ONe of numerous beaches up the East Cape

well I have now been in New Zealand teaching in Gisborne on the East Cape for 2 months, and I thought it time to finally get around to ‘putting pen to paper!’ In addition the added impetus has been the arrival of Fran.

I still have no river boat so I have not the opportunity to paddle and rivers since being here. However mine, and Fran’s, creek boats and gear is scheduled to arrive this week after being freighted out form Ireland over 6 weeks ago….so it shouldn’t be too long before we get out on a river or two…even more options to take up time what with kayak surfing and snow sports etc!!

In the meantime I got myself a second hand playboat to use in the surf, which is working on a consistent basis; Gissy being one of the prime spots in NZ for surf.  Although the playboat was (and is) lots of fun in the surf I decided to get a proper surf kayak and managed to get my hands on a Random Evolution Surf Kayak from Australia. When Fran arrived we also managed to get a Tsunami Waveski  for her to use.

Now Fran’s here we can start to get some photos and start putting up more posts and more photographs of our adventures in New Zealand, be they on land or water…

Although there are plenty of surfers here, along with the few wave skiers and even fewer surf kayakers there are so many breaks and beaches within a few km’s of Wainui, there is always plenty of wave space for everyone!

A week or more has passed since we touched back down in Dublin after a fantastic and, another, memorable two week winter trip through the Grand Canyon. Upon reflecting this has to be one of the best ways to spend New Year and to start off the year: the peace and solitude away from the madding crowds that are to be found here in the Summer more than outweigh the colder temperatures and shorter days; after all we launched on January 2nd and took out at Diamond Creek, 226 miles downriver, on the afternoon of January 14th and still managed to have 3 layover days for hiking and rest and recreation!

What more can be said about this place? The white water is fun and big and bouncy and safe, the scenery and surroundings are awe inspiring, humbling and difficult to comprehend and the weather, so far in my experiences, has been more than manageable with plenty of warm sunshine.

Keep posted for a more in depth post with more photos and video clips. In addition a larger selection of photos will be posted onto my flickr photostream, and a video will be posted onto vimeo at some stage.

Here is my entry for this super night at I-Canoe organised by Colm and Adrian…great effort lads and aslo a big thanks to all who entered videos and turned up with a big congratulations to Fran who won with her entry Why Canoe…

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