Last Day in Ohakune

Today is our last day in Ohakune until next season. Although we are sad to leave we are excited for the next part of our trip. Its Labour Weekend here in NZ and the sun is out in force! The weather has been gorgeous all weekend, and last night we enjoyed our first bbq of the summer!
Tomorrow we head to Wellington where we are spending the night before catching the ferry Tuesday morning to the South Island. We have heard that the ferry ride is beautiful so we are really looking forward to it. From there we are driving 4hours to Westport where we are camping for the night. After a bit of sight-seeing the next day down the West Coast we will arrive at a farm in a place called Ross. The farm should be good fun and different from what we have done before. Although spending some time on our friend's farm, James feels pretty handy with a gun and is looking forward to some hunting. We are spending 5 days on the farm before heading off to Lake Paringa Lodge for the rest of the Summer.
Lake Paringa looks amazing and hopefully the nice weather will continue (although it looks like rain next week!). At the Lake there will be plenty of kayaking, fishing, walking and enjoying the scenery - sounds great!
We don't know when we will have the internet over the next week but we will keep in touch when we can!

Our 3 Day 90km Canoe/Kayak Trip

Yesterday afternoon we got back from our Canoe Safari down the Wanganui River. We put in at Whakahoro on Wednesday morning at about 10am, and were picked up at 2pm on Friday at Pipiriki.
On the first day we had a little tutorial from Simon about how to steer the canoe, jumped in and had lots of little arguments about who's fault it was we ended up pointing up river quite often. We stopped for lunch at Mangapapa and after carrying the chilly bins (cool box) up a rather steep track, made some lovely sandwiches. We were on the trip with a father and daughter from Wellington, an American lady with her two young girls, a German backpacker called Linus and a Canadian 'guide', although the American lady thought Robyn and I were the guides, due to our workload during the trip. After a quick lunch it was back in our canoe for a trip to John Coull Hut, which is sort of like a really basic hostel with a small kitchen and Maori bunks (lots of matresses lined up on one bunk). Robyn and I slept in a tent outside to avoid the noise/children!
Day two started with Robyn and I preparing breakfast for the trip, and Linus and I traded places so he was steering the canoe with Robyn and I took the kayak. This worked out really well for all involved, he didn't get wet-bum, Robyn didn't get blamed for spinning the canoe, and I was much more comfortable in my little yellow sea kayak. I think we had more of a chat going down the river when I was cruising next to the boat. Lunch was at Mangapurua, which is also the start of a 40min walk up to the Bridge to Nowhere. The bridge was built after WW1 when the land around the Wanganui River was assigned to discharged servicemen. This was the last land assignment of it's kind in NZ, as it was a total failure, resulting in all the men being removed from their land by 1942. Back in the boats, we paddled down to Tieke to stay at Bridge to Nowhere lodge, where we shared a dorm room with Linus, and Joe the owner kept a variety of animals, we saw an Emu, minature horses, a peacock, a rabbit, a cat and a few dogs. We cooked up some steak, salad and pasta and collapsed into bed.
On day three we had roughly 22km to paddle down to Pipiriki to meet Simon for our pickup. There were a few rapids, although not very big, but good fun all the same. I got a good soaking being in a kayak, which Robyn found very funny. We arrived at Pipiriki 5 minutes before Simon, meaning no lunch, and he and I loaded the boats onto the trailer and we set off for Ohakune, about 40 mins away. On hearing I had missed lunch, Simon's partner Tracie made me a lovely toasty!
Yesterday evening we cooked up all the leftovers from the trip and had a good old chat with Simon and Tracie about what it was all like. Overall it was a fantastic trip, a highlight of our time in NZ so far.

Canoe Safari

So tomorrow we're off on a 3 day canoe safari down the Whanganui River which should be good. The ski lodge we've been looking after over the winter is actually the lodge for the canoe trips over spring/summer, so we've not got far to go to meet for the trip. Most of the course is inaccessible by land, and for a couple of nights we'll be staying at a hut and a lodge, meaning no mobile phones or internet or anything really!
The trips have a great reputation, and Simon has worked hard over a long period of time to make it so, and Robyn and I are really looking forward to going on one. We've been cooking up a couple of trip meals in the lodge over the past few days to let the new guide from Canada see how it's done, and the food is as good as most restaurants serve up. It also means that next winter when we're back at Canoe Safaris Lodge we can tell guests that the trips are fantastic and actually have been on one, rather than taking Simon's word for it. There's much more to read on the website, www.canoesafaris.co.nz.
The picture at the top is of Rangataua, a few K's away from Ohakune, where we had a bike ride to on Sunday. The weather has really cheered up, and we've gone from cold and rainy to hot and sunny in a matter of days, meaning going from wearing wooly hats to sunburn!
Any important news and what-not from home will have to wait until Friday evening now, when we're back in the civilised world!