Lord of the Rings

The day after the floods we paddled the Mangles (usually 2+), which was still super high and had become fairly interesting. Sandy went to Hokatika for a few days so the dream team was down to three but we boated with Gwyn and Tim, some local raft guides. Managing to fit 4 boats on the roof with a bit of imagination! In the afternoon we paddled the lower Matakitaki (3+) which was also super high and all the holes had washed out to form massive wave trains with no eddies! The day after that we set off to paddle the Glenroy, the hardest river around after the Matakitaki at a 4+!! The famous Mick Hopkins of NZ kayak school accompanied us as well which was great as he showed us the lines saving loads of inspection time. Gywn and Rusty (raft guides) came along as well as me claire and kirstin. Claire and I were shitting bricks and claire swam at the bottom of the first major rapid, managing to bump her head!! Its VERY close to the second, and harder major rapid and it was a close call. I portaged the second rapid but nearly had a heart attack as I had to ferry to the other side JUST above it which was super scary. We were definitely at the edge of our comfort zone and wont be back there for a while!! Since then we've mostly been doing some walks and training on the lower matakitaki- which has come down to very low now. On Saturday 4th we climbed up Mount Haast, dream team plus french Ben. It was a pretty steep climb that took us about 6.5 hours all together. The views from the top looked like Lord of the Rings Country. In the evening there were fireworks for Guy Fawkes at our campsite, which made me feel a little homesick, followed by a BBQ at NZ Ben and Cheese's. Today we did the Matakitaki then headed up to do another walk near Murchison.