Sunny Norway

 Alright. So the last couple of weeks have been fairly action packed. After our stint at rural Swiss living/illegal alien work, Soph, B and myself went our respective ways to the next step of the adventure. My part involved getting myself, my gear and my kayak on a train from Switzerland, (moderately accommodating with regards to kayaks) to Germany (absolutely not accommodating for kayaks.) Having said that, I soon discovered if you are persistant (pushy and belligerent) and have the strongest kiwi accent you can manage ("na bro she'll definitely fit in that little gap no worries sweet as bro na na it's all good....") that the unbending German mentality will give way under this unopposable/unitelligible onslaught.

 The amazing government gardens in the Swiss capitol of Bern where we were definitely not working as illegal migrant workers....

 

 The last adventure in Switzerland - some cool tunnels from when the Russians had a war with the French. In Switzerland. Ages ago. Aah Europe.

  

Scouting a rapid from the Via Ferrata (random handholds put all through the mountains so the army (Swiss) could get around more easily for when they were fighting?? in all the wars they have..)

So anyway I made it to Deutschland and got picked up by the brothers Sutton in Kaufbeuren where Jamie and I proceeded to get far to carried away watching the Germans play football and ensured that the 24 hour drive we were about to embark on the next day was as terrible as possible. 

We made said drive - the less said the better in some sort of state and got to Voss to meet up with everyone who has come here for the biggest extreme sports week in Europe?? Needless to say it has been a triumph of lifestyling and the boys firing crazy stuff up constantly.

 

Straight viking - Anton Immler filming at the big Etsingdal drop (probably spelled that wrong - Norwegian words are tough) The boys did a bunch of laps of this big guy with everyone having nice lines. 

Someone - possibly EG a little black dot in the middle about to go richter

  

We did some racing - Me doing some not so good racing, the boys however had good showings in the teams race, the downhill and the boatercross which was sweet.

  

Freakish dinner at the lakefront of Voss for one of the two (or was that three?) sunny days we've had here so far - The 20 Euro gumboots are proving to be one of the better purchases for Voss 2012. (The next best purchase is about to be a fishing rod for the fiords next week.) The worst purchase I hear you ask? Definitely the cheap, imitation pop up tent I brought as a stroke of genius. Had a snapped pole when I got it out of the bag 2000km from the shop I brought it from, dream scenario....

 

Ladies and Gentlemen. Mr Jens Klatt. Kayak photographer extraordinaire and Voss 2012 phone conversation pose award winner.

 

Sanga and Neilson having an intimate date. Found some bike taxi drivers to take us up a hill we couldn't be bothered with. Found out halfway that our taxi driver was a staunch Christian. Obviously extreme winding up of the religious chap ensued....  Whoops.

Thus far Norway has been pretty cool - it's cold and rains lots but when the sun does make an appearance it is out of control! The kayaking is sick, I exploded my boat on the second day here which was a bit of a downer but it's fine. When you are a professional lifestyler like myself you just sit back, pour the next rum you brought across the border incredibly illegally even though you don't really like it and shift focus to the next activity. Like fishing. Or Snus.  

Until my next erratic update. Ciao.

Gypsies

  “Porso avere uno café Americano e’ latte per favore?” “Can I please have an Americano coffee with some milk?” This is basically the extent of my Italiano. For everything else I fall back on the tried and true method of pointing, miming and holding up fingers. Then at the end “Grazie, ciao”. Pretty much fluent right?

 My favourite cafe in Ivrea..

 

 

 ..and inside

 

I forget regularly how different the cultures are – Italian people do pretty good double takes when they realize you ARE actually wearing boardies and jandals in a CITY! Ah the horror!  

  

 Turns out Italians stare

After our first weekend in Italy we had to pick Jamie Sutton up from the airport so we drove from Val Sesia back into Bergamo city, which is east of Milan where we had a friend who is studying there. We had a fairly interesting time navigating our way into the city but we made it with no meltdowns. We spent the next day hanging in a city for once, which was fun but slightly manic – plenty of opportunities to butcher a beautiful language ordering food once again. 

 

 

A super cool cathedral in Bergamo. Before the internet, when people were bored, they sculpted stuff...

  

The inside of said cathedral. Imagine this photo but in 'surround view' as it were. And four hundred times bigger. Impressive I know.  

 
 

 Family shot at Hope's apartment in Bergamo. Cute.

 

 

Arty alleyway family shot...

We picked Jamie up the next day minus a kayak and all his gear (don’t fly Easyjet) and headed to another valley called the Aosta. We turned up and drove into the mountains again to try and find a place to camp (Everyone here is fairly staunchly anti - camping for free so it’s harder than it sounds) and scored a perfect spot looking out over a beautiful section of river/mountain scenery. The next day we ran a section of the Ajasse (say eye arse) which was super cool and pretty steep (had a casual violent side surf in an innocuous looking but rather retentive hole didn’t I?)

 

 Camping on the old road where a new tunnel cuts the corner - ideal for concealing your common or garden type kayak gypsies. 

 

The mad Swiss, Lars Lammler running a hole on the Ajasse

 

Samuel on a glorious boof

 

Sam running one of the waterfalls at the bottom of the Ajasse canyon. I wasn't feeling the love this day because it was a tad 'sporty' and I am still harbouring a healthy terror of sticky holes. 

 

B on the second of the set

 and the third...

  The next item on the itinerary was another competition at yet another mountain valley. We had bolstered the kiwi numbers with the arrival of team Sutton e’ Uhl and we rolled into the campsite (vans only – no tents please) to catch up with more boaters/friends from all over the world** The racing was pretty disappointing with the river (the Chiusella) being ridiculously low and as a result the sections weren’t the same as previous years. Then it was into Ivrea (A city further down the valley) for the rest of the debacle – (whoops! meant to write event there…) on the artificial slalom course. Te kiwis did pretty well with Samuel coming in second overall and some good results in the teams racing (although strangely the Italians still podiumed even though they came in behind our boys both times – go figure….)

 

The team Sutton whip. 

 

 Patti not coping with the stress of watching Sam in the boatercross

The reason she didn't really need to stress...

 Mr Severin Haberling ladies and gentlemen. For all you kayakers out there, make sure you are incredibly terrified of sieves. Lars went into this one. Twice. We went to try to pull his boat out and snapped a 1200kg rope in the attempt. This from the sheer pressure of the water. Luckily Larsy boy jettisoned himself just prior to his kayak ending up here...

The upside of me not racing at the Chiusella (apart from the 70 Euro entry swindle) was that I got to go kayaking for fun on a river which actually had water with some of the most hard case Germans I have come across.

As I’m writing this***, I’m sitting in a car on the Motorway out of Italy (which is savage – their freeways are privately owned and they charge you a shitload of cash to drive on them) en route to Switzerland where we’re going to paddle some more rivers then hang at Severin’s parents house and do some work blacksmithing which will be super cool (his house is older than New Zealand – or at least the unified version…)

**One of my favourite parts of traveling this season has been meeting people who are friends of friends. You meet them and hang out and it’s like you have known them for years, it goes to show how similar the people you surround yourself with are no matter where they are from. 

***This was a few days ago but that's ok; you, dear reader, don't know any better. Update from Severin's amazing Hansel and Gretel - esque house to come soon.

Italia

 So I left the mighty US of A and got hit with a $400 charge to get my boat on the plane which wasn't ideal but never mind.
Walking through Frankfurt airport my first impressions of Europe were favourable; A guy wandering around the international terminal with a casual bottle of red and a plastic cup strolled past, everyone was nicely dressed (except myself of course - standard Kiwi singlet, jandals and boardies) and there was a bakery in the airport making fresh bread/brezels/delicious other stuff.
I found B, Soph and Severin at the arrivals with minimal fuss and we were off to the Sesia river festival in Val Sesia (Val means Valley in case you were wondering..)
We're staying in an amazing little village called Campertogno which is one of many that you drive through every five minutes on the way up the valley. Beautiful old stone houses line alleyways and the river. A huge church steeple (circa 1595) dominates the village and faithfully tolls every hour which is nice during the day but not so much at 2 am...

 B partaking in the standard Italian breakfast

There are a couple of tiny stores which sell amazing local produce for ridiculously low prices (like a dollar for a hunk of cheese which would cost you $15 in NZ)

The coffee is amazing and is $1 for an espresso which makes it tough to not enhance the already formidable morning habit. 

 Looking across the town bridge. The river sesia flows right next to the road. Just under the bridge was the finish line for the boatercross.

 The campground where we are staying

 Campertogno church

 Closer up

The end of the boater x course.

The racing for this event consisted of a team time trial down a fun but quite long grade 3-4 section and an individual time trial on the same section of which the top 16 qualified for the boatercross head to heads. 

Our team of Myself, Brendan Bayly and Severin Haberling managed to get second in the teams race which was surprising considering we had never even seen the race section let alone paddled it. We all qualified for the boatercross as well and B and Severin managed to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively which was awesome. I then took part in the "throwbag olympics" and with a spot of cheating managed to win that too (thanks to Severin's speedloader bag..) The prize haul was impressive, with Sweet clothing been thrown out haphazardly along with a new Palm lifejacket for my throwbagging efforts. 

We're going to paddle some side valleys today and then pick up Jamie tomorrow and head to the Teva Mountain Games in Ivrea. Might put some kayaking photos up soon but probably not... Lifestyling is the way forward.

Californication

My big sister has been writing a travel blog here which is being published on stuff.com, about her travels in the States and Europe etc. I was reading the first few posts the other day and it struck me the massive differences we have in our travel experiences. Obviously my literary skills are not quite as eloquent as hers but I thought I'd have a go at laying out some of the experiences I have had in the first week of my travels this year.

First job - Fencing?? Helping Nick and Harmony deer proof their garden. (photo - Lou Urwin)

As coincidence would have it we happened to be in San Fran at the same time - she was looking around the city and I'd just flown in. The logical end to this story is that we would have caught up for coffee or some bohemian experience (being in San Fran and all) etc etc. Not so. Not only was I traveling with a 20kg, two and a half metre long piece of unwieldy plastic which is not conducive to getting around a city, I was on a very specific mission with said plastic. San Francisco airport happens to be the closest international airport to a little town called Coloma. Comprised of three eateries, a bar and 20 odd rafting companies, Coloma has little in the way of a downtown but serves a slightly different purpose. It is basically the epicentre of whitewater kayaking in California.

So as I arrived into the international terminal of SFO, I knew (or hoped) the esteemed Mr Neilson was en route to collect me. Sure enough, half an hour later and we were on the three hour drive North to rendevous with the 15 - odd other kiwi paddlers who are in Cali for the same reasons as me; It's summer and it has some of the best kayaking in the world.

The crew doing some solid not kayaking (Photo - Josh Neilson)

So the last week has been a whirl of kayaking, heat, cramped cars, and hectic freeways. After a couple of day runs around Coloma, a huge colonial crew of mostly kiwis, aussies, canadians, an englishman and a token Euro made the long drive six hours south to the Sequoia National Park. We were staying in another tiny little town called Three Rivers which has a super cool campground which we basically commandeered for three days.

We went back up to Moro Rock - a huge granite dome which looks over the whole Kaweah valley 

for the sunset and had the first meeting of the Sierra wine and cheese appreciation society  (Josh Neilson)

The put in for the East Kaweah, one of my favourite day runs. (Jess Matheson)

The three rivers hideaway - and the scumbags which inhabit it (Josh Neilson)

No tents in Cali...

 Sleeping on the ground, kayaking every day and driving up into the amazing Sequoia trees in the evenings, Three Rivers is one of my favourite places in California. It's about as far away as you can get from the hustle and bustle of the cities. Time feels like it has slowed down since I've arrived and it has highlighted just how hectic my summer in New Zealand was - working two jobs takes its toll on your leisure time. So as we lived and played in the dustbowl that is Three Rivers - and thoroughly enjoyed every minute I thought I'd put up some highlights of what we do when we travel.

 

Oh, and we went kayaking sometimes too. Little Niagra on the Hospital rock section of the middle Kaweah. (Tyler Fox)

 East fork love (Tyler Fox)

Faaaarrrk. Went to the Wainui today, big rain last night and we drove in hoping there wouldn't be too much water. When we got on we realised it was pretty high and pushy - especially in the rapids. You know when you look at a rapid at low flow and think "This would be mean with heaps of water" Well I'd thought this about a lot of rapids on the Wainui and it turns out they kinda didn't do what I thought they would. The whole thing got pretty rowdy and just shunted through super fast.

Running the left boof that we've always looked at on B's rapid. (It must be noted that this was not intentional and I was pretty well peaking right here)

Mr Brown took himself out of the game early on (on the same rapid as above) grating a couple of his fingers down to the joints and slightly modifying his face as well.
This left four of us - John Snook, myself, and the slalom grommets to finish the rest of the run. Everything else went pretty smoothly, John decided to boof the 60 but luckily there was lots of water so it was a fluffy landing and no back issues...

Rolling into the freight train slide - at least all of the slides were nice and padded out today..

...and the view from the lip - apologies for the blurry shot, the old gopro was well fogged by this stage.

All up it was a sick day - the Tuna was awesome, it has definitely proven itself on the steep stuff now along with being all good off the big drop which I was interested to see how it would go. It still catches me out with how fast it comes out of holes and drops and I've had to throw in the odd backstroke to slow her down.

Still plenty of water around so we'll see what happens tomorrow...

A long time between drinks

Up until about mid June this year we were getting pretty regular rain every few weeks (which kept those of us not going overseas slightly happier). That all stopped just as winter really arrived and we got absolutely no rain in any of the catchments which have good creeking. Enter last week's storm. After an epic thunderstorm on Monday night - one of those ones that sent you running to your Mum and Dad when you were little, the Kaimais got just enough rain to make it worthwhile for me to take a mental health day and drag Mr Joshua out of bed for a foray into the hills.
While driving up the Kaimai summit road it soon became apparent that the only option was going to the the upper Ngamuwahine. This river drains the very top of the Kaimais and starts in a swamp on the plateau. Because of this it usually holds water for a day or so longer than the other creeks in the area. With a big shuttle, a savage 4wd track and a bit of a walk/paddle in, it definitely makes for a full days adventure.
We teamed up with Cole and Laurence - a couple of the Tauranga slalom grommets, (who we're slowly converting to the dark side and who may or may not have been skipping a day of school...) which made for a good little crew.
Here's a little video of the trip, I can't really claim to have edited this - it was more like Josh - 80%, me 20%....


Right now, I'm eating my toast and watching the rain come in sideways, my lawn has a lake on it and all my gear is soaking wet.
Can anyone say Wainui.....
Stand by.

Yea Nice

While I'm writing just now, I'm sitting in a house in Christchurch having just missed my flight back to Rotorua. Why you ask? Mainly because the four inches of snow outside have closed not only most of the roads in the south island, but lots in the north Island and all of the major airports in the south. Luckily we made it out of Queenstown yesterday with a lack of sleep and rather savage hangovers being the only hindrance to our travels.

The reason we were in Queenstown was actually due to us being in Wanaka for the week prior for a little event which I've been to for the last few years called the Burton Open. It's an excuse for me to A: Get off real work for a week, and B: ha
ve a weeks fully funded snowboarding in exchange for having to put some flags up each day (the reality is a little bit more harsh than just puttingflags up but you tend to forget the hard stuff....)
I also recently acquired a gopro so I decided to make a little edit of our week instead of yet another essay. Said week finished with the afterparty in Queenstown where we proceeded to try and drink two boxes of monster (not recommended) along with various other alternatives (highly recommended). Oh and we rocked out toshihad, Optimus Gryme and Sunshine Soundsystem until 5:30am. Hence the fun drive home. Same old.

Pipe Finals

Yea Nice.