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.