rafting(tec)

Last week from the 27 to 30th we had raft it was a lot of fun. on Tuesday we went to lake Brunner to learn some paddle strokes and what to do it the raft flips then it was off to the Arnold. it was rather low today. we went down taking turns at guiding.our tauter today was Koran i was finding it hard to get the hang of it but was good start. Wednesday we had a short classroom session then went to the Arnold again and did much the same stuff, I felt I went allot better.our tauter today was Southey .Thursday was cool day we went to the grey river (gentle Annie section).our tauter today was Phil Jonson. I went shit couldn't catch many of the Eddy's Phil told me to get so I was disappointed with this day.and on Friday we went back to the Arnold and it was real low but made for some good rock dodging.we had Southey again today, I went alright but i think i need more time on the guide stick to get the hang of it. hopefully next week I get better I plan to do raft next year so want to get the hang of it.

Mountain (tec)

on the 20 of September we climbed up mt Avalanche in Arthur's pass.
we left grey mouth at 7 30 am.And started walking at 945am we had lunch 3/4 of the way up. it is 1833m to the top over 4-5 kms. it took us 4 hours to get up  and around 2 30 to get down again. it was a beautiful sunny day with barley a breeze of wind, great day out. on the way up and down we were also being quizzed on avalanches and mountain travel.

Mountain (tec)

went to temple basin on the 9th to the 12th of august.
we lernt basic mountain skills including crampon walking(sound dumb but there is alot of different was to utilise the crampon and use mininal energy) avalanch prediction and rescue, multi pitching(including different types of anchurs) , ridge travel and offen the one most people get wrong decenting.
the fist two nights we stayed in the lodge on the mountain and on the last night we made snow caves witch was vey cool... cold. was sill warmer than out in the wind.
no epics on this trip. i took my board up got about 45 min until i couldnt see the jump, was still fun.

survival week

from the 13th to the 16th we did survival. the week started with self defense on Monday, witch was quite cool.our instructor is black belt in karate so a lot of the moves came from that. on Tuesday we went out for out door survival.the scenario was that we were going on a day tramp up the valley.so we didn't have much food nor tent or sleeping bag. we had to stay out for 2 nights, the first night we stayed as a group, witch was cool had a big shelter that could just fit everyone wet.though around 1am it stopped raining so i joint toddy out by the fire and slept with a bit of room. the next day we collected fire wood for the main fire to keep it going in case we couldn't get one going. then we started out solos this meant on talking to anyone inept our instructor Dave . we started at around 2pm i found a tree that had partly fallen over so decided i could just lean my walls up against that. As everything was wet i didn't try to get a fire going thinking as long as i didn't get wet i will be all right..i started making my walls out of Thatch but this was taking too long and i had my walls rather steep. i then went on to punga leaves, i only had a small knife with half serrated edge,this made it very difficult.i started off trying to climb the pangas rather than knocking them over but this was real hard.i then went on to tying my knife on to a stick and using the reach of that to cut them down.this worked wicked.i must have had round 50 panga leaves on my hut by dark. i made the door at the low end of my hut this way it would keep more heat in and even better if i did get a fire going .i then went and got some bedding to keep me insulated from the ground. after that i decided i wouldn't try to startd a fire and just go o bed. i had a dry pear of socks on, fleece pants, over pants, thermal, T shirt, fleece top and my swanni as a blanket.i had a candle beside me to help with heat and moral. i lasted the night eating my musily bars i had saved, i was kind of cold.but in the morning when i herd about how hard some of the others done it. i also thought of a chant... this is my swanni there are many like it but this one is mine, with out me my swanni is nothing, without my swanni i am nothing, i love my swanni and my swanni loves me....

we left our group shelter up so that if anyone was getting real cold and struggling they could go back and be dry with a hot fire. but i was disappointed with 6 of my group that went back. some as early as 7 pm not really giving it a go. two of the ones that stayed out even went to the length of running around to keep warm then going back to sleep then running again when cold.i was impressed by them treating it like the real thing. 

this trip to me seemed like of of the cheapest but one of the most important.learned allot and i think the group learned allot also.

and the best part when we got out of the bush the polly brought us all fish and chips $60 worth gone in seconds :) 

rock climbing (tec)

12 of June I took a trip out to castle hill for a day of bouldering with Adrien, Grace, Nick (Smegal) and Kat.
We left grey and it was pissing down but over the hill it was beautiful blue sky's. We got there and got climbing around 12 30 bouldered till 3 30. Was a great day  Smegal knew allot of climbs so he showed me around. I was working on a climb was having real troubler, Smegal showed me how to do it and i eventually got it it was cool as. And it turned out to be a V4 so was real stoked.
Got back from world class bouldering,castle hill at 6  flat mates cooked stir-fry on rice. now thats a good day.

kayak (sdl)

11 of June went down the crooked with Rhymie, Grace and Adrien.
The flow was higher than normal. i nervously paddled the first grade 3 rapid.
I borrowed a friends rpm max, was a bit big and felt weird after my normal boat.but got the hang of it.
no problems, was different paddling with the second years they did more  technical moves witch was good for me to follow. Rhymie and I ran the shuttle, only took us 35 min to get back to the girls.

ice climbing (tec)

Went down to Franz Josef glacier for 3 days of ice climbing.
the first day we drove down,walked up the glacier getting used to the crampons and did some basic climbing skills.
second day had a full day of building anchors and ice climbing.
last day went up learned the 'V' anchor and climbed on these.

 Toddy

Brent

                Robbie Williams

                                     Me with Robbie in my glasses

was great weather all three days and a cool as experience.

kayak (sdl)

Saturday the 4 of June went down the Crooked river.it was just high enough to do the grade three rapid at the put in so few of us gave it a go.was cool.
weather was good.river was cold as usual.
had a bit of trouble finding the farmer for the key to his gate. the farmers brother was there, i asked him and he went out to the truck but froze up because he had parkinsons and hadn't taken his pills yet.i helped him to the door but he couldn't get any further. Chris had found the key and came to get me.Chris got the guys pills then we carried him inside and sat him on his chair,the pills kicked in prity quick.He was quite great full.
i took my camera and got some cool footage..

        This is me doing a whoopy and a role

This is me doing the seal launch.

kayak (sdl)

Monday 6th of June. got 7 of the orecers together and went down the Miltown gorge.
It was low to normal flow, the features were a bit smaler than when we went with tec ,but still fun to play around in.

Robbie Williams.

started of a nice sunny day but ended up drisiling the last half of the river.
We had a bit of a upset doing the shutle, two of the boys ran back to get the vans but they had never done it befor.We ended up waiting 3 hours befor they came back.in this time we had caled a Dan to pick us up and do the shutle,hoping the boys wernt injured or realy lost.the boys came back as Dan came to pick up up for the shutle.Dan brang towls and warm raro for us to warm up. every think worked out fine in the end but could have been alot worse.
I did get some cool fotos of the crew too...

Grace Slee

Martiln Vandenbroeke

Robbie Wiliams

Chris harvey

river crossing(tec)

Went out to the arahura river on the 10/3.there was allot of swimming.which was good too. was rather cold but we had our wetsuits on.
gave us a good chance to gauge how hard it is to cross,even when looks shallow.
also held up a stick to simulate a strainer, worked real well.was hard to get over(much eazyer to avoid)

rock (sdl)

Sunday 24th went up to wanaka,met Mikey had 3 lead climbers,was a bit windy but not too bad.met astro that night.stayed the night in my van.then spent all Monday climbing.was a beautifully sunny day.all climbers were lead, astro did real well, since she hadn't done much. we tout her to absail down after a lead all went well. since it was a public holiday there was allot of climbers out.though this was fine since there was so many climbers out there. got some cool photos too...

rock week 2 (tec)

The first day we went over the pass to the world renowned castle hill for bouldering. it took around 2 hours to get there so we only had 3-4 hours on the rock,witch is enough if your hard out bouldering.its all line stone so the holds were smears and finger pockets.i liked this for my hand holds but found it real hard to keep my feet on.
day two and three we went to Charleston and did allot of setting up anchors top rope rescue.got a few climbs in,me and Kerrin also practiced lead climbing natural pro with a top rope as safety.
on the Friday we went out to Punekaiki and did some sweet as lead climbing and abseiling down. was real good i had a climb that pushed me but the other climbs were good for sum of the less experienced climbers.

another good week of learning.

term two goals

kayaking =paddle a grade 3 river.
rock climbing =lead climb with natural pro grade 18.
tramping=do a over night trap in SDL time.

bush(tec)

we tramped over the Lewis pass tops,we went for 4 days.the weather on the first day was not the best,was rather cold and rain in the evening.the night was windy rainy and cold,i didn't sleep very well.the next morning was also cold but by the afternoon the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the tramp.my group conceited of 8 students and one instructor.everyone in my group was rather fit and we seemed to make up alto of ground when we got going. For me the tramp was only hard on the firs day due to the fact we were going up hill(we gained 700m elevation over around 1000m.
nobody had Any accidents.
the last night was the most fun for me, we found a great camp spot right beside a dead flat lake.when we were looking out at the lake we saw a eel,and it hug around all night and we saw it again in the morning before we left.we even named it Christabel.our instructor(dav willams) is a black belt so that night we also did karati on the beach of the lake,it was very surreal.then just before sun set we lit a fire and sat around telling stories and telling jokes.

kayaking week two(tec)

on the 15march to the 19 march my group did another week of kayaking.alot of this week was based on rescue.we did a morning in the pool to critec our role,T rescue,H rescue and get introduced on how to do a deep water rescue. that day and Thursday we did all of this out on the river(Arnold). on Friday we went to the ardahuda,we put in at the section above the red shed.a new run for all the students.this day was about working in small groups and navigating our way safely down the river.we had an unexpected swimmer,witch was fun because we got to put the new rescue techniques into action. all in all another great week on the water learning lots.

kayaking week one(tec)

From the first to the forth of march my group at tec started our first week of kayaking. the first few days we were in the pool and on flat water.this was good for everyone to learn hoe to role.i learn to role on both sides but couldn't get the hand role. the next couple days we got to go out on the rivers.the first river we went on was the grey, it was good to get out there though there was little rapids we practiced our rolling in moving water,river navigation and getting in and out of eddies.we also went on the adahuta for half a day there was i big buffer wave close to the rocks with a eddie on the outer side.i tried a couple times to get to it on my 2nd try i flipped,tyred to role couple times(couldn't),so banged on my boat and waited hoping someone would T rescue me but didn't have enough time.yep i swam.the next day we got to go out to the Arnold.this was heps of fun.we practiced the same stuff again but this time there was alot of eddies in the middle of the river,boules and wave that we had a go at riding.there was a cool buffer wave,i rode it a couple times but on last try a flipped couldn't role,panicked and swam,i was real annoyed for not holding on for longer and trying again.
still had some good runs and learnt alot cant wait to go again!

bullerfest 2011

bullerfest is a kayaking and rafting comp 5 min out of Murchison. all the 2nd years in my cause and the tutors were raving about it.so i thought y not.we got there Friday night,was too late for the videos and drinks at the rec center but enough time to set up camp and get ready for a cool weekend.
Saturday morning up at 8 had leftover bread buns left from last night and some yogurt for breakfast.then went down to the local rafting center and helped pump up and load the rafts. we then made our way to the river and went down to the main rapid to check out the cause.wonded back up to the road and organised a rafting team with some of the others from TPP,we ended up with 3 teams who all made it to the semi finals. i had never rafted before so was little nervious not knowing what to do.we ended up having 3 races, got 3rd in 2 and first in the other. i had such a wicked time. me and  2 others got to take the last 2 rafts down the rapid so we could get them back onto the trailer,we paddled on one and towed the other it was prity funny.
that night there was a big party at the camp sight that the organisers had going.we had a few drinks and went to that,i was rather tyred so didn't stay too long
Sunday they had a cardboard and duck tap raft race down the river next to the camp sight two of my classmates and two tutors entered it was hilarious. that day at 3 they had prize giving none of our group placed but we did get some little spot prizes.they gave away heaps of spot prizes including 2 paddles and had a massive game of paper scissors rock to give away a kayak,it was wicked.
All in all great weekend out on the water

rock climbing at charlston(tech)

my first week of rockclimbing with tpp
this started at the indoor wall in greymouth.this was a chance to find out what level we are at and a chance to get back in to in.some of us also got a chance to do some lead climbing.
the next day we went out to charlston to learn about climbing, using natural pro gear and setting up anchors for top rope climbing. also worked on our technique.
it was a real cool climbing right beside the waves crashing against the rocks.
we camped for 2 nights was only a 15 min walk to the rock.
most of the climbs that we set up were not much of a challenge for me but was a good start for some of the other students that hadn't done much rock climbing.
on the last day it was raining so we went back to greymouth,and went on the indoor wall.at indoor wall we worked on abseiling. on my last climb i tried leadclimbing the big over hang which went onto the roof,didn't make it all the way but made it 2 clips further than the first day. this would have been one of the highlights of my week, used up all my my energy but was worth it.