Whitewater Kayaking

Yes, I am back from the dead. I know its been awhile, okay perhaps a very long while since my last blog update, but I have been much too busy enjoying all New Zealand has to offer to write a new blog update.

While I love all water based activities and have tried or participated in quite a few over the years (wind surfing, sea kayaking, innertube water polo, canoeing, sailing, surfing, outrigger canoeing, scuba diving, etc.). I had yet to experience whitewater kayaking. Well this all changed last weekend and now I am completely hooked! Its hard to imagine, but I think I like it better than all the other water activities.

I had heard about a whitewater kayak club in Wellington and that their pool sessions were starting last Thursday, so I decided to wander down to the pool (quite literally a 10 minute stoll from my flat) and check it out. I was enthusiastically welcomed and immediately asked if I was going on the beginner's trip that weekend. Not knowing about it wasn't an acceptable answer, so my name was added to the list of attendees. (Just earlier that evening I was wondering what I was going to do on the weekend since I had absolutely no plans, but I wasn't too concerned since something seems to always come up.)

On Saturday after a 3 hour drive to Mungaweka, we had a pool session then spent sometime on the river practicing in an eddy. I only had 2 swims in the river. On Sunday morning after a nurishing breakfast of cereal and waiting for the sun to get above the adjacent hills it was time to take down our tent and put our very soaking wet (from the previous day) paddling clothes on and hit the river. We then spent the next few hours paddling down the river learning what we should be watching for while paddling and practicing getting in and out of eddys will out swimming. I did really well and only had one swim!

Me in my kayak on the river.

The very steep and high clay river banks.

The trailer of kayaks

Lunch time on Saturday. Nothing like an upturned kayak as your cutting board and serving surface. At least the river takes care of doing the dishes!

While decending the river, we stopped at one point and there was a bank that you could haul your boat up and then slide down. I am sliding down in the second half of this video.

After this much too brief an introduction to white water kayaking I am hooked. There is plenty of mental challenge as you try and interpret the river and choose a good line in combination with lots of excitement. Don't bother trying to call me on Thursday night anymore since I will be at the pool working on my eskimo roll! I can hardly wait to get on the river again and really start building my skills so I will be able to eventually paddle the big, really thrilling rapids.