Well, after the cold of a Scottish winter, it was great to get to New Zealand and experience a second summer!

Despite a fair amount of rain, it was warm and sunny for much of the trip. Primarily, we were there to trek, but I managed to hook up with a few paddlers local to Queenstown and headed out for a New Year’s Day paddle on a river just north of the town.

When I arrived it was clear that these guys were really good paddlers; so I needed to be on my game!

To add to my nerves, was the huge amount of water in the river. It had been raining extremely heavily for the preceeding few days and the rivers around Queenstown and Wanaka were pumping.

Pete, an ex-pat Scot, who was leading the trip described the section we were going to paddle as a “mini Zambezi” – he wasn’t wrong!

The river was massive; far biger than anything I’ve ever paddled in Scotland. The cumecs were almost off the scale, the speed of the water was crazy and the eddie lines were, almost without exception, full of large whirlpools.

While I was paddling Pete’s burn, it was no match for the whirlpools and the backend kept getting sucked down. Techincal ability and a good range of strokes was fairly meaningless; it was head down and keep paddling forward. This was turning into a straight survival mission for me!

For the first wee while things were big, but ok. We paddled past some cliffs in the gorge section which had been used as ‘The Argonath’ in the Lord of the Rings (pretty cool), and we also paddled under a massive bungee jump platform on a bridge (wish I’d had a go).

But, as the walls of the gorge closed in, things got trickier. At one point I found myself ahead of the others going down a feature, so head down, focus and go straight! This gave me a bit of confidence, but as we reached the final rapid, called Big Dog (I think), the roar and horizon line put the fear of God into me!

We got out to inspect and I’d not seen anything like it before. There was a narrow fast-moving tongue of green water going down center right. Big diagonal pressure/pillow waves coming off the cliffs on river right and the mother of stoppers guarding the route down river left. Sadly, my legs were shaking and I just couldn’t get back on the water at that point.

I could see the line and, if I was in my own boat with paddles which actually had a feather(!), I recon I’d have given it a go, but I wasn’t confident on hitting the line and I really didn’t fancy drifting into the stopper; it was the width of a bus and I recon the face was about 3m high!

So, I walked round the stopper and put in just below. I felt a bit of a pussy not running it, but safety first is the name of the game (a lesson learned durig my Blackwater fun back in early December 2010).

The rest of the feature was full of BIG wave trains, surf waves and large stoppers. I was a good and exciting end to a pretty epic paddle. While the river challenged me big time and set the brown stuff running at times, it was well worth it and a great experience.

Many thanks indeed to Pete Simpson of Pyranha NZ for taking me under his wing and rustling up some other paddlers for the trip!

Well, today I had a mixed paddle on the Upper and Lower Blackwater.

Mixed because it started really well, with a lovely boof off the top fall, but ended with bit of green room action under the old Wade bridge and a second swim on the lower section.

The river was reasonably low and with pack ice still clinging to the banks, the water was freezing. After a good run down to the get-out, I decided that, having run the drop under the bridge a few times at this level, I run it again – despite everyone else giving it a miss!!

With everyone else standing by on safety, I hit the eddie under the bridge, took a few deep breathes and went for it. While my line was fine, I fluffed the last stroke above the drop, missed the boof and pencilled into the base of the fall. Over I went, hit the freezing water and lost my breath immediately.

I tried one roll, which failed, and stupidly pulled my deck instead of trying again. Within a split second of coming out of my boat I got that sinking feeling as the stopper below the fall sucked me down…it felt like ages, but was probably only about 10 seconds. Up and came and, before I could get a full breath, down I went again.

The only thing in my mind was Stewart’s last comment to me: “If you don’t make it, can I get your ticket to New Zealand?”

So, not wanting Cerian to be meeting Stewart in South Island rather than me, as my head popped up again, I looked round to where Ron was supposed to be on the bank and noticed a line right behind my head. I managed to grab and hold on just as I was getting sucked down for the second time. Ron pulled, I got free and then had a long swim to the far side of the pool to collect my boat.

Lesson learnt. If the good guys don’t want to run it, don’t run it!

After that, my confidence was a bit knocked and the cold really got to me. I couldn’t focus properly and my energy levels were low; but as the others were heading to the lower Blackwater, I thought I’d best tag along for the ride.

I took the section gingerly and knew I wasn’t paddling well or focusing. Had one or two wee plays on the waves at the top, but after that it was really just a case of getting down without another swim. But that was easier said than done!

On a small, reasonably easy section I flipped over (I just wasn’t concentrating) and half rolled. I tried again and couldn’t get up, so had to pull my deck. What a terrible day! I generally pride myself on having a fairly solid roll, but today it just wasn’t working for me.

So, after a self-rescue and second boat emptying exercise, I put back in and paddled to the end of the section. By the time we got out I was seriously cold and fatigued; I couldn’t wait to get changed and get home.

So, the moral of the story is this: Remeber, even if you’re paddling well and a river’s grade is within your ability range, freezing temperatures add a whole extra raft of complexities and hazards. If it’s cold, don’t take risks!