At last! After learning to roll a kayak, finally got out on the river on Saturday. Warick took 8 of us down the Hurunui – a grade 2 river. Learned the basics of moving around on a river – which are mainly ferry gliding which is where you point your nose looking upstream and then move horizontally across the river. The other major one was getting in and out of eddies – which are patches of static / slow water on the river. These allow for a rest!, and to scope out how to get through the next set of rapids!

The beginners – being Neil, my boss Andrew and I – all took at least one swim (I just had one ;) And I was really happy that when I did manage to capsize in the middle of one of the biggest rapids!, that I was able to roll up again really quickly! Excellent – really makes it so much more fun not having to pull the spreydeck and empty the boat etc…

Party on Sat evening, it’s barbeque season now – there’s at least one if not two barbecues a week to go to..

Then on Sunday had a game of squash with Thor – I’d not played in over a month so was really missing it.. And then went climbing with Jana and Mhairi at Britten crag (the sport climbing crag 20min drive away). I even led a route… but then wussily top-roped.

Here’s a pic of Mhairi on a – well.. supposed to be a 20 (I think) but I’d say nearer a 18 or 19. Nice climb though, and really a beautiful day to be outside climbing.

Wee development in work too.. I’m hopefully going to get to go to Wellington a couple of times a month to sit in on the planning meetings for rolling out a complete change in IT infrastructure for the Ministry. So that’s kinda cool. I also have the opportunity (if I want it) so spend some time – a month or two – working out of Wellington, Hamilton or Auckland. Of the 3 Wellington is definitely where I’d want to be… Also, getting a months unpaid holiday early next year sometime is also on the cards. I really have been quite disgustingly lucky with this job. But that’s ok ‘innit ;)

Hardly know where to start with this one. Saturday morning at 6am Mhairi picked Marcel and I up and we headed up to Murchison and met Dave (Bones) and Anthony (Goile) at the carpark by Mt. Owen.

Took us a wee while to get sorted, but at about 11:30am we were ready to start walking up towards Mt. Owen. It was quite a nice walk, even with the river crossings (I hate having wet feet all weekend!) through beech forest mostly.

Quite a steep track through the bush, and as we got to the top, the markers changed to cairns, which were quite a bit harder to spot.

Anyway, got onto the ridge out of the bush, contoured around and then went up a snow slope..

didn’t need crampons just kicked steps in and used the ice-axe for support. I must admit, it’s not my natural habitat, and I was looking forward to Monday evening for most of the day – though I did settle into it a bit.

This isn’t quite a map of the whole route, but you can see where we went ish – quite a steep ridge, most impressive cliffs all around.

So that was fine, up onto the plateau and pitched our tents, cloud cleared for a bit so we went off for a walk.. it’s open limestone on the summit so quite interesting formations – an excellent place, though we didn’t make it to the summit of Mt. Owen, electing instead to head back, cook dinner and get into our tents.

Marcel, Mhairi & I were sharing Florians tent. He had warned me (quite correctly as it turned out) that it’s a pretty shoddy tent.. well, not up to Real Weather.. so it was quite a wet night.

At about 11 am the next (Sunday) morning, with the visibility still bad, we headed back down the quite steep slope to walk out. 3 of us – Mhairi Dave and I, put our crampons on. It’s tricksy really, the ground was very wet and slippy, so crampons help.. on the other hand, if you get em snarled in a tree root then you can end up tripping yourself up and loosing control.

So we set off down the slope, quite slowly.

All going quite well until I heard a scream.

And saw a body go cartwheeling – just bouncing down the mountain. Fell over a bluff (10->20m cliff) and keep on going. Honestly, and no, this isn’t bravado, we all stayed utterly calm.. Dave was ahead of me and he got down to Anthony first…. he was concussed, badly bruised around the head, and not moving much. Dave did an excellent job of just getting down to him, starting talking to him and assessing the situation.

I started putting up a tent (it was raining a little – and was on a 35->40 degree slope).., and once Mhairi and Marcel had joined us – Dave put in anchors (used ice-axes hammered into the ground) and we put him in the tent secured by the anchors incase the whole tent slid away (a real concern). Mhairi had her mobile phone, and very luckily again, there happened to be a mobile phone mast on the mountain (otherwise would never have had reception). She got in contact with the police (who the Search and Rescue work through), gave them our grid reference and that was the start of help arriving.

We drew lots (short straw got to go) and Dave and Mhairi left at about 6pm (the fall happened at 11:30 am) after the tent etc. was sorted.. I stayed in the tent talking to Anthony (you’re not supposed to let someone sleep after they’ve been concussed.. I remembered some of my Rescue and Emergency care course) and at about 8pm Larry – the first of the rescue people arrived. With his two incredible dogs – Wolf and Mishke. They had followed the scent from Dave and Mhairi straight to us.. it’s hard to describe the relief once Larry arrived.. even though they couldn’t do much more than we had done.

It was such a relief though, I was still getting text messages on Mhairis’ phone, and as reception came and went we’d get bursts of 3 or 4 messages, one of which saying that ‘help was on it’s way’ and another saying that they ‘might not be able to make it in that evening’.. though I know now that meant that the helicopter wasn’t going to make it in..

So yes, Larry arrived with Archie and Ben, and they made hot drinks and food and set up radio contact etc..

The paramedic and a bunch of other rescue people arrived at about 3:30am. It took so long as they had to come from Nelson, and then walk in (4 hours by day – 5 at least by night – with heavy packs) finally relax a little bit – catch an hour ish sleep, and waited for dawn.

This gives an idea (I hope) of the steepness of the mountainside that we had to work with – it was taken in the morning

The weather still was bad, so at 9:30am Larry, Archie, Ben, Marcel and I walked down the mountain – we were all wrecked and the situation was under control..

Back at the rescue center, we heard that they had managed to airlift him out at 3pm.. and have just heard he is in a stable condition being held overnight in hospital!

It’s unbelieveable really just how lucky he was.. wearing his helmet (now battered)

certainly saved what could have been far worse injuries. When he fell over the cliff he must have landed flat on his back… but becuase he had his pack on it totally cushioned his spine, and I dread to think what it would have been like otherwise… not one broken bone.. can you imagine how much harder it would have been with a broken leg?!

Anyway – on a far lighter note; on the way back Marcel, Mhairi & I stopped at Maruia Falls, my housemate Warick has gone off this in a kayak

But heard from Anthony yesterday and he sounds like he’s on the way to a total recovery.. also, in the paper the Search and Rescue ppl were quoted as saying that “they did everything right” (which yes, I reckon we did)

Damn I’ve been tired this week! no idea what’s wiped me out! though it could have been the getting up at 05:45 on Tuesday morning to go kayaking in the surf out at Sumner.. that might have done it!

My friend Aoife – who I visited in Oz has just arrived,

Aoife is heading off to Dunedin and then to Queenstown to find work.. sounds like quite the adventure :) Excellent.. I do wonder about travel ‘n stuff.. I definitely need a holiday, while getting away at the weekends is great, I need a good month or six off!. For sure for sure.

There’s also a pic of the car I just bought… $1000… and it even goes ;).. wonder for how long exactly.. hmmm. Will see.

Getting away tramping at the weekend, though probably should head of kayaking.. quite tempted by that too.. Decisions decisions.

Oh, have asked my wonderful family to send over my Birth Cert and Police Record (as long as your arm).. want to apply for – or be able to at any rate – for residency.. Not sure if I am staying yet, but I want the option. Especially if there are more chilled out evenings with my friends here in the house – pot-luck-dinner on the balcony of the upstairs hut..

Excellent weekend, very lazy, which was great for a change.. Mind you, last weekend was kinda lazy too… Hmmm, best not be habit forming. Anyway, headed over to Little Akaloa (no, not Akaroa) for a ‘bach bash’ party. It a Birthday celebration for Tim – a friend of Daves that I did Harwoods Hole with back in April.. and Penny.

Great fun. There were all sorts of games played, loadsa performing arts, juggling, diabolo, poi and fire poi..

Firstly though there was the spud gun…

This was simply incredible. The plastic tube is just that, unscrews at one end, you shove a potato down the barrel, unscrew the bottom, spray in 4 ish short bursts of deodorant, and then press the ignition. It fires the potato about 200m. Literally. On just a few squirts of deodorant.. incredible really.

This is a pic of Penny doing poi. Poi – basically a streamer on the end of a rope, it’s quite beautiful.

They also did it at night – these ones have a wick doused with kerosene. I just love it.. though I think I’m going to practice with non-flammable ones first!

Lots of games at night – Irish Dancing (Strip the Willow). Brings me back to old secondary school dances. Sock wrestling was also done (opponents take one sock off, idea is to get the other one off.. quite tricky) and twister (and other forms of leg wrestling!). Indeed, quite a fun night really. Flo’s tent was put to use, forgot my carry-mat which was silly!

Then on Sunday – went for a wee walk and run (well, I ran about 2km trying to keep up with Mhairi, which was totally pointless really seeing as she’s far too fit! still.. good to be pushed) so she ran on and I had quite a nice walk around a couple of the bays, pics to come sometime if they turn out ok) Though I did buy a car. $1000, a hyundai Excel… haven’t actually had it delivered yet, but getting there…

Finally, the lads went out kayaking and got 24 dozen mussels.. which we cooked for dinner back in ChCh… so incredibly easy to cook – butter & garlic & onion (shallots) for base – get it really hot – chuck in the mussels and fry for 15 mins until they open, dunk in cream – and bingo. Quite delicious.

Good times on Friday – we had an ‘oscars’ theme night with work. Everyone won an award..

It was kinda fair.. mine was won for being the most likely to take a day off. Which is kinda true. Not for calling in ‘sick’ I might add.. no no, I’ve just taken quite a few unpaid days in order to get away on weekend trips. Well, that and kite-surfing I guess ;) Really is a hard life.

We then had copious amounts (well I was restrained) of nibbles and alcohol, and then watched Wimbeldon which was fairly nauseatingly chick-fliccy I must admit.