Andy: Another day, another helikayaking trip. Life is most definitely good.
Smaller group this time: Chris, Peter, Stefan, and myself. Wendy had a high-speed, underwater, close encounter with a rock on the Toaroha , so she's taking a few days off to heal - while also keeping the local masseuse in business.
The Lower Hokitika river - short, but very, very sweet. A ten minute flight delivers you to a narrow, breathtaking gorge with aqua blue water flowing through angular boulders. The water was relatively high, making for 3km of pushy, boily, class IV rapids until the confluence with the much larger Whitcombe river. 7km of easy floating delivered us to the take out.
The highlight? the water color. check out the photos below.
Wendy: I'm a bit stiff and sore, so today was a day of shopping and getting my hair done. Anyone remember the hair salon in the movie Steel Magnolias? That's where I was today...I learned that Anna is indeed coming home for xmas, despite everyone's guess that she was too important to holiday in a small town; John is gay, very very gay, about the xmas gift he got for his wife (it took me a second to figure out this comment was about John's emotional state, not his sexual one; he wouldn't tell us what the gift was); Mary Ellen is not making a ham for xmas this year, because her family has come to expect this and she is trying to stir up some excitement; and finally, Denise decided to go a shade darker with her hair color this season, but she was nervous about doing so. The entire salon quieted when James, my hair guy, asked me where I was from, but other than that I did not have to disclose any gossip. I guess foreigners get a break.
We had another dinner party tonight, had Peter, Stefan, and Chris over for some pizza. I asked Andy to pick up some salad at the market, and he came home with the makings for coleslaw and roasties. Coleslaw for a dinner party? And what the heck are roasties? I gave him a hard time for his choices, but actually the coleslaw was quite good, and the roasties were a bag of veggies in a garlic butter sauce that turned out yummy as well. Peter and Stefan shared stories of their boating trip to Nepal 2 years ago, and we learned that Stefan has the reputation of being a hunter on his boating trips. Per Peter, he has killed a goat (with his paddle); geese (chasing them on a gravel bar until they collapsed from exhaustion); ducks; and a sheep (with a machete he just happened to have). He attempted to trap a wild boar with his throw rope and paddles, but it got away. Mental note to self: bring my own food on any trip I do with Stefan.
The view of the hardest rapid (formed by the obvious landslide to the left) from the helicopter |
Nice place to land a helicopter |
This is the REAL water color! One of the most beautiful canyons I've
ever paddled |
|
Stephan about to head over a drop |
|