River Taniwha 1 - Ruth 0

The first Gorge trip of the season had been much anticipated by me for the last few months. The group were competent paddlers, all having been through the gorge before...yet we were a subdued lot lost in our own thoughts when Josh took us through the mandatory ‘rate yourself from 1 – 10 on how you feel right now’!

Optimistically I gave myself a 5/10 – like I said Optimist!

We all SO happy to be here lol

As I took to my boat – Lisa a fellow paddler from last season couldn’t quite contain her relief/joy/amusement at being the driver and not being in the water with us – I kinda envied her at that moment.

Thats about as good as the smile gets at this point!

Four times I’d previously been through the gorge and the last time I was on this stretch of water I was held up unexpectedly for some time and I fought to push those memories away telling myself it would be a-ok.

Rock Garden rapids (of which there are four) are famous for - well- their reputation to pick up paddlers, chew them up and spit them out – sometimes with themselves and/or their boats in pieces...so it’s always good to get these out of the way.

Rock Garden 2 had a blind drop which I went a little too right of centre and ended up in some of the biggest waves I’ve been in a long boat before...once through my legs were literally shaking! Rock Garden 3 I found the most technical of the day with some weaving to and fro to be had – dropping down into a big hole was a highlight (not lol) and although if you’d asked me earlier if I knew how to brace it would have been an emphatic no....well the brace I supposedly didn’t possess stopped me from taking a swim and I just kept on paddling to my exit point.

The rest of the trip was straight forward although when asked I would say it was a very average trip for me – ghosts of coast past came to haunt me that day– despite almost being laughed off the river when pointing out my ‘accident’ location...of course the river was running entirely different that day – not the benign, blink and you miss it corner that presented itself.

How many kayaks CAN you fit on one vehicle!?

Well avergae it may have been but as they say a dry run is always a good run, so perhaps its River Tanwhai 1 Ruth .5 !

Keep ya posted!

Easy does it

Easy week – one where you take full advantage of recovery and repair of your body through lots of sleep, good nutrition and general restfulness....

OR

go to the Races have a huge blow out, even forgetting conversations you have had with people (sorry if you were one of those – it wasn’t actually THAT much alcohol) be in bed by 8.30pm and opting to relegate yourself to driver on a planned paddle the next day due to serious lack of senses. Senses still intact at this point

Keep ya posted

Running around the volcano

With the onset of ‘race season’ i.e. post September - there are always clashes when it comes to racing – I had eyed up the 20km Crater Rim run as an event however due to clashes with frostbuster it wasn’t to be. So armed with my trusty flat mate Leah and fellow paddler Alma we decide to hit the Crater Rim a couple of weeks later.

Sleep in – the rare glimpse of a ‘normal’ life the multisporter gets on the rare occasion (or carefully constructed training plan allows).

Alma and I at the top of Farm Valley Track

So with this in mind we thought that a 10am start was very civilized…we forgot to check the weather and found ourselves coming up Farm Valley track in very hot conditions. As you’ll know from previous posts me and the valley track don’t usually see eye to eye and today was no exception. Coming off three hard weeks I felt pretty much every step – compounding matters was our first ‘proper’ hot day and very little wind in the valley.

On our way back down...some hours later

I was glad for the company and we saw a few complete performers out there as well. So all told not my best day out, however in this game there’s always a lesson to learn – with every action there’s a subsequent reaction – have a great run with Flag Pole the previous weekend, the body is going to need time to recover again – oh yeah and f you can’t take enough water on your for your run make sure you fill up when you can!

Keep ya posted!

Sometimes life happens...

And sometimes the lesson itself it not about how much training you can do – but it in fact how you can maintain a balance when other just as important (althou sometimes its easy to lose perspective) things take our time and attention away – it’s been a challenging month, you know the ones..getting hit with a paintball every other day – and you literally can’t see the wood for the tress cos you are covered in someone else sh*te! But as the wise people of the world often say what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger…hmmmm so here’s my last month..or so

Keep ya posted!