Newsletter 39
7 February 2007
Dear Southland Sea Kayakers
I have not had a lot of feedback from people on their kayak adventures over the summer so there is not a lot to report. Over New Year Tim and Jacqui Anderson, Belinda and myself went down to Milford Sound and kayaked over to Sinbad Beach. We left our kayaks there and then scrambled up the creek bed for 3 hours to the first lot of flats where we camped in glorious weather. About half an hour before the flats is the Blue Pool which is a compulsory swim which the team members did in various fashions, fully clothed and wearing packs. In New Year Simon Marwick kayaked/sailed from Half Moon Bay to the Ruggedy area and back. In January several of our members had several impromptu sessions in the surf at Riverton and on Oreti Beach. We got thrashed and I’m not sure we are much the wiser for all of this! Belinda Mulvany and Sue Lake had an epic on the Pourakino River which is log jammed along most of its length. This was a reconnaissance trip from Ermadale Road bridge to the estuary. It is not a kayakable river above the Centre Road bridge.
I am always keen to hear of your kayaking adventures and keen to publish them on this newsletter.
Kayaking weekend at Riverton 17/2/07
Tim Anderson is hosting a kayaking weekend at Riverton on 17/18 February as a celebration of his birthday on 14 February. He is extending an open invitation to members of the Southland Sea Kayaking Network to join Jacqui and Tim at 3 James Street., Riverton for a fun weekend of kayaking and social activities starting on the Saturday morning. Accommodation will be in tents on their lawn or marae-style inside if wet. Kayaking activities will be tailored to weather and sea conditions and could include surf landing and launching, paddle to Pig Island and lunch out there or paddles up the Estuary/Pourakino River. In the evening there will be a pizza/BBQ at Tim and Jacqui’s place.
What to bring: Kayaking gear, sleeping bags, food
Registration: Tim and Jacqui Anderson Ph 03-2349399
Future Trips
I would encourage members to use our interactive website to post trips you want to lead or maybe want someone to go kayaking with. Unfortunately I am committed to several kayaking expeditions in March and during the winter and will not be in a position to run any network trips for some time.
Sail on kayaks
My interest in sails on kayaks was recently sparked by Simon Marwick who build an excellent sail from the design in the KASK magazine and who has been using it very successfully as a downwind sail. I have been researching sails and there are several commercial sails made for kayaks. Their websites are
www.pacificaction.com
www.spiritsails.com
www.q-kayaks.co.nz
We will probably have a talk on sails at the next kayaking skills weekend we run this year.
KASK 2007 Annual Forum
Date: 23 - 26 (Fri-Mon) February 2007
Venue: Anakiwa (Marlborough Sounds)
Download Registration Form from KASK website www.kask.co.nz
The last KASK forum at the Outward Bound venue at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound was an absolute cracker, with a strong emphasis on the practical side of sea kayaking.
The feature of the 2007 forum will be - Keynote speaker, Nigel Foster.
Nigel Foster began kayaking as a teenager in southern England in a canvas kayak. He was first to circumnavigate Iceland, has crossed France from north to south, ventured across the Hudson Strait in Canada, and explored the Faroe Island coast, where 2,000-foot-high cliffs glare down on 10-knot tidal streams in the North Atlantic swell. He makes a living teaching kayaking skills all around the world and in addition, does kayak and paddle design work. Nigel has written several books and many articles on kayaking. He has also produced a series of six sea-kayaking instructional DVD's.
Nigels keynote presentation will be about his latest exciting trip to Ungava Bay and Labrador in sub-arctic Canada. With Kristin Nelson, they did a 675-mile wilderness trip (one village at one end, the next at the finish). They had to figure out the complexity of the forty-foot tidal exchange, which exposed rocks and ridges the height of five-story buildings, and had close encounters with polar bears. This was covered in the June 2006 Sea Kayaker Magazine.
This is supported by Water Safety New Zealand.
Other topics and events include:
Overnight paddle and camp out on the Sunday night at Mistletoe Bay
Kayaking and Climbing on Lake Hauroko
Lake Hauroko is one of the great Southern Lakes only 1.5 hours drive from Invercargill. It is a gateway to deep Fiordland which one can reach readily by kayak. Even more appealing is the fact so few go there and its surrounding mountains lie in mystery often shrouded in cloud and covered in impenetrable forest. The lake itself has an ominous translation from Maori “The Lake of the Winds”. It was here that I recently set out on a solo paddle with the objective of climbing its highest mountain, Caroline Peak. Last winter on an outlier of White Peak, Tim and I surveyed Caroline and were impressed by it daunting approaches. It seemed the best way up it might be from a large creek draining the western slopes.
It was late in the day when I started. There was a fresh breeze on the lake as I shoved off from the road end. I quickly reached the passage between Mary Island and the main body of the lake and found a southerly wind was pushing wind waves up the lake. I headed out into these as darkness fell and revelled in the following sea as I angled across towards Caroline Hut. I fair flew along surfing on the small waves, occasionally bracing to arrive at the darkened beach at 10.30 PM. I pulled up the kayak and a short distance away was the empty Caroline Hut where I spent the night.
Next day I continued up to Unknown Burn and was disappointed to find the ridge I had hoped to climb was a poor choice. At the top at 1200 metres was a long jagged ridge and I did not feel confident I would summit. I did however notice on the northern side of the lake that there was a beautiful ridge snaking up a bell shaped mountain 1527 metres about 5 kilometres west of Rooney Creek. I booked marked this for a future trip.
Over Waitangi weekend we aborted our Stewart Island kayaking trip due to adverse wind conditions and returned on the Saturday. I suggested to Simon conditions would be better inland and indeed they were. So I suggested a trip up the appealing ridge near White Peak. We set off from the Hauroko landing on the Sunday at lunchtime and quickly kayaked to Caroline Hut and then on to a small beach below the ridge. There was a light southerly wind and Simon deployed his sail and we hooked on a tow line and away we went.
On the beach we sorted out our gear and set off up the ridge which was a bit scrubby in places but there were good deer trails and we quickly gained height. After several hours we reached the bushline at 640 metres and found a most delightful flat area with a nearby tarn. We camped here in beautiful weather. Straight across the lake was Caroline Peak guarded by formidable bush covered slopes nowhere offering an easy ascent. The lower slopes were bare rock cliffs dropping many metres straight into the lake. Even landing was problematic. We spent a pleasant evening and retired for the night as cloud enveloped us.
Morning brought clear skies as we set off up the tussock ridge. There was a steep climb to a knoll and then the ridge eased off as we followed old deer trails along towards the bell shaped peak at 1527 metres. This was easily reached after several hours where the views of southern Fiordland were superlative. We had some food on the summit before carrying on along the ridge to White Peak. This has pink granite rocks long the ridge and was a nice walk. We descended down the scree slopes to the hanging tussock valley between the two peaks for a swim in the tarns and sleep in the tussoch before wandering back to our camp site. As it was still only 4 PM with plenty of daylight we shot off down the ridge to the kayaks and headed back into a southerly chop to Caroline Hut to spend the night before heading for home next morning.
A kayaking/climbing trip on Lake Hauroko with an ascent of peak 1527 metres and White Peak on 4-6 February 2007 by Simon Marwick and Stan Mulvany
Basic Emergency Kit
This is highly recommended for all tramping and sea kayaking trips. It is a Basic Emergency Kit not a comprehensive one by any means. For sea kayaking emergencies other equipment is of course necessary but not practical to include in this basic kit such as orange smoke, red hand held flares, VHF radio etc.
This is the list of items included
The cost is $ 100.00.
$100.00 is cheap if you life is in danger.
Contact Stanley if interested.
Safe kayaking
Stanley
Dear Southland Sea Kayakers
I have not had a lot of feedback from people on their kayak adventures over the summer so there is not a lot to report. Over New Year Tim and Jacqui Anderson, Belinda and myself went down to Milford Sound and kayaked over to Sinbad Beach. We left our kayaks there and then scrambled up the creek bed for 3 hours to the first lot of flats where we camped in glorious weather. About half an hour before the flats is the Blue Pool which is a compulsory swim which the team members did in various fashions, fully clothed and wearing packs. In New Year Simon Marwick kayaked/sailed from Half Moon Bay to the Ruggedy area and back. In January several of our members had several impromptu sessions in the surf at Riverton and on Oreti Beach. We got thrashed and I’m not sure we are much the wiser for all of this! Belinda Mulvany and Sue Lake had an epic on the Pourakino River which is log jammed along most of its length. This was a reconnaissance trip from Ermadale Road bridge to the estuary. It is not a kayakable river above the Centre Road bridge.
I am always keen to hear of your kayaking adventures and keen to publish them on this newsletter.
Kayaking weekend at Riverton 17/2/07
Tim Anderson is hosting a kayaking weekend at Riverton on 17/18 February as a celebration of his birthday on 14 February. He is extending an open invitation to members of the Southland Sea Kayaking Network to join Jacqui and Tim at 3 James Street., Riverton for a fun weekend of kayaking and social activities starting on the Saturday morning. Accommodation will be in tents on their lawn or marae-style inside if wet. Kayaking activities will be tailored to weather and sea conditions and could include surf landing and launching, paddle to Pig Island and lunch out there or paddles up the Estuary/Pourakino River. In the evening there will be a pizza/BBQ at Tim and Jacqui’s place.
What to bring: Kayaking gear, sleeping bags, food
Registration: Tim and Jacqui Anderson Ph 03-2349399
Future Trips
I would encourage members to use our interactive website to post trips you want to lead or maybe want someone to go kayaking with. Unfortunately I am committed to several kayaking expeditions in March and during the winter and will not be in a position to run any network trips for some time.
Sail on kayaks
My interest in sails on kayaks was recently sparked by Simon Marwick who build an excellent sail from the design in the KASK magazine and who has been using it very successfully as a downwind sail. I have been researching sails and there are several commercial sails made for kayaks. Their websites are
www.pacificaction.com
www.spiritsails.com
www.q-kayaks.co.nz
We will probably have a talk on sails at the next kayaking skills weekend we run this year.
KASK 2007 Annual Forum
Date: 23 - 26 (Fri-Mon) February 2007
Venue: Anakiwa (Marlborough Sounds)
Download Registration Form from KASK website www.kask.co.nz
The last KASK forum at the Outward Bound venue at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound was an absolute cracker, with a strong emphasis on the practical side of sea kayaking.
The feature of the 2007 forum will be - Keynote speaker, Nigel Foster.
Nigel Foster began kayaking as a teenager in southern England in a canvas kayak. He was first to circumnavigate Iceland, has crossed France from north to south, ventured across the Hudson Strait in Canada, and explored the Faroe Island coast, where 2,000-foot-high cliffs glare down on 10-knot tidal streams in the North Atlantic swell. He makes a living teaching kayaking skills all around the world and in addition, does kayak and paddle design work. Nigel has written several books and many articles on kayaking. He has also produced a series of six sea-kayaking instructional DVD's.
Nigels keynote presentation will be about his latest exciting trip to Ungava Bay and Labrador in sub-arctic Canada. With Kristin Nelson, they did a 675-mile wilderness trip (one village at one end, the next at the finish). They had to figure out the complexity of the forty-foot tidal exchange, which exposed rocks and ridges the height of five-story buildings, and had close encounters with polar bears. This was covered in the June 2006 Sea Kayaker Magazine.
This is supported by Water Safety New Zealand.
Other topics and events include:
- Great Opportunities to network with local and overseas sea kayakers
- Take part in practical and theoretical Sea Kayak Training covering for example paddling skills, rescue skills and first aid. Involving Nigel Foster and local NZ experts
- A chance to see and share ideas on sea kayak design and equipment
- Local Area information and exploratory paddles
- The KASK AGM
Overnight paddle and camp out on the Sunday night at Mistletoe Bay
Kayaking and Climbing on Lake Hauroko
Lake Hauroko is one of the great Southern Lakes only 1.5 hours drive from Invercargill. It is a gateway to deep Fiordland which one can reach readily by kayak. Even more appealing is the fact so few go there and its surrounding mountains lie in mystery often shrouded in cloud and covered in impenetrable forest. The lake itself has an ominous translation from Maori “The Lake of the Winds”. It was here that I recently set out on a solo paddle with the objective of climbing its highest mountain, Caroline Peak. Last winter on an outlier of White Peak, Tim and I surveyed Caroline and were impressed by it daunting approaches. It seemed the best way up it might be from a large creek draining the western slopes.
It was late in the day when I started. There was a fresh breeze on the lake as I shoved off from the road end. I quickly reached the passage between Mary Island and the main body of the lake and found a southerly wind was pushing wind waves up the lake. I headed out into these as darkness fell and revelled in the following sea as I angled across towards Caroline Hut. I fair flew along surfing on the small waves, occasionally bracing to arrive at the darkened beach at 10.30 PM. I pulled up the kayak and a short distance away was the empty Caroline Hut where I spent the night.
Next day I continued up to Unknown Burn and was disappointed to find the ridge I had hoped to climb was a poor choice. At the top at 1200 metres was a long jagged ridge and I did not feel confident I would summit. I did however notice on the northern side of the lake that there was a beautiful ridge snaking up a bell shaped mountain 1527 metres about 5 kilometres west of Rooney Creek. I booked marked this for a future trip.
Over Waitangi weekend we aborted our Stewart Island kayaking trip due to adverse wind conditions and returned on the Saturday. I suggested to Simon conditions would be better inland and indeed they were. So I suggested a trip up the appealing ridge near White Peak. We set off from the Hauroko landing on the Sunday at lunchtime and quickly kayaked to Caroline Hut and then on to a small beach below the ridge. There was a light southerly wind and Simon deployed his sail and we hooked on a tow line and away we went.
On the beach we sorted out our gear and set off up the ridge which was a bit scrubby in places but there were good deer trails and we quickly gained height. After several hours we reached the bushline at 640 metres and found a most delightful flat area with a nearby tarn. We camped here in beautiful weather. Straight across the lake was Caroline Peak guarded by formidable bush covered slopes nowhere offering an easy ascent. The lower slopes were bare rock cliffs dropping many metres straight into the lake. Even landing was problematic. We spent a pleasant evening and retired for the night as cloud enveloped us.
Morning brought clear skies as we set off up the tussock ridge. There was a steep climb to a knoll and then the ridge eased off as we followed old deer trails along towards the bell shaped peak at 1527 metres. This was easily reached after several hours where the views of southern Fiordland were superlative. We had some food on the summit before carrying on along the ridge to White Peak. This has pink granite rocks long the ridge and was a nice walk. We descended down the scree slopes to the hanging tussock valley between the two peaks for a swim in the tarns and sleep in the tussoch before wandering back to our camp site. As it was still only 4 PM with plenty of daylight we shot off down the ridge to the kayaks and headed back into a southerly chop to Caroline Hut to spend the night before heading for home next morning.
A kayaking/climbing trip on Lake Hauroko with an ascent of peak 1527 metres and White Peak on 4-6 February 2007 by Simon Marwick and Stan Mulvany
Basic Emergency Kit
This is highly recommended for all tramping and sea kayaking trips. It is a Basic Emergency Kit not a comprehensive one by any means. For sea kayaking emergencies other equipment is of course necessary but not practical to include in this basic kit such as orange smoke, red hand held flares, VHF radio etc.
This is the list of items included
- Dry bag xs
- Waterproof matches and cigarette lighter
- Small torch and spare alkaline battery
- Pencil, paper and xs zip lock bags
- Firestarters
- Small compass
- Mirror
- Illumstick
- Energy food
- Whistle
- Emergency Survival Sleeping bag
The cost is $ 100.00.
$100.00 is cheap if you life is in danger.
Contact Stanley if interested.
Safe kayaking
Stanley