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.