New Zealand - a general outdoor paradise.

The 4x4 van of terror loaded up and ready to roll... anywhere!

I like spending money and so far in New Zealand I have acheived this with flying colours. Not only have I bought a van and a kayak, but also a mountain bike. I think that maybe I should extend my stay and working options a little further...

Anyway, within one day of being in the country I hooked up with the local bike shop here in Queenstown and headed off on a biking mission. A really nice blend of steep downhill single-track greeted me in Skipper's Canyon, followed be an hours slog back up the mountain road. I was certainly not flying back uphill - 2 months either sat in a boat in the water, sat in a harness in the air, or sat on my backside drinking tea has ensured the wasting of my legs! Anyway, it was brilliant getting back in the saddle again.

My first river in New Zealand has been the Nevis river nearby to Queenstown. A fantastic and out-the-way run that requires a drive over some stunning hills remeniscent of the Dartmoor tors (except sunny and surrounded by snow capped mountains). I hooked up with Doctor Robin and Ben Hawthorne (previously of Desperate Measures) and it took us 9 hours to complete the run. It wasn't without drama, as at one point myself and Robin waited round a corner for Ben to appear after running an inconsequential corner he had got out to scout. Just as we were getting out to walk back up, Ben appeared on the riverbank, without boat. It took us an hour and a half of exciting rope-work and muscle wrenching to get the boat from out under the boulders and river Ben had managed to sink it under. I was just pleased Ben wasn't still in the boat. Still a glorious run, with a great big water finish running the Citroen rapid on the Kawarau river at over 300 Cumecs (cubic meters of water per second).

Since my inaugeration to Kiwi paddling I've managed to tick off the Waikia and two day Perth off my big list. Both incredible rivers with their own merits. The Waikia for it's first rapid, a 20 foot tunnel formed by a boulder off a 15-20 waterfall, which you cannot inspect. The Perth for being a 2 day helicoptor drop run (provisions being dropped at the hut roughly halfway down) with it's own dreamlike 15ft boof in the centre of the flow.

Colin so fast he's a blur on this staunch rapid on the Waikia

Colin actually pulled this off on the Perth. Nice one Col!

A pic of me doing the Perth boof.

Unfortunately the Perth also proved a little much for my unstable shoulders - pinned on a rock above a nastly choked grade 5 section, after getting a beating on the section above, I shifted to grab a line thrown to me and... washed upside-down off the pin to run the entire following section on my head, one hand on paddle. In trying to get hold of my paddle, whilst being thumped off rock, I subluxed my right shoulder (a partial dislocation) and bruised the ligaments. Luckily I could still paddle the half day out, but it was sore and I've not pushed the kayaking since - giving the shoulder a chance to stabalise again. Everybody else had a storming day, Danny, Colin, Si and Sean all hitting their lines and styling it down the river.

A spot of bouldering near Queenstown

Since then I've been enjoying the myriad of activities that New Zealand has to offer. Within spitting distance of Queenstown, where I have set up residence with Ben, Si and Sean, there's a whole host of outdoor classics. From climbing to frisbe golf, I'm hitting it all as hard as I can. I currently sport hands with all kinds of ridiculous holes and blisters on them - raw fingertips from bouldering on the sharp schist to a strange blisters on the sides of my fingers from frisbe golf. Nights out with the guys from Queenstown rafting is adding to the difficulty in training for the cross country marathon I have, for some unknown reason, entered. The Mototapu Icebreaker marathon runs through Shania Twain's estate out here and is supposedly the 'most beautiful marathon in the world.' I just hope I can appreciate this as I drag my sorry arse through it. We shall see - if you're not too busy on the 14th March, spare a thought for my little legs.

A 20 km practice run up the Routeburn Valley

I'm pretty sure that I should get my updates a little more detailed - but I'm currently spread so thin on many activities that nothing significant sticks out, it's all great! Hopefully I'll get some proper missions underway soon, otherwise I'll try and keep everyone updated with my general activities.

Sirkot expedition

My last major trip in Nepal was to Paraglide from Sirkot. I had a brief respite from the air to paddle the normal section of the Marsyandhi in lower water. It was good to note that although the damn has now been closed... there is still enough water to do the lower section! There has only really been one rapid lost.

Sirkot was cool, although I managed to turn up late to leave (I usually wake at 6am - not this time), there were lots of my new friends from Blue Sky Paragliding there. Kayla and Johnny from NZ being two of them. Guillaume also managed to get his wing in time and came along. There was a whole other mix of folk too.

The journey up was, well for want of a better description, bone-shaking. Although we had around 3 hours on the road (remember these are Nepali roads....) we then had to endure another 3 hours on a 4x4 trail. All this crammed into the back of a delapidated jeep, army style. I had the added pleasure of a huge gas cylinder between my legs. I have to admit that looking at the random grimaces of pain from those that hadn't visited back country Nepal before did put a smile on my face. Evil I know, but I've kinda got used to being battered around the place.

Once at Sirkot (a large cone shaped hill at around 2000m) we were greeted by a thousand curious kids and tremendous views. As we set up camp, some folk took a late afternoon flight and I helped get water and wood with our Nepali guides/ my friends Bhoudhi and Babu. On the way back I bumped into my instructor, Patrick, the owner of Blue Sky, David Arufat (ex Acrobatic world champion) and a couple of the other clients. They were off caving and I decided to join them, even though the only torch I had was a little LED at the base of my lighter. The caves were fantastic, we squeezed through holes and crawled through passages underground for over 2 hours. At one point we found ourselves in a cavern where bats roosted (not sure if that's the right word). They were only little bats, but we could get our noses to within centimetres of them and some were huddled in groups of 5 or more. Very cool. David had explored these caves before and is certain that if he can find a way down to the lower levels there will be a huge cavern. I believe him, they seem to go on forever.

Eventually we emerged, blinking and covered in muck, into the evening light. We headed back up to camp for dinner in the dark. I was reminded that crazy paragliders also make mental 4x4 drivers. Dinner was the usual genius combination of wonderful soup followed up by enormous amounts of Daal Bhat and wild pig. A bunch of Babu's special warmed rum punch lubricated and heated our evening by the fire. Mad stories were delivered by Setou, who turned out to be a film comedian of Nepali fame. His transformations of character were quite incredible and occasionally eerie by the fire-light.

The next morning delivered the sun-rise of champions. Once again a low level valley cloud underpinned the scene, as the sunlight slowly made it's way up through it's many hues and painted the himalayas. Quite breathtaking.

I snapped as many pictures as I could and then sat down to absorb the day breaking and let it envelope me as the others stirred. A large and late breakfast then set us up ready for the flight.

We had a briefing of our flight plan from David and then waited for the conditions to become right. The thermals rising up off the hillsides ready to lift us into the air were an indication it was time to go... Although my flight was fun, I didn't manage to get over into the next valleys. Some of the experienced pilots managed to make it all the way back to Pokhara. I landed in a large field and was soon joined by the other new starts. I then spent the next couple of hours on the radio trying to track down the other pilots that hadn't made it as far as Pokhara, picking them up in the van with our Nepali driver. Eventually we collected all those that hadn't made it and headed back to Pokhara ourselves. I opted for a large evening meal of steak with Johnny, Kayla, Guillaume and Patrick. I'm fairly sure there was probably some beer involved too....

Coming to the end of Nepal

It's pretty sad thinking that I'm going to be leaving Nepal soon. It would be sadder if I wasn't heading onto New Zealand, but this country holds a fair amount of history for me now, and friends too. I still have some updates to do, for my final couple of trips, but I might not get a chance to do this until NZ. I leave you with a pic and a poem that is typical of Nepal's mosty beautiful landscape...

The kings may rise from the sun
In gleaming fortresses,
But their little brothers deepen;
Veiled ghosts in the distance
Solidifying into existence.
These foot-soldiers march behind each other,
Out of step,
With crystal clouds lapping against them.
Legions of watercolours
Layering themselves
Into the days unfurling scene.