Boof sequence

Images thanks to - Ben Jackson
Paddler - Zak, on edge, just a little bit!

Timing the final stroke, changing edges.

Landing on the oposite edge, and a forward stroke.


Pretty happy about it!

Go the Waitaha

A good weekend was had. I managed to team up with Eden Sinclair. As mates who had traveled to Tibet during sep/oct last year it was great to team up again and be back on the river.
Photo - Eden places one of the final strokes needed, Waitaha River.


Scenic shot - The gorge sections in the Waitaha are amazing. Its a river that has alot more bedrock than other coast runs. Many of the rapids are locked inside constricted walls, schist boulders and overhanging beech forest.

Above photo - Trying to give the peace signal? Or Eden loves it when Ive got my camera out!
We spent a few hours breaking down the really steep boulder jumble rapids, before committing to the top gorge. Half way through is a nasty proposition that would require boofing over a huge hole and making an immediate 90 degree turn in a slot. The chances of being tossed back into the drop and not being flushed out seemed to high. Eden did his best to convince me it would be fine. Later downstream he confessed he had cracked a rib on the same drop on his last trip to the river! Nice guy.
We opted to portage and make the bold seal launch off the cliff wall below the drop.
Photo above.

Photo - Low flow, but many cool moves.

Harwoods Hole

Photo - Mick Hopkinson descends freely down into Harwoods Hole and Starlight cave system.

Near Motueka, at the top of Takaka Hill is a massive sinkhole known as Harwood's Hole. An intricate network of hidden limestone caves runs through the hill. One of the largest daylight shafts in the world (200m down and more than 15m in diameter) it is a spectacular sight leading to an abseiler's paradise. Access the caves from Canaan Downs via a walking track through native bush with stunning rock formations framing the paths. Cavers can abseil down into Harwood's depths and emerge at a cave system near Takaka.

First discovered in 1957 it was measured at -357m deep. At the time NZ's deepest.
In 1960 Peter Lambert was killed when vibrations caused by the powered winch they were using to raise cavers up out of the hole caused a large boulder to come free of the cliff removing one team members foot and hitting Peter on the head.
In 1986 the Nettlebed system was discovered and measured at 884m deep.

Photo - Leanne Leadbetter, nervous on the Taipo River, at home underground! Deep inside the Starlight cave system.

Bouncing down the Blackball

Image - Ben Jackson
enjoys the best move on the blackball

After rain the Blackball is Mick Hopkinson's favourite.
Its scenic, the whitewater is continous and the walk in is short. Sounds good! so far right?

If its rained hard, and you get there early your in for a wild ride. If you bash and crash down smoko creek when its low you will be wishing you'd chosen anything
but the rock infested ditch your on. There is a reason why Jason Shepherd has a black-list of rivers, its because of the blackball!
Be warned if you go into there with minimal water, accept the fact you will come out with a paddle 2cm shorter and the chances of taking skin off your knuckles is extremely high.

Oli from Wyoming and Graham Charles (fresh from another season down on the ice, Antartica)
joined us for the day.

Photo - Back on the river, Graham Charles

The Taipo river is a great day out. With 23km of river to travel from Julia Hut to the take out road bridge its always a big day out. Our full team at the NZ kayak school met for a day out on the river together.

Bruce Dando dropped us in the head of the valley early. Equipped with 2kg of bacon, 2 loaves of bread we scavenged for dry wood and cooked bacon sandwiches before heading downriver.



Jess Brown
enjoying the juicy
flow and being
out there
paddling for
herself.














Photo
Matt Shearer,
links the final
moves of
"Showcase"

Returning home

Returning home from Tibet was quite the
contrast. Jet lag, whats that? with a few hours sleep under my belt it was straight into the shearing! With Dad aware of my arrival back into NZ he quickly mustered a night pen and filled the shed.

Photo - Hikutai Station, Mark Shaw out with his team

Its been a busy start to the season. the NZ kayak school has been exceptionally busy, back to back courses filled with mostly Aussy paddlers who are coming to escape the droughts going on across the
Tasman.

A series of audio/visual shows have followed our Tibet expedition. Both in Murchison and Hokitika at the Wet West Film Fest. JJ and Dave spent some long nights editing footage before the festival. On the Saturaday night the Regent theatre was packed for the premier of our expedition film "7 weeks in Tibet", it won the peoples choice award.
I made a couple of appearances presenting at the "Crooked Mile" theatre.
The first one focused on supplying the adventure experience compared to getting out there and having an adventure of your own.
Last year having worked in the Canadian Arctic sea kayak guiding off a cruise ship eating fine cuisine and paddling around huge ice-bergs followed immediately by our expedition into Tibet and the first full descent of the Parlung Tsangpo I'd had two quite different experiences.
I compared the food and luxurious facilities on the ship to large quantities of rice, massive whitewater and grating Tibetan music!
The second show put an entertaining spin on the effort paddlers will go to in order make their passion for kayaking happen. The epics, dodgy drivers and roading, health problems and the amount of time soaked up by everything but the kayaking! Bolivia, Kenya, NZ and California featured.

Making the most of a couple of days off Ben Jackson, Louis Tanner and I recently flew into the heads of the Perth river.



Yeah I'm going kayaking! Flying never gets old.
An excited Ben Jackson buckled in.








James Scott touched us down below
the Garden of Eden, offering to drop our overnight gear at Scone Hut 4km
downstream for us.
The top section is pretty full on, and
contains a few classic drops. It has
some big air on offer!

Paddler - Zak
Photo - Ben Jackson

The flow on day two was pretty juicy and the push of the river eventually took its toll, the last class 5 move above the five finger put in is a bold boof in the centre over a huge hole.
Be warned its quite retentive! Louis got dragged back a had is arse handed to him before he headed back to Wellington.




Ben Jackson, well above the action, seal launch near Knuckle Grinder.
We were pretty tired at the trips completion, but no rest for the wicked, back to work boys!

Tibet, a world class kayak destination

"A landscape so majestic and dominating in its appearance, when you look around you it feels huge, you feel overwhelmed and insignificant.
The secret is out, Tibet is a fascinating place"


As a team we headed into an area relatively new and bursting with whitewater potential. Looking back over the last two months its clear the quality of our experience in Tibet was as good as it gets.
Running on information from Chris Jones of Windhorse Adventures, we all agree the,first month of our time is some of the best kayaking we have ever done. Whilst isolated trips in various other parts of the world are standout its rare to arrive in a country with so little documentation surrounding kayaking and yet cover as much ground and paddle as much high class whitewater as we did.



Tibet as a kayak destination seen through our eyes was one held in high regard. In the past large scale expeditions have been carried out, teams of paddlers focusing their attention towards one of the worlds deepest and most remote river canyons, the Yarlung Tsangpo.
Inspired by the type of people that make these big adventures happen it was the stories and images that came home with them that fed our desire to get out there amongst it ourselves.





For those who have followed passion4adventure thanks for you interest.
Big thanks to our expedition supporters.
Liquid Logic kayaks, One Square Meal, Merrel Footwear, Highgear, Kokatat
Palm,Hydraulics, System X.

A good run comes to an end

Day three began well, more sunshine, and the day was packed full with continous class 4-5 whitewater. Most rapids required inspection from the bank. Operating now within a smaller team we moved quickly downriver.


Side channel, eden finds a waterfall and a soft landing.

Pulling the kayaks from river level late, dinner was served, we managed to find some local fruit and then settled in for the night.
This is when it all went bad, eden was sick all night. the next day Eden could hardly move and so we bailed back upriver hitching a ride back to Dunba and better facilites!
The following morning Sam and myself both awoke to unsettled stomachs and a long day ahead. At luchtime we managed to hire a truck to complete the journey of 250km back to Chengdu.
27 hours later, after bumping along a road beyond repair, a midnight police checkpoint restricting further travel and a truck crash we limped into Chengdu, hardly stoked with the days events!




Were drinking! come back later and then you can pass! Police checkpoint, rice wine central.

Kayaking in Sichuan, China

Leaving Dunba, literally the whole town took their smoko break and shut up shop to check out our departure. Leaving was a good thing, paddling downstream the human like smells vanished and once again it was just us and the river.



Packman, with kayak loaded, adjusts to a kayak laden with gear and pushy whitewater.





The Dadu river from the town of Dunba suddenly gathers volume. Content to paddle along and find rapids of a moderate grade we unexpectedly descended down on countless intimidating rapids that stirred the nerves, and slowed progress.
After a full day we spied a level river beach at 6pm and set up camp.



River cuisine, Chinese style.

Do da de da do da day Dadu Dadu!, first day Dadu river.

With a week up our sleaves and the impression that the Sichuan province of western China would provide one more big volume river trip we set off.
Hitching a ride with our Tibetan mates five ours back the way we had just traveled. We unloaded in a town called Kangjing and immediately set about attempting to download the rugby, All Blacks vs England.

The next morning super early we tied down our kayaks onto the back deck of a small truck and headed up the Dadu catchment.
Our plan with six days remaining was to paddle as far down the Dadu river as possible and then get back to catch the train to Beijing.


Sam portages a class 6 rapid day one




Things were mostly flat for our first day with the exception of this class 5 entrance rapid to an out of control rapid we happily portaged around.
Eden runs a hard left line.

Covering 40km down to a riverside town called Dunba, locals greeted us at nightfall.


Things you dont hear everyday, "Go hard left and make the eddy with the pig in it"

Tibet expedition done and dusted

It all done here, the team beginning to go their separate ways.
Its been an amazing trip for us all, many classic days on big whitewater.
Our journey has run smoothly from day one and whilst Tibet has no whitewater guidebook as such the information we gathered prior has held us in good stead.
Our expectations of Tibet as a destination for kayaking prior to arrival were that it would not be easy to travel and enter into Tibet. We were under the impression the Chinese government had a stringent system in place for all outside travelers.
Windhorse adventures took care of all our necessary permits and ensured a no stress entrance to the roof of the world.

Dave and JJ loaded onto the Chengdu- Beijing train yesterday and settled in for 26 continous hours across China.

Matt Tidy left this morning on a train to Shanghai, he's on route back through Nepal and finally the UK.
Sam, Eden and myself are sticking together, our plan is to check out the Sichuan province and spend a few days paddling. We are all running low on cash, this next week we are looking to pull off a 240km trip on the Dadu river.

More updates in a week
zak

Mission shut down

After our successful firsts full descent of the Parlung Tsangpo we were keen to take some time out. More to the point we didn't have much choice after celebrations took their toll.


Looking over the maps, a couple of rest days gave us the oportunity to look more intensively at the remainder of our time in Tibet before crossing into the Sichuan province of China.


Traveling back through the headwaters of the Parlung catchment we crossed over into a neighbouring valley the Zang Chu. Early in our preparations in coming to Tibet this river had been highlighted as one which had potential.
A huge question mark however hung over its access. The Zang Chu drops out of Tibet and flows across the border into India. Within 40km of this border is basically a no go area, especially for westerners. Although we had tried via the permit system to gain permission to paddle the river, our requests came back unanswered.
So we headed in anyway in hope. As predicted police and military officials denied us further passage.




Classic Tibetan vehicle, its a three wheeler, small tractor type design.
Uses include getting the kids to school,
carrying building supplies, shifting livestock.



Gogul, as far as we got.


The past few days we have traveled over several mountain ranges and climbed out of deep river gorges. The Salween, Mekong and Yangtze rivers all orginate in Tibet, its is these massive waterways surounded by 5000m peaks that is responsible for Tibet remaining secluded for so long from the west.


High pass above the Mekong river.

The Parlung Tsangpo relents, first full descent completed

Scrambling down a steep slip back to the river day 12 began. Its was to be our last on the Parlung Tsangpo

With ten kilometres of class 4 to the confluence with the Yiong Tsangpo we set off loaded with a few extra's!


Thirsty work! Cider was all we could find. Eden toasts to a great river trip.



After 12 days, 210km, 1400m drop in elevation, some good cider, we felt it was appropriate.





Magic, tibets scenery is some of the best you will see.

180km done, 30 to go

From our camp in an old quarry, we were well poised to launch and assault on the final 30km. 20km of this is committing whitewater and had not been paddled before.

Portage within the first kilometre, not a big deal, just get your boat on your shoulder and walk around it.


Sam Hughes aka Packman, feeling the effects day ten.


Sam enjoys one that just feels good to paddle, no stress.

Communicating via two way radio we progressed well. Despite the relentless nature of the river, we managed twenty kilometres in two days.
In the gorge we found a major surprise. Scouting in previous days had revealed open river bank alongside most of the full on rapids, rapids we believed would be mandatory portages. Early on day 11 we got out and scouted a class 5 rapid that flowed down into a canyon with vertical walls on its left side. Visually we had no information on the right.
Eden and jj probed first running the entry rapid well and catching an eddy river left. Climbing a sloping wall of rock they could see a uniform horizon line downstream and a huge river wide ledge hole stretching across most of the river.
Comitted to the left they were situated right above the huge recirculation with a must make ferry glide the width of the river in the gorge to avoid it.
Tension ran high as we communicated with some difficulty. JJ paddled first and almost got pinned, eden missed his line and ran the meat of the left line, held at the bottom of the 10ft ramp leading into the hole he was violently tossed about for a long time before being flushed out and rolling up. It was a close call.
The rest of the team having no positive beta cautiously paddled the drop and regathered within the safety of a downstream eddy.



Its all around me, Dave Kwant finding his way.