Straight after Bullerfest I headed south to Queenstown & then on to the tip of the Lake and the Greenstone River. I was there instructing for Wakitipu High School.
The river section we used under the bridge was grade 1, which proved an interesting location to introduce the kids to paddling as their were no eddys, or decent still sections. The 1st day was spent rotating groups of 3-4 kids through strokes and then negotiating the one small eddy we had available.
The following 24hours were a torrential downpour, the 1st rain Queenstown had seen in over a month, everything went from pristine green water to chocolate thickshake with logs. Luckily the bulk of the rain fell during the day that we were'nt kayaking.
Sarah-Jane & I snuck away and went to check out the Routeburn in flood. The route burn normally being a class 4 boulder drop creek was instead a mass of crashing waves/holes. Bearing a higher resemblance to a big water run on the Kawarau. We headed back to camp where Ken McIntyre & I jumped on the swollen Greenstone for a slalom training session, SJ was feeling sick so I got to try out her brand new Double Dutch Slalom boat, was awesome to be back in a slalom boat and feel the speed and satisfaction of carving some sweet turns. Also felt the burn of training with Ken. (Just 5 more..... 10 later!)
Our next day of kayaking was re-positioned to the lake front, which gave the kids more of a chance to play around in their boats and learn strokes etc.
After that SJ & myself headed back in town for a feed of the legendary FERGBURGER, picked up a hitchhiker in Glenorchy or was one of the stinkiest people you could ever have the experience of smelling. We shoved him in the back of the van :D
A quick stay at my parents & i was back on the road to Christchurch. (6 hours of boring driving). Next mission.. back to murchison with Megs & Kim for the weekend.
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