In mid March myself, Lou and an amazing group of friends (local paddlers from the Rotorua area; Sam Sutton, Brad Lauder, Phil Mac, a good old Canadian boy - Matt Kompass, and my favorite palmy bloke - Paul “Shep” Shepherd), embarked on a ten day kayaking fiesta on New Zealand’s South Island. What took place in these ten days will go down as some of the best kayaking you could possibly pack into such a short time. A big thanks goes out to Mother Nature, who provided us with the ideal water levels for every river. Finishing up work on the Friday, the crew loaded the van and headed down to Wellington to pick me up and catch the 2:00 am ferry. With a couple hours sleep under our belts we arrived on the South Island and drove straight through to Murchison, our first destination. Slightly sleep deprived and sore from sitting in a van for hours, we were geared for the Bullerfest X-stream Race which was starting straight away. Despite our ragged state everyone managed to pull off some classy racing. Brad got a boat length on Sam to take the win, with Sam right behind for second. I was beaten out in a well contested Semi-finals match, making the top 8, and Lou placed second among the women’s class. With an early start... our group was also well on pace to winning that nights after party. Waking up the next morning I was stoked to find that our camp site was partially underwater and it was still dumping down water, as only the South Island can. We quickly flagged that days events, slalom (except Brad our fearless slalom racer who took it down by a fraction of a second), and headed to the Local creek run the Glenroy River. We paddled down in a large group and had a wicked time. With the rain still coming down the river was continually getting bigger and browner. Pretty much at flood stage our second run had a lot of action with a couple swims and a lost paddle. My most exciting moment was hand paddling down a couple pushy rapids, to get down to our split paddle, after lending my paddle. Just to make sure we squeezed as much out of the day as possible, a few of us decided to go for a quick rip down Johnson Creek a tributary of the Matakitaki River. After slipping through a couple tight lines out into the Matakitaki, we enjoyed a big volume blast down to town. A Big-Air Ramp contest was schedule for that sunday but the river was over the bank at the launch site so it was canned. Instead a lot of people headed down to Maruia Falls for a big water huck jam. After getting our fill we started off for the West Coast and some real creeking! The majority of the whether system had passed by the next morning but there was still some low hanging clouds and heavy winds up in the mountains, so we were grounded as far as catching a heli flight was concerned. Thankfully with all the water in the rivers we had a great plan B, we hiked up the Styx River. This is the ideal “warm up” river for the west coast, except for maybe the first rapid of the day (if you hike up an extra 5 mins) which is a longer rapid with a tricky, tight line at the bottom. Brad went first and was slightly off line and got smashed into an undercut rock slab on river right... Great start to the coast! Sam and myself managed to learn Brad and hit the line. The rest of the river is just really nice cl IV - III read and run, continuous whitewater. That same evening we put on the Upper Kakapotahi. Its hard to judge the water level for this run until you commit yourself into the tight gorge. Once in we weren’t 100% sure wether we were on the high side of okay or shit outta luck. If the level is too high it makes it impossible to get around the mandatory portage as the sketch eddy and rock you get out on and hop over would be underwater. Go For It! was the mood so we started working our way deeper into the gorge. If you had read the 2nd paragraph you would have been able to guess that it ended up being the perfect level, high enough to make everything interesting but low enough to get around the portage. This is truly an amazing place for anyone who enjoys tight, committing gorges, quality whitewater and a beautiful backdrop. It is very fitting that our first heli trip on the coast be the classic of all classics... the Arahura River. This is the most paddled of all the heli-runs and for good reason. It’s the perfect day out... lots of great read and run grade III-IV, a couple big guys in there to keep it interesting, crystal clear water, smooth rocks with very few nasties and once again a beautiful surrounding (Okay, I am gonna stop saying that cause there actually isn’t a river on the west coast that doesn’t have the most stunning views). This is the kinda river you’ll come back to time and time again. The west coasts Big Day Out... The Waitaha River! has about as much hard, quality whitewater in it that you could cram into one day. And its beauty lies in its variety, this river has it all; continuous read and run, steep technical drops, narrow, committing gorges with a big water push, slides, boofs, sticky holes, must make eddies, seal launches, it even has a rapid that flows through a cave (My personal favorite). And just to make sure you earn all this fun there is an hour long, hard work portage around Morgan’s gorge. If your feeling up to it you can paddle the remaining 250 meters of the gorge. It’s a continuous, big water blow out down into the eddy at the bottom. Sitting in the eddy at the top of this all you can see is white all the way down into what looks like a tiny, shiny eddy down on the right. I remember not being able to open my hands in the eddy at the bottom, a mixture of holding my paddle so tight and having weak arms from just carrying my boat for an hour, but feeling like I had earned the rest of my life. I now remember why I had thought of this river as my favorite run on the coast, you couldn’t get any more action into one day of boating. “We’re all between swims”. I’ve heard this saying lots but for the last couple years I’ve managed to avoid its true meaning. However, the more we avoid things the more likely they are to sneak up and kick you in the ass. So you could say I got kicked in the ass on the Perth. The Perth River is truly a master piece of whitewater kayaking. The boulder strewn gradient holds even, at what I would consider the top end of boat scout able with only a few rapids that need to be scouted from the banks, and doesn’t let up for kms at a time time. It is truly absorbing paddling. Let your guard down, become a little complacent and wham! After paddling the first couple kms of the river boat scouting everything I was starting to get a little lax on the smaller drops and not taking a good look. And there-in was the problem... a foot too far to the right off a sloping meter drop with out enough speed and there I was being pulled back into a shitty hole, backed by a rock, feeding into an overhung ledge, with little water going down stream. Unable to paddle out either way I was starting to get a little tired from trying, as a last effort I tried to grab the rock that was backing the hole. As my fingers slipped over the slick rock I knew things weren’t going that great, and after trying 2 unsuccessful rolls, hitting the rock above me, it was time to pull the pin. Being under water for 2 life times I was finally spit down stream, where I was able to grab onto the backing rock and self rescue. Nothing like a lesson learnt in humility to help you pull your head out of your ass. Being one of the larger rivers in the area the Whitcombe holds its water longer and therefore made a great last river to paddle. It is also a much more chill day then some of the others we had been having, which was okay as we were all starting to feel pretty beat up. This is a great stretch of white water with plenty read and run cl IV-III and a couple larger rapids in Colliers Gorge worth having a look at. That night was the start of the Wild Foods Festival in Hokitika, so the town scene was going off, and in true fashion we celebrated our amazing kayaking trip. Heading home the next day we couldn’t resist the urge to stop in and have another round at Maruia Falls. Its one of the nicest park and hucks around. So that was how we ended our trip... well except for the long hours of driving and ferry rides but won’t bore you with that. Tyler Fox Photos: Louise Urwin, Tyler Fox, Sam Sutton New Zealand’s South Island
Tyler Fox
Louise Urwin
Sam Sutton
Phil Mac
Paul Shepherd  
Brad Lauder
Matt Kompas
Louise out in front
Bullerfest X-race
Brad taking the win from Sam
Bullerfest X-race
Getting to the Put-in
 Styx River
Still getting to the Put-in
Styx River
A Long Lead In
1st rapid - Styx River
Tight Exit
1st rapid - Styx River
Having a Look See
Upper Kakapotahi River
Nice ender bottom of Air Mail
Upper Kakapotahi River
Shuttle Rig
Arahura River
Putting on a Show
Curtain Call - Arahura River
Another Scenic Valley Shot
Arahura River
Over the Top
Dent Falls - Arahura River
Laid Back
Dents Falls - Arahura River
Leaving the Cess Pit
Arahura River
Chilling at Put-in
Waitaha River
Riding the reactionary
Double Drop - Waitaha River
1 of a Million Boofs
Waitaha River
Happy to see Day Light
Cave Rapid - Waitaha River
Be Safe .... enough said
Perth River
Boat bundle heading up
Perth River
Birds Eye View
Perth River
Endless
Perth River
Enjoying some slack water
Perth River
I found a pool!
Perth River
Where to go?
Perth River
Pillow Fight
Whitcombe River
Whitcombe River
Keep Your Nose Clean
Whitcombe River
Full Flow Freewheel
Maruia Falls
Maruia Falls
Maruia Falls
Maruia Falls
Bottoms Up Kayaking < SLIDESHOW