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December 3rd - Arrival in Christchurch

Andy:  Ecuador to Christchurch, New Zealand is one loooooong flight.  38 hours of travel  (Miami, Los Angeles, Auckland, Christchurch) later we arrived in Christchurch.  Unfortunately, we missed our connection in Auckland because of our dirty shoes.  

Yes, our dirty shoes.

New Zealand, rightfully so, likes to keep all foreign plants and animals out of their country.  Instead of drug dogs and narcotic agents at the airport (like in the US), they have "bio-dogs" and agricultural workers inspecting the incoming travelers.  They get particularly sensitive to people who have been on farms in foreign countries.  Apparently, wading through 1/2 mile of cow-shit in Ecuador to get to river put-ins counts as being on a farm. Imagine that.

So upon hearing this, the ag workers insisted on cleaning and disinfecting our shoes.  After all the cow-shit, mine needed a good scrub anyways.  

Our British friend Ian (now living in the US) was there to meet us at the airport.  After that we picked up our rental cars and headed to the motel.  My van is a stick shift (that you shift with your LEFT hand since the steering wheel is on the right).  Combine the manual transmission with driving on the left side of the road and you have the ingredients for a very challenging drive to the motel!

December 4th - Boat Shopping, Drive to Murchison

Andy:  New Zealand is one kayak starved country.  Boats get delivered once or twice a year from the US.  By the time the four of  us purchased our kayaks in Christchurch, we had virtually cleaned the South Island out of kayaks - and probably boosted the NZ economy a little too! Four hours of driving and we arrived in rainy Murchison and moved into our little cottage 20km north of the city.

Some observations from our drive:

• It is clear that sheep outnumber people in NZ
• Cows ignore you when you honk your horn at them - sheep run like hell
• Farmers don't like it when you honk at their sheep
• The further west you drive, the more rain you get
• Murchison is west
• In Murchison it rains.  And it keeps raining. Alot.

December 5th - Granity Creek section of the Buller & Lower Mataki

Andy:   Warmed up on a class III stretch of the Buller.  It really only had one main rapid, but it was a fun float anyways.  Then moved down to the Lower Mataki, a short (1 mile) run that has many fun little rapids.  We've started drinking tea ten times a day like all the other New Zealanders.  Just what I need - more caffeine.

December 6th - Buller & Lower Mataki

Wendy:  New Zealander’s speak their own language. Ian, a Brit that we are boating with, uses several of the same idioms…we are his “mates”; in this area there are lots of “wee beasties” (small flies, and there are!); if you agree with someone it’s “jolly good then”; when the tea pot runs dry, they ask “shall I freshen the pot?”   These guys drink tea throughout the day, morning, noon and night.  This must be the most caffinated nation on the planet.

We started the morning by joining Peter Kettering at the New Zealand kayak school.  We spent several hours pouring over the local guidebook and getting his opinion on all the runs in the area.  He explained how the heli-kayaking scene works, what the weather patterns are, and the places we’ll want to avoid and those we’ll want to visit.  Peter then guided us down the fun Buller Earthquake run, a class 3 run with some good play spots.  We had mid-afternoon “tea”, and then put in on the lower Matakitaki Earthquake run (short class 3+/4- run).  Detect a theme with the run names?  Several of the local runs were formed by landslides following earthquakes.

Once again we had a New Zealand dinner.  We’ll certainly gain weight on this stage of our trip.  My chicken sandwich had beets on it (and I hate beets…why would anyone put such a vile food on a perfectly respectable sandwich?).  Andy’s fish and chips required vinegar, and then there’s Ian, who had Shephards pie for the fourth time this week (ick!).  All meals came with “chips” (french fries), and local pubs are rated by the quality of their chips.  Poor Steve is still sick (maybe from the hamburger we had the other night…the sandwich was composed of a meatloaf patty, cheese, tomato, lettuce, fried egg, bacon, beets, pineapple, sautéed onion and mushrooms; not only was it 8 inches tall, but it was also disgusting, not surprising given the bizarre combination of foods on it).  We’re hoping he doesn’t have malaria or some other Ecuadorian malady, so he’s off to visit the local doctor tomorrow to make sure.

Andy: We've also been officially introduced to sand flies.  Ug.  they are clearly going to be our New Zealand nemesis.  They're everywhere.  Little black flies that look harmless, but oh how they're not!  They bite.  They hurt.   They itch.  We have bites on our hands, neck, and feet.  Stupid wee beasties as they say down here.

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