kiwi experence

im not sure where to start here and 500 words cant do this trip justice

so my trip began in january i flew round the world to get here 2 days and one stop later i stepped out into the sun shine to find andy a friend from canada outside with to boats on the roof. i didnt get chance to see auckland it was straight off to okere falls to run the kaituna (a classic run on the north island) and only 4 hours after landing i was on the water. i stayed in okere falls with other friends from the ottawa for 3 days and durng those 3 days i went to a 30th birthday party, and a random house party the people here are really friendly and want to involve you in every thing. my next run was the wairoa its a pretty classic run with some sweet drops in.
i then went to the middle of no where for a few weeks and did more horse riding than kayaking although i did manage to get my first multi day trip in down the waiponga gorge and then in to the mohawka. their were only two of us andy and i so going was a little slow in places as we didn't want to take any risks it would have been a nasty walk out, but we found the most amzing place to camp a Maori sweat hut. also while on the north island i ran hukka falls its actually really easy at low flows and get harder as the flow gets higher i ran it a 90 cumecs which is getting pretty high i had a nice line although andy went down for around 8 seconds.

the south island is where things get really interesting and the west coast is by far the best place to be, the nature of the paddling their is tight and technical bolder gardens. our first river on the west coast was the styx its a long walk up took around 50 mins but was one of my best rivers by far. other well known rivers i paddled included the whitcombe, the arahura the phataroa and many more but less known. heli drops were amazing i think i managed to get around 10 heli runs in and the were all grate being in the middle of know where and relying on your skill and crew to get you down back to civilization was an amazing feeling.
towards the end of my saty i entered buller fest, the down river race was hard only over a grade 3 with one 4 in it but some of the best creekers in the world were entered, unfortunatly i only came mid tables but it was good fun and a new experience. the big air was called off dew to changing water levles and no where to set up the ramp but that was ok because it ment i could party harder on the last night. oh and muria falls was pretty easy and grate fun.

if you want a fun time grate kayaking and a good lifestyle go to new zealand and if your their for a while work in the bliss-stic factory as an ambassador 50 hrs and 500 dollars gets you any boat.

all in all new zealand was amazing and i learned a lot.

After nearly three months back in the UK, working nearly every hour god sent and not being able to go boating enough, it was time for another trip, only a short one this time unfortunately, destination the white Nile Uganda!

So the day of our flight came and realizing I had not really packed, I quickly got my stuff together and bunged it in my boat, a cockpit cover later and plenty of duck tape I was ready to go. We arrived at Heathrow terminal 4, with the boats on the roof, and before we had even stepped out the car, a then random guy called Chris was knocking on the window asking if we were going to Uganda, it turns out that there were six of us flying out there. After successfully checking in all of the boats and blagging one through as he didn’t book before November, we were on our way and the drinking began. We arrived in Entebbe slightly hung over and not well rested but jumped in to kayak the Nile’s mutate (crazy taxi thing) and drive to NRE. We arrived and stepped out in to paradise.

No sooner had we set up our tent, a friend (lachie) that I had met in Canada came strolling over beer in hand and told me to drink this and get my kayaking stuff together because we were going boating. He arranged for 3 boda’s to pick us up from silver back and off we went down to the put in, without even seeing the river before we got on and began our first run down the mighty Nile. As soon as the first rapid (rib cage) was over I could tell this was a whole lot bigger than any thing I had done before. Next up was Bujagali and that was even bigger, but the real shock came when we got to silver back its just a huge and I mean huge wave train, the ramp down in to it is 50 meters long and takes ages just paddling down it, the first wave must be 10ft high and is a big hit, after that its just a crazy under water ride until you pop to the surface and roll up right before the 4th wave (the biggest of them all) which picks you, chews you up and spits you out after. Let me tell you if I had looked at it I wouldn’t have run it, although the boda boda (scooter) ride back was the scariest part.

We spent the first few days running the day 1 section and playing at super hole which is small but chilled out and grate fun, after that we paddled the whole river all 46km of it, a great experience not to be done too often, as you arrive at the hairy lemon tired and sun burnt, well in my case any way.

The hairy lemon is a paddler’s paradise!
Basically it’s just an island in the middle of the Nile, a stones throw away from Nile special and there are never more than 10 people staying on it, plus its £7 a day fully catered. We spent most of our time here just surfing special when the water levels come up in the afternoon, chilling out all morning and occasionally catching a ride up to the start of the day two section, which starts just above kalorgalor and yes after looking at it many time’s I eventually built up the balls to run it, it was great fun, really easy and such a rush.

Uganda is great, I would say to anyone who has a bomb proof roll, get out there in the warm water and you will have the time of your life great boating and savage party’s at NRE (you can get away from that easily though, if its not your scene) oh and your boating will improve no end.

In July 2007 I booked a ticket to Canada to paddle the Ottawa River, after I had booked it I realised I had no way of getting to the river. I started posting on a local Ottawa forum called boatwerks, with in a few hours people were responding saying they might be interested in helping me out. A few days later and I had an email form a guy called john, who said he would give me a ride. So armed with the name john and an address I headed out there a week after making contact with this guy. When I landed I called him to check he was in, but his flat mate answered saying john was in hospital after dislocating his shoulder running dragon’s tongue. So I turned up at this guys house and met his flat mate, who welcomed me in to his home supplied me with beer and got me in contact with john, who was high on morphine at the time, but I was able to find out that he would pick me up in the morning and we would head to River Run.

The morning came and John turned up we loaded my boat on to his car and drove to the Ottawa. When we arrived I was introduced to every one who worked their as it turned out he was a video kayaker their. After a heavy night I was woken up at 7 am and told to jump on the put in truck and a guy called Andy would show me down the river while videoing the rafts. I had a fantastic first day and it was still high water so the river was huge to me but I made it down ok. Later that night Luke the manager of river run approached me and asked how long I was staying and if I wanted a job, obviously I said yes and I started working as a video and safety kayaker.

While there I got the chance to do some real cool things, I paddled the Ottawa River every day and was paid in boat form and cash and picked up a fluid nemesis about a month in to my stay. I took a trip to Montréal to paddle la sheen. I ran the seven sisters which are 7 waterfalls in a row but with pretty low consequences and only around 25ft high.

The highlight of my trip by far was running a 1 km section of grade 5/ 4 creek called the dumoin in Quebec. We started out from river run at 7 am, picked up a few creek boats and headed off to the river that we were told it was at a grate level. We drove for about an hour, then the road we were on turned in to a dirt track and was a busy logging road, we sketchily creped along it for another hour and arrived at the start of the creek, it looked huge and scary to me but we kited up and started to scout the river, after picking our lines and setting up safety. Stefan ran it first, I was up third and began my run, it was fantastic, and it took us a while to make it down, but was grate fun and a grate sense of achievement.

My whole stay in Canada was amazing I learned so much and made some really good friends. Oh and there was always a party.