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December 7th - Hospital trip to Nelson; Glenroy and Matakitaki Earthquake
Runs
Wendy: We started the day by doing the Glenroy River, the hidden
secret in this area. It starts out with class II-III eddy/boulder hopping
in a wide open but freezing cold river, and eventually enters a narrow gorge
with some class III and IV drops. I was nervous about the drops, given
that we couldn't see the bottom of them and had to trust Peter's instructions
about what moves to make. I flipped on one drop and scraped up my fingers,
but besides that it was a fun and very scenic run. We hit it at a medium
to high flow.
When we went back to the NZ Kayak school to have some tea, the ghost of sick
Steve appeared. He joined us for tea and lunch, but was still feeling very
feverish, so he and I decided to drive to the next big town, Nelson, for an ER
visit. Mick, the director of the kayak school, had gone to hospital that
AM and was being checked for malaria and typhoid (he had just returned from a
trip to Borneo), so Steve was nervous that he had picked up some bug in
Ecuador. Ahhh, socialized medicine. He was in and out in 3 hours,
blood tests complete, free of charge. The doctor thought he had picked up
a virus while traveling, and wasn't concerned about tropical diseases.
Phew! While we hung in the waiting room, we calculated that 8 out of 10
people visiting the ER did not wear shoes. Very strange place indeed.
While we were at hospital, Andy, Ian and Peter took an evening run down the
lower Matakitaki earthquake run.
December 8th - Mangles River
Wendy: Ahhhhh, surfing. I've never really surfed a good
wave, usually because I blow my boat angle on the entry and end up flushing off
the back. The boys make it look so easy, but it's never been for me.
Today I had a break-through! We paddled the Mangles river, a 6 km easy
class II-III run that is known for good playing. The river is small, so
you need a good rain to run it, and lucky for us it rained last night. We
played our way down, until we got to a great wave train. The boys in their
play boats were surfing up a storm, and I (in my Inazone 230) was blowing off
the back as usual. After 20 frustrating minutes, Steve got a cramp and
needed to get out to walk a bit. I jumped into his boat (an EZ), and guess
what? I got on the wave and made about 5 cuts back and forth on my first
try!! All this time I've been thinking I lacked the technique, but put me
in a surfing boat and I guess I know what to do! It was so fun! I
was even able to spin the boat 180 degrees on one surf, but that was about
it. I think the grin on my face lit up the valley. We came home and
promptly ordered another EZ from Christchurch, which should arrive on the
14th. We seem to be collecting boats!
December 9th- Glenroy and Matakitaki Earthquake Runs
Wendy: A quick drive up the Glenroy valley reveals that the flow
is similar to the day we did the run with Peter 2 days ago, so we hop on it
again, this time sans Peter (who returned to the Hokitika area; we'll hook up
with him again next week). Once again a very fun run, and once again I
flip in the same rapid as before. Argh. That dang curler coming in
from river left gets me every time. This time Andy flips as well, making
me feel better about my line.
We spend some time eating soup in a cafe, and around 5:30 decide to do an
evening run on the lower Mataki. It is light here until 9:30, how
cool! We put on at 6PM, are off by 7:30, and munching another dinner of
something and "chips" (as with all meals in New Zealand) by 8PM.
Oh the life of a river bum.
December 10th- Glenroy and Matakitaki Earthquake Runs
Wendy: The boys are demo-ing creek boats in preparation for some
of the harder runs on the West Coast-Hokitika area. I've decided to stick
to the class III-IV runs, and won't get a bigger boat for those runs. As a
result, they want to try the boats on the runs we've been doing, getting some
practice since the boats are longer and more tippy than their play boats.
We repeat yesterday's runs. The rivers are a few inches lower, but just as
fun. I finally make the nemisis Glenroy rapid without flipping (slight
left boat angle was the key), although this time Steve takes a good flip and
tweaks his thumb and shoulder. The rapid is a bummer, because
you exit down a narrow shoot, with a rock wall on river right, a curler coming
in from the left, and a bunch of shallow rocks right at the bottom. The
curler flips you into the rock wall, which then shoots you down the shoot into
the shallow rocks, mangling your appendages along the way. Steve is
bummed, hopefully his shoulder isn't too bad. I guess I got off lucky with
my last few flips there.
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