenge at the take out.

Thursday was the Upper Hokitika, a run I was nervous about since I heard it suggested, and rightly so. The Hokitika is full on, sick, and scary. All was good and we bombed down through the class Iv-V section to the beautiful Gates of Argonath, which is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. There are too many sick rapids on the upper hoki to name but Mikeys drop is crazy, and definitely the biggest rapid I have ever seen that has been run. Its insane!

Got a few photos from over the last days but not a whole load.

Maruia Falls

On Saturday while the bullerfest slalom was on Me, Simon, Jamie, Sanga, and Ryan L went for a mish to huck the famous Maruia falls a few times. Il let the pics do the talking.

And they say you shouldnt boof Mariua!
Me on Mariua falls.

Jamie Garrod in flight

Ryan Lucas stomping it.

Simon Davidson with a nice freewheel

Oh yeah, and Ryan swum it.

Bullerfest 09

This weekend has been the annual Bullerfest kayak festival in Murchison, where 100+ crazy drunken kayakers have invaded.
After a 14 hour drive me and Phil Mac made it to Murch and got some sleep for the boatercross on Friday. The boatercross on the Matakataki (or something like that) is a really sweet race where 4 people race down a short stretch of class 2 rapids. While it may be some easy water there is always a bit of carnage in the battles that go on during the racing.
In my first heat I had a battle with Bernard who kept me honest the whole way to the finish, but I managed to take it out which means I get a easier next heat.
2nd heat, the course gets shorter and a compulsery slalom gate gets put up. I had a really good start in my 2nd heat and by the time I was at the crux rapid I had a comfortable lead and cruised the rest of the race almost missing the banner!
Back up to the top of the river the competition started getting harder as half of the slower paddlers of the day had been knocked out. My heat was up and found myself paired against someone we all called Lamborghini, and damn he was quick!
I had a terrible start and Lamborghini pushed me up onto a rock and suddenly I was last.
I sprinted to catch up through the crux moves and managed to spin the guy in front of me. I had to get 2nd to advance to the quater finals so I sprinted my way down the final 50 meters of the course and slammed the other guy, passed him, and got to the banner just behind Lamborghini! Stoked!
Quater finals I was up agains Sam Sutton, Jamie Garrod, and someone I think was called Pete.
Another less than excellent start saw me in 3rd place behind Jamie and Sam, with Pete doing everything he could to spin me. I managed to get him off my tail then sprinted to catch Jamie, and was gaining until just before the finish I took a bad line over some slow water and it was all over.
Finals was Sam, Tyler, Brad, and Johann with Brad taking the win and Tyler in second.
Then we went and paddled the Glenroy which is a short but fun grade 3 run.

Later that night, a big one at the pub. Murch goes off!