Belated Merry Christmas!

Hello hello everyone! Hope you've all had a lovely christmas and things are shaping up nicely for New Years.
So i know you avid readers all like to see some photos every once in a while so i'll start with some of those!

As I think you all know, Sam, for some reason, bought a sea kayak a while back, which had to be built and then trucked up to Auckland. That all took some time, however on 21st dec. with it ready and waiting, we headed back up to Auckland.

So for the first time in about two months Sam donned his paddling kit, hopped in his shiny new sea kayak and paddled the four miles across Auckland harbour up to Takapuna.

From there we continued up north to Shakespear Park, Sam in his sea kayak, me in the van, for Sam's first night in his tent and me as back up, should he have forgotten anything.

The next morning Sam packed his boat, (something Im sure he's got quicker at by now) filed his first EVER trip log with the cost guard, and we parted way (for a bit anyway)!

Since then Sam's continued north, slowed by the wind, but by all accounts (texts and calls) doing just fine! Im led to believe even swag his way into christmas lunch on a yacht!
For my part, Im back down in Okere Falls for now, hanging out and kayaking, even on christmas day!

Good times!

Post again soon!
Doug 

At last!

So new author! Me! Doug! Hows it going every one?
Now this is just going to be a quick one, well really just post the much awaited (not very good) Kaituna video!

I will endeavour to post a gain soon to tell you all about the wonderful things going on!

Until then....hope you enjoy!

Kaituna Vid (not!)

I'm sorry, but there is no video (online for now) owing to many, many weak excuses, including the one where I don't know how to work iMovie or Doug's Macbook. Uploading the video is just like trying to get Doug to get ready before about 11am. I just can't work out how.

In the meantime, we've been pretty busy. I've been putting together the rest of the gear that I need for my sea boat, and Doug competed in a 6 hour mountain bike style enduro race on the Kaituna. The race started at 11am. Competitors had to sprint the 3km section, which don't forget features class 3/4 rapids and a 7m waterfall, before running their boats up to the bottom car park, finishing their lap with a jog back up to the start where they tagged their team mates so they could begin the next lap. The winning team got 24 or so laps, each competitor managing 8 or 9. A very respectable effort. A special mention however goes to Jamie Sutton (brother of Sam), who competed in the solo (or in my mind, psychopath) category. He, over 6 hours, completed 21 laps of the Kaituna, just 3 less than the winning team of three. Incredible.

Some photos can be found on Facebook, here.

News about the next month or so for Sam now. I'm planning on taking my sea boat on a paddle from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands, where I'm going to see how my shoulder feels and potentially carry on further. It's one of these, and I'm super psyched to get it packed full of camping gear and finally get amongst it in a kayak after two months spent out of a boat. This does mean that the blog updates are going to be even less frequent. Doug does of course have the password to the blog and he may well provide some updates too, but to keep up with him, you're probably best to look at Facebook.

Keeping track of me will be a bit easier. Each evening (morning in the UK) I'm going to fire off an 'OK' message on my spot beacon, which gets displayed here along with my location. The keener amongst you can also check out the charts en route for free at the Land Information New Zealand website here. Given enough motivation and boredom, you could overlay the two and have a really, really good time.

So it's Au Revoir for now,

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug.

Catch up

So it might have been a while since the last post... Our time in the last fortnight has been spent separately, but we're now back together just outside Rotorua, camped out by Lake Ratoiti which conveniently for Doug is only five minutes away from the Kaituna get on. Sit back, crack a beverage and let me explain what's been happening.

With the shoulder feeling a little stronger and with some time to kill in Auckland, we thought we would go and check out a local climbing wall. The Project is in New Lynn, in a little industrial estate in the south west corner of Auckland. It's owned by a guy called Zane and it's pretty small, but it features a few overhangs and a little roof at the back along with a campus board and some rings set up from the ceiling. A few months here and you'd be a beast.

A blurry pic, but it gives you a good sense of angle and size. Zane lives in a little room behind the wall on the left hand side. I never met him, or anyone that works there for that matter, because there's no reception. To climb there, you get a key out of the letterbox outside, let yourself in, rip your skin apart for a couple of hours (where did my callouses go?) and then leave ten bucks and lock the door behind you. No forms, no bother. 

After all that excitement, Doug went off for another couple of weeks at Fabian's YMCA centre just north of Auckland, and I disappeared up to Russell in the bay of islands for a couple of weeks. It's a lot of fun up there, and one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen - such a tease, because I've got no photos! You'll have to take my word for it.

My life up there was filled with hardship. Staying on a couch with a couple of locals, I spent my days doing a combination of the following; drinking beer, sailing on a friend's yacht and hanging out to the beach. Often all in one day. The weather was terrible though, it didn't go above about 22 degrees the whole time, but luckily I think over the next few months at least the weather is expected to be much, much hotter. Is it snowing in London yet?

Alright, before I turn all of my readers (both of you) against me, I'll round up this post with a promise. Doug is putting the finishing touches on a pretty good video of Kaituna boating with his international team of Andy (NZ) and Kudzo (JPN) which I'll post up on the blog when I next get good internet. Something to look forward to!

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug.