What have we been up to lately? Well, a lot of the time has been spent in really remote places where there is no cell phone reception or internet. So therefore the late update… Sorry!
We got our car fixed after two days in Te Anua. It´s still running really well, so we hope that it will for another 12 days before we leave the country…
While waiting for the car we paddled the Waiau River, connecting Lake Te Anua and Lake Manapouri. It was flowing at 300 cubic meters per second, so there was LOTS of fast-moving water! Great fun! The end of the paddle across Lake Manapouri was like a mirror, surrounded by huge green mountains and a bluish grey sky. It was surreal!
With the car fixed we headed off to do the Roteburn track over two days. The plan was to return off track via Emily Pass, but the rain clouds were so low that we couldn´t see the pass, so we ended up having to back track, the same way we came in. It was still a really pretty track, with views of the ocean that we had paddled in a few days before.
After that we headed back towards Queenstown/Wanaka to do a 45 km down river paddle race on the Clutha, organized by our friend Tim Person and the local multisport club. The Clutha is a really pretty, green fast-flowing class 2 river, but with the gnarliest head wind ever, it became quite a suffer fest! In Sweden we are both pretty good paddlers, but we´ve got nothing to put up against the Kiwi´s. They are so freaking strong!! The best multisport paddlers in the world. So we got totally smoked in the race!
Spent a few days driving up along the rugged and beautiful West Coast, from Haast to Kumara. Did a few side trips, for example up to Fox Glacier that comes down to just 300 meters above sea level. And to Lake Matheson, a picture-perfect lake that reflects the Fox Glacier and the peaks of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. Had a relaxing evening in the glacier hotpools as well.
Then started five days of hard Coast to Coast training. Stayed with Martin Flinta (swedish multisporter also doing the race) at Arthur´s Pass. Paddled the river twice, with a bunch of strong kiwi paddlers. Also did the run twice, and the first bike ride. Great training, about 25 hours in 5 days! Feel like we know the course pretty well now. The paddle is absolutely beautiful! Turqoiuse water, steep cliffs in the gorge, and great views. Takes a lot of practice to learn how to read the river and pick the right channels (it is braided, so some channels just dead end - very important to pick the right one to find the fastest route). The run is also really great! Lots of boulder-hopping and stream crossings, in total untracked wilderness. It´s gonna be such a great, and HARD race!
So everything is going well and we are still having a really great trip. But once again we have done something really stupid - this time we both win the SMRT-award (see previous update if you don´t know what that means). We have lost our new, waterproof camera with lots of pics on it!!! Think we must have forgotten it at a beach we stopped at for breakfast, but it wasn´t there when we went back. Someone must have taken it, so we are still hoping that someone will be nice enough to turn it in to the police…. Keep your fingers crossed, or hold your thumbs as we would say in swedish. :-)
Still got quite a few pics you can enjoy, since we also brought our old camera. Take a look at gallery "NZ 4".
Till next time!
Emma and Scott
