Craig and Tanya

Craig is a chap who we met at a boat ramp in Pahi, an hour or so up route one from Auckland. We later found out that he was a landscaper by trade who moved out of Auckland, up to a farm just north of the local town, about 7 years ago. What led us to hang out a little with Craig was his V8, home built, jet boat.

Since his missus, Tanya, wasn't going to get in it, he invited Doug out for a ten minute ride. So while I sedately munched on my sandwiches, Doug roared up and down the upper reaches of Kaipara Harbour at 50 knots. You could hear the 350 chevvy engine from about 2 miles away, despite Craig assuring me (or rather Doug) that he was holding back from the top speed of 70 knots. He built the jet boat because the two successive top of the line, 850cc jet skis that he'd bought and sold previously just didn't quite cut it. Right.

Having blasted his jet boat back onto his trailer (no winch required), we drove back up to his house, on a dirt road near the local town, and I stuggled to keep up with his old jeep and trailer without slightly terrifying myself. It's a definite trend in NZ, that even if the vehicle in front of you has successfully negotiated a bend at speed, be it a 50 tonne logging truck limited to 90 but actually doing 110 or a souped up ute, it's no guarantee that you can do the same.

Once Craig had cracked us a couple of beers 'Sorry about the Ozzy beer mate, but it doesn't taste too bad really', he rolled what we assumed to be a cigarette (it wasn't) and poured his first rum and coke of many. He then proceeded to talk excitedly about his house (which had arrived on the back of a truck), his land, his fruit trees, his van, his sheep, his cattle, and eventually, his guns. All 5 of them. It was rapidly turning into the manliest day of Doug's life.

The 12 gauge Remington Gold Trigger made a hell of a bang, but Doug managed to miss Craig's peach trees. They were worth more than his life. You may also notice in the video that Craig was at this point sporting a little metallic purple pipe. Not Tobacco.

We sat and chatted in the afternoon breeze, before we made our excuses and left, rolling back down the narrow dirt track with a fresh horde of a dozen eggs, 8 lemons and a sprig of fresh parsley that Tanya insisted we take. 

NZ hospitality at it's finest.

Catch you all soon.

Sam and Doug.

Photo montage!

It's been 13 days since I popped my shoulder now (and almost as long since I last updated the blog - shocker!), but this time Doug and I are going to make sure that I rest properly before getting back on the river. Physio is booked soon too, so it shouldn't be long before the shoulder is back up to full power. It already feels much better without any physio so the signs are good. With nothing better to do, we have spent the last 2 weeks touring around the northern part of the north island - driving up the Coromandel Peninsula, heading out west to Piha and then going through Auckland and making our way up the east coast towards the Bay of Islands via Russel. Here are some pictures.

This is a shot of the beach near Cathedral Cove. You can see a cave bored through the cliff on the right hand side of the photo; that's the only way to get to the shore of the cove without getting wet. At about 30ft high and probably double the width, it's quite a spectacular entrance. It's a long walk down from the car park and according to my legs an even longer walk back uphill.

This one is to appease my Dad, who was asking for photos of the terrain. Here is some terrain. This is the main road into Coromandel from the North - steep, windy and a little too narrow. All of the 'main roads' in NZ are like this, the only guarantee that you get being that it will (mostly) be paved/sealed. The state highways are generally more forgiving but not much better. 

If you turn off the main roads however, you don't know what you're going to be presented with. Frequently it's a 'metal road', or dirt road to everyone else in the world. Again; steep, twisty and narrow is the order of the day.

They aren't always bumpy though. In fact this one could hold its own against most of the highways in NZ. Yep, that's a grader up ahead maintaing the road and I'll go on record when I say that overtaking it by pulling into the ditch it leaves on the other side of the road was one of the more 'interesting' experiences I've had since I got here.

Well, once again I'm running out of time on the internet, another photo update will come along soon.

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug

Rangiteiki

So, a week ago, a few days before I (Sam) popped my shoulder on the Kaituna, we headed down to Murupara, just outside Rotorua, with the aim of paddling the Rangiteiki. Leaving the camp site at 9, a massive achievement for Doug, who wasn't quite fully conscious until mid day, we drove up to the get on. This was possibly the most dangerous bit of the day, as the section of the river that we were paddling (the Jeff's Joy run) was only accessible by private forestry roads. Private forestry roads are nuts. As we trespassed along, we encountered what the guide book describes as 'high speed logging truck death', characterised by the a generally liberal attitude to speed limits and driving on their side of the road from the fully loaded 45 tonne trucks, some of which have un cut trees hanging 30ft off the back of the trailers, which of course swing into your side of the dirt track whenever they negotiate a left hand bend.

We eventually made it in one piece, and parked the van a little way up the dirt track to the river, where we were relatively sure that we could get it back out. Getting on, we had 200m or so of flat water to warm up on before dropping right in to the class IV, the first bit of which was an easy, bouldery, narrow rapid called Rock A, which has killed people in the past (just don't hit Rock A). Rock B soon followed, before we dropped through Fan Tail and then Jeff's Joy. More Class IV. On Jeff's Joy, Doug tried to eat my boat.

Mostly intact, we proceeded down the rest of the river, 8km or so of beautiful, narrow read and run class III. We dodged all the trees, got to the rafting get off, and I began the 2.5 hr hike back up to the main logging road then back down to the river to the get on! Some fun off roading later, the gear was all back in the van, and we headed back up to Rotorua to get on the Kaituna! More on that later.

Catch you all soon.

Sam and Doug.

Dislocated

No images again on this one, I am sitting in a cafe in Coromandel with about 10 minutes left on the internet, so what you're about to read is a super quick piece of speed blogging in which I hope to cover the last week or so. Apologies for the poor grammar (you won't notice the difference).

So what rivers are around Coromandel you ask? None at all, apart from a class IV run near Auckland. We're here clearly not here because of the boating then, we're here because Sam didn't listen to his body, was way too keen to go boating, and dislocated his shoulder on the Kaituna. Muppet! After initial aches and interesting crunching sensations on the first run down the Kaituna, I thought it'd be a good idea to take a few days off, which I did. But then we went out on the Rangiteiki (which was awesome) and felt good enough to go down the Kaituna again (which is also awesome). One mostly unintentional beating in a hole at the bottom of the river and out pops the shoulder and here we are!

The plan now then is to relax for a little while, take lots of paracetamol (yum) and hang out in Auckland for a little while, playing at being tourists. Auckland is also where I'm going to get some physio to sort my shoulder out once and for all.

And there it is folks - amusing videos and more in depth river reports coming soon. With some photos!

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug