Raft Week 1
"Here we go"
Tutors: Phil Johnston Coats, Koryn Gould, Nathan Topp
Group members: Tai Poutini Polytechnic Rafting Team
River flow: 33 to 35 cumecs
River grade: Grade 2
Duration: 4 days
Weather Conditions: High Pressure systems over South island. Warm weather with low wind conditions for all four days.
Locations:Arnold, 23rd of February, 2015
Arnold, 24th of February, 2015
Arnold, 25th of February, 2015
Upper/Blue Grey, 26th of February, 2015
Learning:
23rd of February:
This day was run as a mock client day so that we got the feel of how an industry trip is run and how it feels as the perspective of a regular paying customer.
24th of February:
On the 24th the day was run with us polytechnic student Guiding certain sections. This would be the style every guiding day was run from here. We practiced specifically on customer stroke techniques, identifying hydrology features and capsizing practice.
25th of February:
On the 25th we expanding what we were learning and a lot of white water rescue was introduced. We practiced skills such as throw bagging, white water float position, shallow water entries, river swimming and more advanced raft guiding moves,
26th of February:
On the last day of week one rafting we switched venue from the Arnold river to a lower section of the blue grey, a tributary of the Grey river. This day was a lot about how to move together on the river, signals were introduced and the principles of scouting were discussed. We scouted moves and ran more complex rafting lines throughout the day.
Experience: So from little to no experience in white water. to a week of intense rafting. It was all new but I was hooked. It reminded me in ways of surfing, reading the water and understanding the effect it has on the boat. I can see that you start slow but already I can feel moments when the adrenaline is on the verge of kicking in. Learning is challenging and I wish I was better already. Practice makes perfect though and I have a lot to learn.
Raft week two
"Learn and learn fast"
Tutors: Nathan Topp, Korryn Gould, Sonny
Group members: Tai Poutini Polytechnic Rafting Team
River Flow: 24 cumecs flooding to 300
River grade: Grade 3 to 4
Duration: 4 days
Weather Conditions: Sunny weather with warm winds all week perfect summer conditions.
Locations:
Learning:
2nd of March:
On day one we learnt more white water swimming skills. We practiced throw bagging in faster moving water, introducing white water rescue techniques suck as 10 boy scout pulls,vector pulls and tethered lines. We practiced river crossing techniques (with and without raft) and how to set up stabilization lines and fast. we finished the day with talking about more complicated rescue scenarios and using tools suck as live bating.
5th of March:
On the 5th of March we talked about how to free wrapped rafts and where it's likely to happen. We then moved onto guiding some harder more technical water. We continued with river communication and built upon our scouting skill set.
6th and 7th of March
This was our first overnight raft trip. We learnt a lot of skills over these two days. We learnt about all the rep needed. How to tie and guide a gear boat. We practiced moving around in a raft convoy. We scouted some grade three rafting moves and had the experience of a flooding river. Suddenly we were forced on a crash course of big pushy white water and some verging grade 4 moves.
Locations:
Lower Mitakitaki (put in)
2nd of March, 2015
Buller river (Granite section)
3rd of march 2015
Buller river (over night trip)
(O'sullivans section to Earthquake section)
5th of March 2015 to the 6th of March 2015
2nd of March, 2015
Buller river (Granite section)
3rd of march 2015
Buller river (over night trip)
(O'sullivans section to Earthquake section)
5th of March 2015 to the 6th of March 2015
Learning:
2nd of March:
On day one we learnt more white water swimming skills. We practiced throw bagging in faster moving water, introducing white water rescue techniques suck as 10 boy scout pulls,vector pulls and tethered lines. We practiced river crossing techniques (with and without raft) and how to set up stabilization lines and fast. we finished the day with talking about more complicated rescue scenarios and using tools suck as live bating.
5th of March:
On the 5th of March we talked about how to free wrapped rafts and where it's likely to happen. We then moved onto guiding some harder more technical water. We continued with river communication and built upon our scouting skill set.
6th and 7th of March
This was our first overnight raft trip. We learnt a lot of skills over these two days. We learnt about all the rep needed. How to tie and guide a gear boat. We practiced moving around in a raft convoy. We scouted some grade three rafting moves and had the experience of a flooding river. Suddenly we were forced on a crash course of big pushy white water and some verging grade 4 moves.
Experience: What a week. Rafting is a lot of fun but is also a lot of hard work. The guides don't muck around and I'm beginning to understand why not. I've never been on a overnight river trip so the first time was quite an experience. To wake up with storming rains and the river flooding, Not to mention that the raft popped and made for a challenging start to the day. The step up to guiding down grade three rivers turning fast to grade four was both challenging, terrifying and exciting. It's a trip that you don't forget and an experience that just can't be taught.
"A warm welcoming to the river community"
Location: O'sullivans rapid on the Buller River
Group members: Tai Poutini Polytechnic 1st and 2nd year Rafting Team
River Grade: Grade 3
Weather: Sunny stable weather.
Learning: My time at Buller Fest was amazing, seeing the white water community, and experienced paddlers competing opened my eyes to the White Water world. I experienced competing in rafting events and seeing different aspects of the sport.
Experience: What an awesome weekend, watching slalom kayakers, stand up paddle boarders and rafting teams go head to head, all in a safe fun environment. The days were fun and the nights were nearly even funner. It was great to paddle competitively seeing how rafts interact with each other and how they can easily completely blow your line. A good day on the river, would recommend.
The Arnold River
"Self Directed Learning Time"
"Self Directed Learning Time"
Date: 3 trips during 2015
Location: 2015 Arnold River
Group members: Taipoutini Polytechnic students
River Grade: Grade 2
Experience: During the Certificate in outdoor program there is a lot of outdoor skill and knowledge covered in a short time. Finding time to run a rafting trip can be challenging. It was always amazing when I found myself with friends running a trip on the local grade two river section. In the time following the two week raft section I had run a two week kayaking program and had developed even more in my river knowledge. I found I was able to apply these skills directly to my rafting.Learning: My ability in rafting is increasing. When guiding with friends development of rafting to hit fun lines and make exciting moves increases.
The crooked
Date: 11th of July, 2015
Location: Lower Crooked River
Group members: Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
River Grade: Grade 2+
Weather: Severe frost in a shadowed cold gorge
Experience: The crooked is a beautiful section of river. It's quite bony in parts with gorges and fun play waves. Rafting it was an enjoyable experience learning to make grade three moves in order to catch a large play waves. The river also required a lot of precise and technical moves.
Learning: When rafting on the Crooked I came dressed in the same river gear I had been feeling warm in all year. About 15 minutes down the river I realized the condition were different to what I had experienced. I was significantly cold and unprepared. It wasn't till another 40 minutes that people started noticing that I wasn't coping too well. Luckily for me a friend had brought spare gear and was able to give me more thermals and another dry top. We sat in a sunny eddie and I warmed up fast. The learning I took is how important extra warm gear is. Spending ten minutes to bring spare thermals and choosing to wear appropriate gear makes a massive difference. A mistake I'm not planning to make any time soon.
The Clarence
"Last trip of the year"
Back on the water
Tutors: Reefton Top, Korrin Gould, Tim Heart, Tim Marshall
Group members: Diploma, Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
Sections: Owen to Much camp ground, Granity, Mangels to campsite
River Flow: Medium to low flow. Flooded Buller section on the last day.
River grade: Grade 3
Duration: 3 days
The Clarence
"Last trip of the year"
Date: 28th of September to the 2nd of October
Tutors: Nathan Topp, Zac Shaw,
Tutors: Nathan Topp, Zac Shaw,
Location: Clarence River
Group members: Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
River Grade: Grade 2 to 3
Weather: Low pressure system approaching day one. Sending rain on the second day. Cold southerly's the following day with sunny for the rest of the trip.
Day 1: We all left Greymouth excited. By now I knew I had passed my year at Taipoutini. We headed off packed and organised to set out on the Clarence river. We arrived at the put in to sunny skies and beautiful scenery. I spent the first day in a RPM dagger. Most of the day was spent trying to learn how to wippie. It was an enjoyable day and I was in a
great mind set. We stopped at our first camping
ground and I started on the fire. A job I very much love. It wasn't too long when we had a hot coal base that we were looking for the camp oven. So we looked and looked and we looked...
We forgot the camp ovens. It's times like these in a trip where things can fall apart and the blame game can come out. Instead we had the right group of people at the back end of an amazing year. Coincidentally we had packed an excessive amount of extra pots and pans and stoked up on large quantities of tin foil. The camp fire cooking was soon under way. The first nights stew was a reasonable success and we managed to sustain high spirits
Day 2: Don't ask me why but somewhere in life I've developed a habbit of bringing less gear rather than more. This year I have truly refined my systems and have been nailing using only the bear minimum of the gear I bring. So on Clarence I decided to pack minimalist. Tuesday early morning the rain hit changing southerly later that day. It was truly cold and I found myself in a cheap farmer john wet suit and a thermal.
We had a great time and I even got to witness Zac shoot a goat. I've never really hunted. So seeing Zac line it up and take it down was an adrenaline kick. After Zac broke the goat down and took some meat I was back in a team raft. Pretty soon though I could feel the cold. Something in me was determined not to give into it though. I spent the day on the rafting guiding as often as possible. I put large efforts in my clients strokes and when guiding. Power and pry, power and pry, I was keeping warm one way or another. We had a long day on the river and reaching near sunset it was getting freezing. We hit head winds and made small distances. I paddled as hard as I could to keep warm and when we hit camp I ran to set up a fire. Sure enough in less than 10 minutes with a few helpers we had one blazing and I was in my dry gear. That night we had chicken roast. Toby put in a huge effort around the camp fire that night. I ate extremely well cooked chicken off tin foil but didn't mind as the atmosphere was electric.
Day 3: The cold weather had passed and I awoke to a sunny day three. I took this day as an opportunity to jump on the gear raft. Let me tell you gear rafting is hard work. I started to learn about a deeper reading of the river. Learning about slower moving water even in a grade 1 sense. I felt how eddies can pull your boat into them and seeing where the whole body of water within a river is moving. Avoiding shallow rocky reefs and travelling down low volume braids of the river. Gear rafting is physically draining. The strokes are nothing like guiding your standard industry boat. I spent most of the day on the gear raft and finished up the last section paddling as a client, raft guiding as often as I could. We made camp at a reasonable time and had some moments in the evening to relax. I climbed up a huge cliff with my friend tom and looked out over the river. The rock all along the cliffs is unstable and a few people tried to join us and slipped some pretty far distances down the cliff trying to make it up. That night we played Frisbee, cooked a hot soup with roast goat as a side.
Day 4: I woke up on day four as T.L. (team leader.) It was my last chance of the year to guide the ship and I wanted to make the most of it. I learnt mistakes from the day before and hustled to get everyone involved and working. I noticed with such a large group there were a lot on conversations travelling round in circles. I made an effort to make my conversations on point brief but relevant. The morning went great and as we left camp I could tell we were ahead of time. This day we reached a section names Jaw Breaker a grade three wave train. We made such good time we spent the morning lapping this rapid as Zac Shaw took some amazing photos. At lunch my role as a T.L was over. I chosen a sunny camp site with a good wind break and yet again I jumped to the roll of setting up a fire. I set lunch up as a quick moving station and gave a ridiculous speech about how the spread was so amazing. I turned over my T.L role to Jordan Rose with an official Hongi. The rest of the day I spent sharpening up my raft guiding skills as I had managed to acquire a lot of time behind the stick. The final night we had a beef roast which me and Toby spent a lot of time tending the fire to pull off. It tasted amazing and definitely the meal of the trip. The tutors brought out some red wine and we all had a few glasses and talked about what members of the group meant to us and how we valued there contribution to the year. It was a great night with more the a few funny stories I left out.
Day 5: The final day of the Clarence and the final day of being in the outdoors with the Taipoutini first year crew. Everyone was shattered this day. A few people had come down with a violent stomach bug and were vomiting as we paddled down the river. I got behind the guide stick and made sure to enjoy my last day guiding before the year ended. The Clarence river is full of big sweeping turns with buffers and seams on them. All week I had been practicing hitting the corners with more and more speed and riding these features out. The last day was a blast guiding and I could see the big picture of how far my guiding had come from day one to day five. We made the final take out and headed down the spectacular east coast past Kaikoura and off home. What a trip!
Clarence Vibes
"So here we are at the end of the year pulling off our final trip. Up until now I had spent little time on the east side of the Southern Alps. What an amazing site it was. The Clarence is world class. Offering a completely different look to the thick west coast bush I was used too. We went at a stunning time of the year, with a good rain event to start the river with superb flows and snow capped mountains."
Day 1: We all left Greymouth excited. By now I knew I had passed my year at Taipoutini. We headed off packed and organised to set out on the Clarence river. We arrived at the put in to sunny skies and beautiful scenery. I spent the first day in a RPM dagger. Most of the day was spent trying to learn how to wippie. It was an enjoyable day and I was in a
great mind set. We stopped at our first camping
ground and I started on the fire. A job I very much love. It wasn't too long when we had a hot coal base that we were looking for the camp oven. So we looked and looked and we looked...
I Jumped on the black two man raft shown in the picture below.
We had a great time and I even got to witness Zac shoot a goat. I've never really hunted. So seeing Zac line it up and take it down was an adrenaline kick. After Zac broke the goat down and took some meat I was back in a team raft. Pretty soon though I could feel the cold. Something in me was determined not to give into it though. I spent the day on the rafting guiding as often as possible. I put large efforts in my clients strokes and when guiding. Power and pry, power and pry, I was keeping warm one way or another. We had a long day on the river and reaching near sunset it was getting freezing. We hit head winds and made small distances. I paddled as hard as I could to keep warm and when we hit camp I ran to set up a fire. Sure enough in less than 10 minutes with a few helpers we had one blazing and I was in my dry gear. That night we had chicken roast. Toby put in a huge effort around the camp fire that night. I ate extremely well cooked chicken off tin foil but didn't mind as the atmosphere was electric.
Day 4: I woke up on day four as T.L. (team leader.) It was my last chance of the year to guide the ship and I wanted to make the most of it. I learnt mistakes from the day before and hustled to get everyone involved and working. I noticed with such a large group there were a lot on conversations travelling round in circles. I made an effort to make my conversations on point brief but relevant. The morning went great and as we left camp I could tell we were ahead of time. This day we reached a section names Jaw Breaker a grade three wave train. We made such good time we spent the morning lapping this rapid as Zac Shaw took some amazing photos. At lunch my role as a T.L was over. I chosen a sunny camp site with a good wind break and yet again I jumped to the roll of setting up a fire. I set lunch up as a quick moving station and gave a ridiculous speech about how the spread was so amazing. I turned over my T.L role to Jordan Rose with an official Hongi. The rest of the day I spent sharpening up my raft guiding skills as I had managed to acquire a lot of time behind the stick. The final night we had a beef roast which me and Toby spent a lot of time tending the fire to pull off. It tasted amazing and definitely the meal of the trip. The tutors brought out some red wine and we all had a few glasses and talked about what members of the group meant to us and how we valued there contribution to the year. It was a great night with more the a few funny stories I left out.
Day 5: The final day of the Clarence and the final day of being in the outdoors with the Taipoutini first year crew. Everyone was shattered this day. A few people had come down with a violent stomach bug and were vomiting as we paddled down the river. I got behind the guide stick and made sure to enjoy my last day guiding before the year ended. The Clarence river is full of big sweeping turns with buffers and seams on them. All week I had been practicing hitting the corners with more and more speed and riding these features out. The last day was a blast guiding and I could see the big picture of how far my guiding had come from day one to day five. We made the final take out and headed down the spectacular east coast past Kaikoura and off home. What a trip!
"Another year, and lots more learning"
Group members: Diploma, Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
Sections: Owen to Much camp ground, Granity, Mangels to campsite
River Flow: Medium to low flow. Flooded Buller section on the last day.
River grade: Grade 3
Duration: 3 days
Weather Conditions: Overcast weather slight rain, system hitting and releasing lots of rain on Wednesday night flooding the Buller on Thursday, allowing the Mangels run to be on.
Learning:
Day one at Murchison really felt like a refresher. We went through all the signals that are used on the river, practiced using eddies to help with turning and concentrating on back ferries and defensive rafting rather than aggressive fast lie running such as industry style rafting.
Day two was a step up running the Granity section two times. I rafted a technical section which involved using every eddie to your advantage. I had a down stream wind which really made moves more difficult to make. I really got some good guiding time that day and had a huge insight in what I needed to practice to get to the level I'm aiming for.
Day three, this day we did a lot more technical moves by just using the crew and knowledge we had of eddies and upstream currents to control the raft. We also practiced the opposite, not using the crew and just guiding the boats using guide strokes and river reading techniques.
Experience: This was such an experience feeling the raft again and progressing using all the learning from last year was amazing. In three days I felt good again. Paddling Granity was tough with so many rocks and technical moves to be made. It was challenging but things really came together by the time I got to the Mangels. The Mangels had pusher water but had more times to make moves and lots features to play with. The river offered buffers waves and interesting direction of currents around features. I felt I guided really well this day. I can't wait for next week.
Learning:
Day one at Murchison really felt like a refresher. We went through all the signals that are used on the river, practiced using eddies to help with turning and concentrating on back ferries and defensive rafting rather than aggressive fast lie running such as industry style rafting.
Day two was a step up running the Granity section two times. I rafted a technical section which involved using every eddie to your advantage. I had a down stream wind which really made moves more difficult to make. I really got some good guiding time that day and had a huge insight in what I needed to practice to get to the level I'm aiming for.
Day three, this day we did a lot more technical moves by just using the crew and knowledge we had of eddies and upstream currents to control the raft. We also practiced the opposite, not using the crew and just guiding the boats using guide strokes and river reading techniques.
Experience: This was such an experience feeling the raft again and progressing using all the learning from last year was amazing. In three days I felt good again. Paddling Granity was tough with so many rocks and technical moves to be made. It was challenging but things really came together by the time I got to the Mangels. The Mangels had pusher water but had more times to make moves and lots features to play with. The river offered buffers waves and interesting direction of currents around features. I felt I guided really well this day. I can't wait for next week.
Rescue week
"Building up skills"
Group members: Diploma, Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
Sections: Lower Mataki, Granity, O'sullivans to Ariki
River Flow: Medium to low flow.
River grade: Grade 3
Duration: 4 days
Weather Conditions: Sunny weather with warm winds all week perfect summer conditions.
Learning: This week had a lot of learnings. I came to course with all my new saftey gear and they were put to use pretty fast. So day one where at Lower Mataki practicing all different means of moving around the water, using eddies strainers and anything to access places in the river to run safety. We practiced long throws, recoils, multi rescues and all things safety. Safe to say by the end of the day we were smashed but had developed a dynamic way to look at the river and how to run safety
Day two was back to the Lower Mataki. This day
the systems were introduced tying 3 to 1's and "pig rigs" or 4 to '1's. Went went in detail on how to use the raft and the crew and boat to run rescues. We practiced v lowers with the raft and without. We practiced modern body recovery drills will weighted throw bags. We ran through these drills hard and all day. Then came day three Granity. That was a big day, be grade 3. We ran through explosive rescues in difficult spots and with little warning. That mixed with guiding and practicing running as a real convoy made for a great day with lots to take from it. Day four lots of length and river to run through. This day the crew felt sharp we ran v lowering drills and ran them quick. We all new the tasks that needed to be done and we were fast at them. The guiding had picked and Corrin our lead instructor said he feels very happy about us running some grade four in the coming weeks. We learnt a lot that day about boils and stronger eddies and using the momentum to punch out of eddies into the rivers down stream flow.
Experience: This week was great. I discovered some of my strong points. I love the river and am a confident swimmer. I'm not scarred of the river and love catching eddies and throw bagging. I fell like I would happily swim and and eddie hop to get to good locations to access trapped people and run safety. Goals I have taken from the week is to build strength to be greater at surviving in such an intense environment. My rope systems need to become more fluent but I'm happy with the learnings I took and where I'm at with my rope system ability.
Learning: This week had a lot of learnings. I came to course with all my new saftey gear and they were put to use pretty fast. So day one where at Lower Mataki practicing all different means of moving around the water, using eddies strainers and anything to access places in the river to run safety. We practiced long throws, recoils, multi rescues and all things safety. Safe to say by the end of the day we were smashed but had developed a dynamic way to look at the river and how to run safety
Day two was back to the Lower Mataki. This day
the systems were introduced tying 3 to 1's and "pig rigs" or 4 to '1's. Went went in detail on how to use the raft and the crew and boat to run rescues. We practiced v lowers with the raft and without. We practiced modern body recovery drills will weighted throw bags. We ran through these drills hard and all day. Then came day three Granity. That was a big day, be grade 3. We ran through explosive rescues in difficult spots and with little warning. That mixed with guiding and practicing running as a real convoy made for a great day with lots to take from it. Day four lots of length and river to run through. This day the crew felt sharp we ran v lowering drills and ran them quick. We all new the tasks that needed to be done and we were fast at them. The guiding had picked and Corrin our lead instructor said he feels very happy about us running some grade four in the coming weeks. We learnt a lot that day about boils and stronger eddies and using the momentum to punch out of eddies into the rivers down stream flow.Experience: This week was great. I discovered some of my strong points. I love the river and am a confident swimmer. I'm not scarred of the river and love catching eddies and throw bagging. I fell like I would happily swim and and eddie hop to get to good locations to access trapped people and run safety. Goals I have taken from the week is to build strength to be greater at surviving in such an intense environment. My rope systems need to become more fluent but I'm happy with the learnings I took and where I'm at with my rope system ability.
R a f t W e e k R a n g a t a t a
"The Grade 4/5 experience"
Tutors: Reefton Top, Korrin Gould, Dan and Shlee
Group members: Diploma, Taipoutini polytechnic rafting students
River: Rangatata
River Flow: Medium to high flows
River grade: Grade 4/5
Duration: 5 days
Weather Conditions: Sunny weather on the first two day, with an incoming low pressure system on the third bringing cold winds. Low pressure hitting on the fourth day, flooding the river above commercial cut off. The fifth day was improving weather with dropping water levels.
Learnings: This trip as all about exposing us to the grade 4/5 world. Everything was based
around it. The rescue skills, the guiding even the
safety talks had changed. We practiced guiding
in grade 5, swimming in grade 5, team boat rescues and flips in faster moving water. We learned lots more about guiding with the effects of boils and really breaking down guiding moves. There was an emphasis that this was the last week of our official training so take all those skills you wont usually use in industry and get good at them. Back ferry's, calling different strokes from the client team. I practiced a lot of stroke technique and really tried to get some more power out of my pry. The rescue layer was build upon again and we learnt some awesome stuff, moving around rocks with raft bridges, zip lines, and more quick access to locations.
Learnings: This trip as all about exposing us to the grade 4/5 world. Everything was based
around it. The rescue skills, the guiding even the
safety talks had changed. We practiced guiding
in grade 5, swimming in grade 5, team boat rescues and flips in faster moving water. We learned lots more about guiding with the effects of boils and really breaking down guiding moves. There was an emphasis that this was the last week of our official training so take all those skills you wont usually use in industry and get good at them. Back ferry's, calling different strokes from the client team. I practiced a lot of stroke technique and really tried to get some more power out of my pry. The rescue layer was build upon again and we learnt some awesome stuff, moving around rocks with raft bridges, zip lines, and more quick access to locations.
Day 1 Off to the Rangatata and off to the East coast rafting scene. Was an exciting trip, grade 4/5 big water. The first day was chilled. We already had packed the trip on the weekend so everything was set for Monday. We packed our personal gear attached trailer and we were off. At Rangatata rafts I was to find out I'd get a day looking into what industry's about. I jumped on a guided tour and watched the in's and out's of the Rangatata's rafing company. The day ran just like work in Black Water Rafting, an introduction, gearing the clients up, the shuttle and small talk along the way, a safety brief and then into it. It was fun having experience and be able to be apart of the trip. I scouted rapids with the guides and they told me what they were looking for. I even managed to score a little guiding time and was asked to throw in a few extra strokes on some of the harder moves. All in all it was an easy day but a god look into a possible future.
Day 2 Over was a day of being a client, it was time to guide. In the morning I ran a safety breif that went awesome. As I'd been in the weakest raft of the day I'd seen a strong grade 5 safety talk and some constant drills to get the group sharp. When I was asked to give the crew a safety and paddle talk I was ready. I made sure to cover all the points and really let my team know what they were in for. I drilled them with strokes using my tone of voice to display urgency. I looked for any sloppy technique and to be honest I feel like I nailed it. The rest of the day went pretty well and I guided some of the lower sections pretty successfully. I knew this when Reefton said I think you're up to guiding a grade 5 section. Somewhere between my heart dropping and excitement bubbling out of my mouth I agreed. Roster tail rapid would be crux of the day. We scouted the rapid and I planned my move. Push right later than I expect. Get a couple of forward stokes to push over the boil on center right. Time it till you're sure your in the right place, then take the drop. What ever you do don't forget the sweep at the bottom or your heading for "Pigs Troth," a rising dumping 6 foot wave that's known for wrecking crews. As I paddled up everything was looking well. I made my first move pushed up on the boil, lined it straight then waited and waited, "forward paddle! get down!." We smashed down the wave hit the body and I was reaching in trying to hold the sweep. Smash, crash, bumps and bounces and we soared through the perfect line, victory. 
Day three Day two was an awesome success but now it was time for the next day. The river level was dropping and was now at a quite technical flow. During the days guiding again I had done pretty well. Somewhere in the day Reefton turned to me and said so it's seems like it's your turn to guide the second grade three rapid. Let me paint a picture of the second grade three rapid. It's a 350 meter long section with multiple must make moves, littered with giant holes, laterals and a seamed wall near the bottom. Was I ready? There was only one way to find out. The first move is Mouse trap. A Hole center right. To make the move you push far right and hold a 45 looking to the right hand sure to push through the laterals peeling off the far right wall. Stuff that move up and you're getting pushed to Potato rock. Potato rock sounds harmless but is more than big enough to flip a raft and send a crew swimming down another 180 meters of grade 5. To make Potato rock, you've gotta push hard river right and slow the boat on the eddie bulldozing through it. Catch it and you just made your move harder. From this eddie you've gotta line up river center. Push up on the reactinary wave coming off Potato rock catch the eddie and charge river left to your next point relief. Make that move wrong and Potato's reactionary wave is shooting you far rive right. Down there is a sweeping turn a huge buffer against that wall and it all feeds into hells gate. A place you don't wanna send your raft into. If you find yourself in that situation charge up on the buffer. As you ride it out switch your angle coming off it and charge for the Eddie. Awesome, where two thirds down. Now for the final move, Arleans. Arleans sits center left. The move is to Peel out of eddie on river left. Float down with an open angle ready to charge right at the last minute pushing behind Arleans and smashing through the laterals coming off Hells gate. After that soar round the corner ride out the seam the waters pushing into and you've ran Rangatata's 350 meter grade 4/5. So, here I go...
Running the Rapid: So I peel out of the rapid running a truck and trailer with Ariel in the other raft. I go first. Alright one move at a time, Mouse trap. I push right set my angle I'm nearly there. I look back. No Ariel, alone, solo guiding, the rapid. "Paddle Hard," we push down the rapid, the laterals try feed us towards Potato rock but the angle I've set's good. We catch the eddie waiting for Ariel. He shot's past taking first boat. Okay move two Potato rock, we've gotta go. "Forward paddle," I cry. We peel out. The waiting game I have to hit this reactionary just right. Again "forward paddle hard!" We crash up the rock over the lateral and into the eddie behind. I get bucked off and fly into the side tube in front of me. I jump back to my seat to find the eddies feeding us out and sending us straight towards the buffer on river right. I steady the angle, we charge onto the buffer and I call a, "Backwards left, forward, right." The boat turns and we charge hard left making our eddie. One more move to go. All that's left is Aleans hole. Float down the eddie line push right late, drop the nose. I watch the other boats go down, my turn. We float up the eddie, maybe too far. We push out, keep the angle open, keep the angle open I keep telling myself. Suddenly the boat starts tracking forward and towards Arleans rock. I freeze we hadn't talked about this. I keep the angle open, I charge hard right late. It's happening though. I drop the angle
where an inch away from Arleans. We have no angle to beat the laterals coming off Hell's gate. we get slammed left, I get thrown forward my led getting pushed under the side tube. The boat catches the upstream water that feeds to the hole created by Arleans. I free my trapped leg to find where just sitting there, a safe spot inside the luckiest eddie catch ever. "Backwards left, forward right," I command in a changing feeling of fear to relief. Where off and I've made it, Rangatata's worst.
T h e U p p e r G r e y
"First Organised over nighter of 2016"
Raft trip leader: Myself
River: The Blue Grey
Section: Gentle Annie gorge
Weather: Two days with a high pressure system over the whole island. Sunny, warm and stable weather for the whole trip.
Team: Kevin, Ryan, Gat, Olivia, Jamie Kate and Myself.
Learning: This was my first trip I've organized as a second year and the first trip organised for the year. Pulling off you own trip is an amazing feeling and pulling it off with your brother is even better. A big goal of this year is to increase my ability to organize and see all of the little details within a job. It's key to have people around you who are invested in the same goal as you are. Kevin was that person, he has great strengths at researching. Me and him pulled together and organized an over night rafting mission on a remote grade three run. Which we were assured is not the usual progression for first year out of Polytechnic time rafting. Key things I took away from the trip is be organised and start planning early. Writing lists and talking about the trip again and again makes it so things aren't missed and create the space for those conversations to happen. Though not all the details were nailed we were close and enough was done well to pull of an awesome trip.
Day 1 So we meet early morning at the Shed to pack all of the last gear we need. All of yesterday we organised the gear and the crew to be prepped for the trip. It all runs smoothly and it isn't to long before where at the put in to the Blue Grey. A couple of pies from Reefton and the crew is buzzing. We make sure to have a chat about safety and away we go. It doesn't take long to realize to flow is low. We new this but maybe not just how low is really was. The rafting becomes very technical and not getting bottomed out on every rapid is a more than difficult challenge. In about two hours where lucky if we have made it six km's down the river. Personally I was loving the challenge it was rafting at it's most difficult. Though some rapids were possible to raft. Others were only if you absolutely nailed ever move. We shared the rafting around and some of the first years got some difficult technical rapids well above the usual standards. We made to to our first lunch site and we knew we had k's to go. It was my turn to jump on the stick and get the trip moving. I'm not going to say we didn't get stuck but we charged down some near impossible rapids that made me pretty stoked with my guiding. Eventually as the day wore on more tributaries entered into the river. The section flattened out and the river became deeper with some braids. We pushed as far as we could until it became too dark. We had good light and made an awesome call to set up camp when we did. Camp ran well. Instantly people found rolls. Setting up tents, cooking dinner and of course setting up the giant fire. All the boys hooked in some more than others. It wasn't long before we were all gathered round a roaring fire, with hot chocolates and delicious spaghetti bolognese. It was an awesome first day and Kevin kept the fire burning late, late into the night.
Day 2 Me and Kevin awoke early and first. We were excited, day two was here. We packed our tent gear up and ventured out to the early morning. Believe it or not the coals of last nights fire were still smoldering. Like a moth to flame Kevin was gone and back on the fire lighting charge. For breakfast we has Bacon and eggs on toast, so I made a start on that. It wasn't long before Kevin was back and we quickly had the meal prepared. We served our team mates some even getting the breakfast in bed
special. We warmed up by the fire for a brief moment before we ventured out to pack up camp, load the rafts and head out to more unknown waters of the Grey. The morning was beautiful, we paddled a long braided section of the water with easy grade 1 to 2 moves. After a while we started to head into Annie's gorge the real grade three section. We stopped off and had lunch just before we entered in the gorge. I jumped on the guide stick and we entered in. It was truly breath taking in there and the rapids. The difficulty stepped u and the low flow technical nature made it even more fun.
The Big Rapid: We got to one rapid we scouted it was by far the crux move of the run. All the water was dropping and pushing left to the out side of a right corner. On the far left was a big rock with a huge reactionary wave pushing off it and further down center left was another huge rock with water buffering off it. A text point flipping location. I decided to run it first. My plan was to hit the rock with the reactionary wave and shot off to river right using its push. That's not what happened. I came up to the rapid feeling good, I was where I wanted to be. As the boat picked up speed I thought I'd nailed it and I put down the speed, "forward paddle hard." The water pushed us far more left than I had imagined.
"Hold on, I cried." We charged as direct at the rock as you possibly can. We were flying, we hit smashed against the rock and again we were flying as the boat rode right up the reactionary wave and we launched up and over the whole rock. We landed in the eddie behind it. The boat started peeling out. I lined us for an up stream ferry glide to try ferry above the mid stream flip rock. It all happened so fast, nearly past it, nearly past, "over left! I commanded" and we soared of the buffer and down into the pool below. What a line.
Day 2 continued The rest of the day went smooth. I guided a lot more of the river even swapping and guiding left handed, to show off and because I was beat. We arrived at our take out at 6pm and so
began the two hour shuttle. Me and the girls stayed behind as the boys left. We packed everything up as far as we could then heated up some hot Raro a coffee and some more spaghetti bolognese. One of the girls managed to set fire to a cooker which I had to beat out the flaming grass and gas bottle. But other than that it was just clock work. I very much enjoyed the responsibility of being a T.L for a raft trip and can't wait to plan my next overnighter.
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