The start
Heading up the road
Grinding up the hill
Wellington harbour from Mt Kaukau
Dave, Joshu, Geoffroy, Me, Tim and Phil
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
LaMarche Epic 2010
The start
Heading up the road
Grinding up the hill
Wellington harbour from Mt Kaukau
Dave, Joshu, Geoffroy, Me, Tim and Phil
Friday, April 16, 2010
Chucky and Meredith's Wedding
Chucky and Meredith provided us with a good excuse to visit Canberra and catch up with some friends over a long weekend. The most striking thing about the city was how green the whole place was. The best thing about going somewhere you know and with lots of friends is that you can stay with people and borrow stuff! Aaron and I made the most of this and Macca let us stay and borrow Lisa's car (she was in Nepal) while Sarah and Dan loaned us their mountain bikes. Unfortunately Aaron's grand plan of going biking with Dan was somewhat foiled as Dan broke his collar bone the weekend before during a 24 hour race. So Aaron had to go biking with me!
The wedding was on Saturday and fortunately the 20% chance of rain did not eventuate. The ceremony was outside at Chucky's parents place in the bush just out of Canberra. The ceremony was very personal - and quite funny at times. Aaron and Macca added to the comedy with their nearly matching tartan outfits.
Aaron and Macca
The reception was out at a winery at Lake George. The wine and the food was great and it was really fun to catch up with several friends who were also at the wedding.
Helen, Sarah and Louisa
Aaron and Chucky
Dr and Mrs Smith's first dance
The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with a few of our other friends and we dropped in to our old departments at ANU. It was a fun weekend and sorry we didn't get around to seeing everyone. Thanks to Macca and Cally (the labrador) for putting up with us!
The wedding was on Saturday and fortunately the 20% chance of rain did not eventuate. The ceremony was outside at Chucky's parents place in the bush just out of Canberra. The ceremony was very personal - and quite funny at times. Aaron and Macca added to the comedy with their nearly matching tartan outfits.
Aaron and Macca
The reception was out at a winery at Lake George. The wine and the food was great and it was really fun to catch up with several friends who were also at the wedding.
Helen, Sarah and Louisa
Aaron and Chucky
Dr and Mrs Smith's first dance
The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with a few of our other friends and we dropped in to our old departments at ANU. It was a fun weekend and sorry we didn't get around to seeing everyone. Thanks to Macca and Cally (the labrador) for putting up with us!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Paddling the Whanganui River
Several years ago we visited Gill in Alaska and we had some great adventures. One of them was sea kayaking in Prince William Sound paddling in the fjords and up to the glaciers. So when Gill told us she was coming to visit us over Easter we tried to think of an equally cool adventure to take her on in New Zealand. The Whanganui River trip is a classic New Zealand "great walk" - although it is a paddle. The river goes from the volcanoes in the centre of the north island to the sea at Wanganui. We decided to paddle the 87 km from Whakahoro to Pipiriki in 3 days. This is the section of the river that goes through the Whanganui National Park and there is no road access to any part of the river. We took our sea kayak - Betty and hired a canoe for Gill and Anne-Laure to paddle.
Helen and Aaron in the kayak
Quick nature stop at one of the few beaches
It turned out that it was a lot harder in the canoe than in the kayak - so we switched around. We took a little while to also get used to steering the canoe. There are a series of ripples/rapids along the river, up to a grade 1+. There were several flat sections that were quite hard work as the river level was low and the water flow rather slow so we looked forward to the next rapid. One particular rapid towards the end of the trip was a little more challenging and although we didn't swim, Aaron and I had a rather good bath in the canoe and it took about 20 minutes to bail out all the water.
Paddling the canoe was also made harder by the fact that you were trying to keep up with the faster kayak. As a result we were probably one of the fastest groups on the river. So occasionally we managed to get ahead of the crowds and get the river to ourselves. This allowed us to appreciate the peaceful, beautiful, deep gorges with the subtropical rain forest hanging down.
Paddling through the peaceful gorges
The weather was perfect - cloudy, a little sunshine, not too hot, and a little sprinkling of rain on the last day. This, along with the fact that it was Easter long weekend, had brought out the crowds. There was carnage at the drop in point at Whakahoro and almost every night the campsites were overflowing with tents. Fortunately we usually arrived at the campsites early enough that there were plenty of spaces left for us.
Dinner is served!
Our second campsite was at Tieke Kainga, which is a Maori Marae. We arrived and set up our tents, and shortly after several important and elderly members of the whanau (maori family) arrived. To greet the elders the rest of the family held a powhiri (maori greeting) to which we (a few campers) were all invited to join in. This particular marae is very traditional as you can only get to this location by boat and the whanau had travelled down the river in their waka's (canoes) and the older and younger members in the less traditional jet-boats.
The marae at Tieke Kainga
Unfortunately the peace and serenity in the gorges was occasionally broken by jet-boats transporting tourists and hunters up the river. There were quite a few goats around and the hunters are allowed in to the national park to kill these feral animals. The tourists go to visit some of the sites like the Bridge to Nowhere, a short walk up from the river. The bridge to nowhere is all that remains from the pakeha (white people's) attempts to farm the surrounding land. They gave up farming even before the bridge was finished.
Gill on the Bridge to Nowhere - leading to nowhere!
There are also many sites along the river that used to be maori and pakeha villages. You can usually tell where they were by the poplar trees and a levelled off area - or the odd remnant of a jetty. The river used to be a main transport route from the centre of the island to the coast and there were steam boats that travelled along it until the early 20th century.
We got down to Pipiriki and there was a little bit more chaos with various tour operators picking up the punters at the end. We had a very nice dinner that night in Ohakune, after several nights of camp food. The final day of the long weekend we went up onto the volcanoes, fortunately for Gill the clouds lifted (just) so she got some views, and we went for a short walk to see the lava flows and water falls.
Taranaki Falls on the volcanoes
It was a great trip. It is a very beautiful part of New Zealand. It was even quite relaxing, compared to our normal adventures!
Helen and Aaron in the kayak
Quick nature stop at one of the few beaches
It turned out that it was a lot harder in the canoe than in the kayak - so we switched around. We took a little while to also get used to steering the canoe. There are a series of ripples/rapids along the river, up to a grade 1+. There were several flat sections that were quite hard work as the river level was low and the water flow rather slow so we looked forward to the next rapid. One particular rapid towards the end of the trip was a little more challenging and although we didn't swim, Aaron and I had a rather good bath in the canoe and it took about 20 minutes to bail out all the water.
Paddling the canoe was also made harder by the fact that you were trying to keep up with the faster kayak. As a result we were probably one of the fastest groups on the river. So occasionally we managed to get ahead of the crowds and get the river to ourselves. This allowed us to appreciate the peaceful, beautiful, deep gorges with the subtropical rain forest hanging down.
Paddling through the peaceful gorges
The weather was perfect - cloudy, a little sunshine, not too hot, and a little sprinkling of rain on the last day. This, along with the fact that it was Easter long weekend, had brought out the crowds. There was carnage at the drop in point at Whakahoro and almost every night the campsites were overflowing with tents. Fortunately we usually arrived at the campsites early enough that there were plenty of spaces left for us.
Dinner is served!
Our second campsite was at Tieke Kainga, which is a Maori Marae. We arrived and set up our tents, and shortly after several important and elderly members of the whanau (maori family) arrived. To greet the elders the rest of the family held a powhiri (maori greeting) to which we (a few campers) were all invited to join in. This particular marae is very traditional as you can only get to this location by boat and the whanau had travelled down the river in their waka's (canoes) and the older and younger members in the less traditional jet-boats.
The marae at Tieke Kainga
Unfortunately the peace and serenity in the gorges was occasionally broken by jet-boats transporting tourists and hunters up the river. There were quite a few goats around and the hunters are allowed in to the national park to kill these feral animals. The tourists go to visit some of the sites like the Bridge to Nowhere, a short walk up from the river. The bridge to nowhere is all that remains from the pakeha (white people's) attempts to farm the surrounding land. They gave up farming even before the bridge was finished.
Gill on the Bridge to Nowhere - leading to nowhere!
There are also many sites along the river that used to be maori and pakeha villages. You can usually tell where they were by the poplar trees and a levelled off area - or the odd remnant of a jetty. The river used to be a main transport route from the centre of the island to the coast and there were steam boats that travelled along it until the early 20th century.
We got down to Pipiriki and there was a little bit more chaos with various tour operators picking up the punters at the end. We had a very nice dinner that night in Ohakune, after several nights of camp food. The final day of the long weekend we went up onto the volcanoes, fortunately for Gill the clouds lifted (just) so she got some views, and we went for a short walk to see the lava flows and water falls.
Taranaki Falls on the volcanoes
It was a great trip. It is a very beautiful part of New Zealand. It was even quite relaxing, compared to our normal adventures!
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