After getting the kayaking under control, the next question that arose was, “How to photograph it?” I felt reminded a little of what Matt from Christchurch had said about horse riding and how it enhances viewing the countryside because you are no longer forced to look at the ground for most of the time. The horse is taking care of that. Now kayaking offers a very different landscape than most hiking because of the lack of obstacles. Nor do you really have to care where to place the paddle, and the view is mostly directed forward to the goal. True, sitting on a river means that you are at the lowest point on the landscape and much of the lower view is obstructed by the bank. But even banks can be pleasant to look at. Read more…
Category Archives: Travel Planning
Ironman II: Kayaking
There is historical evidence for the use of kayaks from the tour of 1974/75, although in my naïveté I called them “canoes” or “dinghies” at the time. The diary entry for Tuesday, January 7, 1975 at Blackwood Bay commences:
“I slept in again, and later went out on a canoe.”
Oh, No, National Geographic!
I had a gift book voucher left over from some celebration or other, and as the shop was closing its branch in town I thought I would redeem it before it went into recycling. Had a look at the maps first, because the pair that I have adorning the living room wall are gradually fading away. Not much more than a street map of Wellington was available so I had a look at the tour guides instead, hoping to find something that might give me a few tips that I had not seen before. The National Geographic volume looked like the sort of thing that I wouldn’t have bought without the voucher anyway, and it looked quite impressive, so I settled for it.Read more…
Ironman I: Swimming
One of the factors responsible for the drift in my memory that occurred in the 34 years I didn’t visit New Zealand was that I had been training for cadetship in Surf Life Saving in 1974/75 and was swimming up to 1200 m a session in times that were acceptable for the exam (400 m/8 min), and had subsequently reverted over the years to being little more than a hobby swimmer. Of course, for anyone (particularly someone young) who can regularly swim distances like those, a distance of several hundred metres simply becomes a distance that can be crossed.
My parents did not allow me to swim across the Bay of Islands to the island that, thanks now to GoogleEarth, I know is only 400 m from the shore; not because they thought I might not make it, but because there were speed boats flitting about; in any case, I made it up the Waitangi River to the Haruru Falls from the jetty at the motorcamp, which was about 200 m. That would have been a trivial distance. Read more…
Off to New Horizons
Nau mai, haere mai!
Time to start the blog up again.
Journey to Te Ika-a-Māui is the next project, a trip to the North Island of New Zealand, arriving on February 11 in the wee minutes of the morning and leaving on April 7, 2015. There is still a lot to see and do.
First and foremost on the programme are the remaining Great Walks of the North Island, the Whanganui River Journey and the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Twice on previous visits have I tried to go over the Tongariro Crossing, but to no avail. Having more time this time around and a better season for mountain climbing, this should be doable at some point. Read more…
