Monday, August 16, 2010

Tauranga Taupo Huck Fest!!!

Well well well this would have to be one of the better kayaking updates I have put on my blog. Nearly 2 weeks ago now we were lucky enough to be the first kayaker to decent the Tauranga Taupo waterfall. The rain had been falling all week and the levels were looking good. Pete Sean and a German dude Timo and myself rallied Taupo way on Friday. We spent the night camping at the walk-in track, so we were ready for an early start. Brendon and Sophie meet us that morning and we got our hike on. Not the easiest hike in I have done, we ended up hiking for about an hour and a half to get to the stout. Well I think I will let the pics do the talking. I would also like to say a big thanks to Brendon Bailey for finding this beast of a waterfall and inviting us 2 paddled it with him shot B.




Sean, Pete, Timo and me scouting the sickest drop ever, we were all fired up and keen to huck our meat.(pic sophie)





Me dropping off the beast.I just decided to tuck as soon as I dropped off it as I thought it would reconnect me about half way down, I was right and it sure did do that.It set me up with the perfect angle to pug this beast .There was like no impact at the bottom, super soft that was sick. We think the stout is around 60 to 70ft high. I was a bit scared to look down as I dropped off - this aint a small drop!!(pic by Brendon)


(pic by Brendon)
Celebrating at the bottom, I was so so stoked on it, and happy with my line. My paddle split in half, but the blades didn't break. Unfortunately I ended up losing half of the paddled which sucked, but all good still - so stoked on it. Also a thanks to Sophie for walking in with us and running safety and recording the moment.Chur PEACE






1 comment:

  1. Nice work. Did you paddle back down toward the lake and was it in flood? I've heard it has some grade IV sections. Being a grade III paddler (in a packraft) I am keen to find out if it's grade IV in flood only (or able to be portaged)? I see some guys did the river recently looks like in flood with no portage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9_Qn4Mc7Wc see at 3:15 to 3:46. Cheers for any advice/info.

    ReplyDelete