The waters of Southland New Zealand

 Camping in Milford Sounds

I have been down in Queenstown for a few weeks now hanging out with friends, doing some hikes, riverboarding and kayaking.  Liz, my friend from Wet Planet, is working at Mad Dog River Boarding and has taken me out my first couple of times riverboarding which has been a nice change.  Its fun being uncomfortable in an environment that you are generally quite comfortable in.  The section of the Kawarau - the Roaring Meg - is not difficult, but has a lot of water going through a very tight canyon, so there are lots of strong eddylines and boils that tug your flippered feet and body board in different directions. 

 

Lake Wakatipu

I rode along with a rafting trip on the Shotover Canyon, which was a fun sunny day out.  The rafts provided the usual entertainment and the run ends with a 100 meter long tunnel from the mining days that opens right into the final and unscoutable grade IV rapid - Cascade.

 Charlie, Liz and Moose rafting the Shotover

 Me watching the rafting action on the Shotover

Photo: Liz Arnold

Raft entering the Tunnel on the Shotover

Liz and I had been wanting to do a long day on the river and get a chance to seen the infamous Nevis Bluff rapid on the Kawarau at river level.  We put in above the bungee bridge and ran the Dog Leg section, which had about 200 meters of HUGE waves.  Fun stuff.  She brought along her co-worker Ian "Twiggy" who was keen on scouting and possibly running Nevis on a riverboard.  Being the only kayaker, and not feeling 100%, it didnt take long for me to decide to portage at least the 1st two drops.  Ian fired it up.  Both his fins were ripped off, and he probably spent more time underwater.  Nevis is huge.

 Nevis Bluff from the road above

1st drop of Nevis Bluff at river level

Twiggy about to go deep on the second drop of Nevis Bluff

Liz and I headed on down to Citroen Rapid, which we had pre-scouted on the way out.  Liz styled it on the riverboard, I followed behind her with a good line through the fun, big water rapid.

Liz scouting her line on Citroen

My birthday was soon approaching and I was itching to get out of town and do something fun.  Moose was able to hook up 2 tandem sea kayaks for a few days.  So in a day we made quick plans for food and logistics of a 3 day sea kayaking trip in Milford Sounds - Fiordland National Park.  Liz and I had never been in a sea kayak and Moose and Charlie had one practice day in Lake Wakitipu.  The weather was looking like it was gonna hold so we made it happen.

 Liz and I ready for action!

Choppy first day!

The first day was a beautiful drive to Milford Sounds, but didn't put on until around 2pm so the water was quite rough with a strong headwind.  This area is spectacularly beautiful.  Think of a bigger version of Yosemite with fiords reaching out into the Tasman Sea.  We spotted a protected bay for a fall-back option because there are only a few places where you can get out of the water.  Its mainly 100-500 meter sheer granite cliffs dropping right into the sound.  Found a small spot to camp above the high tide line and boom - home for the night.  

 Birthday Camp!

 Harrison Cove - Where I spent my 27th birthday

We enjoyed good food and drink and even Dutch Oven brownies for my birthday.  We realized the sea was much calmer for paddling in the morning and evenings, making better time the next day passing under the many looming peaks and magnificent waterfalls.  Dense fog rolled in and made things interesting.  We made for Anita bay, the next known landing site.  We ventured in the ocean briefly, but were cautious due to fog and rising winds.

 

Fog rolling into the Milford Sounds

Anita Bay - Camp Two

 Charlie and the stone building at Anita Bay

Escaping the sandflies!!

Milford Sounds local

Milford Sounds - Fiordland National Park

Cheers for now - more updates to come!

Two Days on the Perth

Curt - Some Rapid on the Perth

Photo: Rachel Curtis

I have heard and read a lot about the Perth River, and now I have finally had a chance to experience the raw beauty and power of the Perth for myself. No where have I been where the evidence of the tremendous forces that shaped a landscape were more obvious than making a trip down the Perth River.

The boats arriving

We had our overnight gear dropped off at the Scone Hut, while the 7 of us and our boats were dropped off about 2kms up the Upper Perth from the hut. Here the Perth is steep, tight and technical creek boating. Most all of the drops require scouting for a clean line and the ever present sieves and other nasty spots. We had a great flow for this upper section. Rachel and I scouted upstream while waiting for the next loads of people and gear to arrive. The evidence of the glacial activity that shaped the riverbed is everywhere. Huge granite boulders stacked precariously upon one another make up the majority of the streambed and river banks. The evidence of recent high-water events was also very obvious in the debris deposited amongst the boulders.

Dany - 1st drop on Upper Perth

Ken - Upper Perth

Rachel - Upper Perth

The action starts right away chasing the ever disappear horizon-line. We broke into a group of 3 and a group of 4 to make things easier, but we were quickly jumbled again as the drops required good scouting by all. We had a nice afternoon making our way down to the hut and enjoying a relaxed pace knowing all we had to do was get downstream to our gear, make some food, drink some wine, relax and repeat.

Charles - Scone Creek

The upper section went well and we had great flows. The Wharoaha gauge was reading about 110 cumecs, (using the guidebook correlation puts the Perth at about 44 cumecs - which might have changed from recent floods - b/c there was plenty of water in the section above the Hut and from the Hut down was pretty juicy the next day!) There was even enough water to run Scone Creek. I scouted the drops and wasn't seeing the lines or feeling the motivation to get back in and out of the boat to scout every drop. This section is good though and the drops are bigger and steeper than the upper section of the Perth.

The evening in the hut was enjoyable. We had a good mixed bag of folks - Me, Ken from CO and Charles from NC, two Germans, a Canadian and Rachel- the only kiwi in the crew. Michell- one of zee Germans provided endless knowledge on chocolate and chocolate producing companies, and just about anything else really. We ate hunks of cheese and drank wine from our dinner bowls and followed our noses trying to find hot pools but only discovering a few warm springs.

The hut life - drinking box wine from bowls

Morning was great. No loading boats on cars, calling helicopters, making plans- none of it, just eating some food and going kayaking.

 

Put-in Day Two

We loaded up our boats and shoved off around 10am. There is 1-2kms of warming up when putting in at the hut. This was nice for getting used to the loaded boat. This is also when it dawned on me that I haven't actually ever paddled with overnight gear in my boat. I guess the Perth was pretty much as close to a trial by fire as you can get. Just as I thought I was feeling pretty good, the bottom dropped out and the river just kept getting steeper and steeper. My boat was feeling sluggish and heavy in the stern. Ferrying and carving maneuvers that are usually effortless were starting to wear me out. The water was cold, big, pushy, and drinkably crystal clear. Rach and one of the Germans had run the Perth before, but at much lower flows, so it we were treating it as a first descent. Some rapids were boat-scoutable, but there was a lot of in and out of the boat climbing as much as 100-200 meters downstream to see what all laid ahead and where the next big eddy might be. The scouting in and of itself also started getting tiring - getting in and out, running up and down - mentally as well as physically. Trying to put together all the pieces of these long complicated rapids and keep these pieces together in time to get in your boat and connect the dots. The horizon lines feel like they never end. There are no waterfalls on the Perth. The gradient comes in the form of long, steep, pushy boulder gardens that lead into more of the same with very high quality 4-8' boofs everywhere.

Ken gettin' the goods

Photo: Rachel Curtis

Dany - Knuckle Grinder

The Perth is real kayaking. Most of the paddling I have done in the last year was spectacular, but was generally on something familiar to me or someone in the crew. Going out on the Perth with only a small amount of prior knowledge was a real adventure. The very soul of kayaking. Immersing oneself in an environment so remote and demanding - yet equipped with the tools necessary to come out the other end. We didn't see anyone else the second day, no hikers, paddlers, fisherman, or helicopters.

Scouting...

Curt Boofing...

Photo: Dany

The action stays steep for about 3kms and the eases of for a bit. The final gorge has 4 or 5 fun grade 4 rapids in a supper scenic schist gorge. I was so drained i didnt even think to get out the camera.  The Perth is an awesome run.  Maybe not the best place for learning to paddle with a boat full of gear, but definitely awesome!  I look forward to heading back, maybe for a day trip with a light boat next time!

Looking back at the final gorge...