Newsletter 40
30 March 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. On 22-24 March Simon Marwick and myself climbed Caroline Peak and traversed the mountains to Albert Edward Peak and kayaked across Lake Hauroko.
I am always keen to hear of your kayaking adventures and keen to publish them on this newsletter.
Trips
Louise Parker and Mark Banham from Queenstown are organising the following two trips
Kayaking weekend at Riverton 31/3/07-1/4/07
I have a friend with a batch, (only a small one) which we are considering renting for the weekend. The usual Riverton plan- playing in the surf, learning skills from each other, walking round the headland, reading a good book or paddling round the islands depending on the weather. Will be a fairly casual and un-timetabled weekend for anyone interested.
Easter - Stewart Island
Unlike some of the braver members of the club... we are planning to sit in our kayaks ON the ferry to Stewart island, moving our paddles around in the breeze and THEN report we paddled to Stewart Island. Once rested from the ferry trip, we plan to paddle and camp around the place. Mark is also planning on running the great walk over there if anyone is interested ( or even just wants to wait at the end and laugh). Again no specific plans other than being eaten by a couple of sand flys, eating blue cod and paddling around.
I would encourage members to join Louise and Mark on these kayaking weekends. Please contact Louise and Mark by email to [email protected] or to [email protected] or phoning home at 03-4411159
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 not in a position to lead trips myself as I am committed to a sailing voyage in May and in July and August we are off on a 2000 kilometre kayaking trip in the Canadian North
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
I have just bought a Pacific Action Sail and yet to try it out. We will probably have a talk on sails at the next kayaking skills weekend we run this year.
KASK Forum Report by Jacqui and Tim Anderson
KASK Forum at Anakiwa, Marlborough Sounds- 23rd –28th February 2007
Jacqui & Tim spent 5 days at Anakiwa Outward Bound Headquaters at the blunt end of Queen Charlotte Sound ,along with Stephen Counsell, representing The Southern Network at the annual KASK forum.
We were very glad we attended this great kayak get-together in warm weather, on & under warm water with 120 other lovely paddlers from all over NZ & the world. We really enjoyed that sea kayakers often come in couples so the male/ female ratio was almost even & on top of that they were all about our age!
Over the weekend there were 49 short sessions to choose from on a diverse range of topics, held on land & in the water- paddle & rolling technique, outdoor first aid, fitting out your boat for comfort, weather, navigation, surfing, rescues, trip planning & more. Instruction was to a high level- thanks to all those experienced paddlers who shared their skills. Evenings were filled with interesting presentations. One detailing the state of NZ sea birds & a fascinating report by Nigel Foster & wife Kristen of their month long expedition along the Labrador Coast punctuated by 16 close encounters with polar bears.
50 or so kayakers packed & podded up on Sunday afternoon & paddled to Mistletoe Bay about 10 km away for a camp out, returning the next morning. This was our first experience of being pod mother & father & we were pleased to have time to get to know a smaller group really well.
We stayed on for a further 2 days expert instruction with Nigel & Kristen who emphasized finesse with a light & gentle touch on the paddle. This will take a while to master after years of forcing it & falling in!
We were pleased that there was a tribute to Andrew McCauley with some words of admiration from Paul Caffyn & a poem & a ‘demystification’ talk by friend & former paddle companion, David Winkworth from Australia.
Another workshop featured tips on customizing a kayak for a disabled paddler & there were several motions put to the AGM to encourage us to make KASK a welcoming organization for all- a message we could adopt in our own Southland Network as well. As someone pointed out, how would you feel if an injury or illness threatened your enjoyment of your favourite sport.
Another highlight was the Greenland Paddling workshop by Ben (one of the few under 40) sharing some history of the original equipment used by the Greenlanders, accompanied by a video, & then a demonstration of 28 different rolls – just a few examples of the specialized techniques developed to right the paddler in any situation including entanglement in harpoon ropes. Just amazing!
A memorable week.
Paddling partner wanted for a Martins Bay to Milford Trip
I have received the following letter from Graeme Loh looking for someone to accompany him on this trip. I’d go myself but I am too committed to other trips at present.
Hi Stan
I have signed up as a member of your adventurous group because I am looking around for a paddling partner to do the Hollyford to Milford trip when the weather is not too windy. Rob Tipa recommended that you are the people to meet. The Hollyford to Milford trip is beyond what my partner Sue is interested in doing and it will be an adventure for me. I have never done 36 km in one sitting tho plenty of 20-25 km days. I've been paddling frequently lately and should be in good condition and have reasonable freedom at work to take off and exploit the weather. Probably prefer to do it in a double kayak (I have a glass "Dusky Bay". Faster safer. I have been along the coast and over the bar before in my inflatable and am familiar with Fiordland conditions from extensive scuba diving trips and some kayaking. Have climbed Mitre Peak and dived in Sutherland sound. I am well aware that it is not reasonable to count on landing along the Kaipo coast, as much as I'd love to explore the Wolf River limestone country. But I would not like to do the trip in a hurry and would expect to take several days over it and explore where opportunities arise. Be good to try it while the days are still long and a 10am high tide timing would be ideal. Looking at the Kayaking proficiency standards, I have not been formally assessed but I can see nothing there that is unfamiliar or a challenge to achieve. Anyway that is a bit about me and my dreams. Other things on the to do list Hauroko, Wairaurahiri, Blue Cliffs. (Have rafted the Wx)and Puysegur Port Craig slowly looking in at the old sealing coves and Green Islets. On another matter entirely,
So Stan, if you would be so kind to make your people aware of my existence and ambitions that would be very nice
Thanks
Graeme
Contact Graeme Loh at 03-4876125, [email protected]
A Kayaking/Climbing Trip to the Caroline Mountains.
This summer Simon and I have been exploring the little known mountains around Lake Hauroko. Hauroko offers a fast entry from Invercargill into some astonishingly superb country. It’s Fiordland at its best_ wild, remote and breathtakingly beautiful. Fiordland is a national treasure and no where more so than this region. There is no detailed guide book so it feels like real exploration studying the ridges and tops from our kayaks as we glide upon the still waters. Our first success was a splendid climb of White Peak on Waitangi weekend. From there we debated the best route on Caroline Peak and settled on a traverse from Unknown Burn over Caroline Peak to Albert Edward Peak. There are about 12 peaks on the ridge line which is over 5 kilometres long and a series of alpine lakes dot the route. All we needed was 3 days of fine weather and freedom.
Last week the Metvuw computer models predicted a suitable window of fine weather and as we had put off our next Gumotex trip we decided on the Caroline trip. Thursday morning dawned fine after overnight rain as we left Invercargill bound for Lake Hauroko. We reached the boat landing at the road end and as we were unloading our kayak Val Mackay arrived towing his boat Namu. We hurredly packed our gear and got it stowed on the boat and then tied our kayaks across the stern. Shortly after we were cruising across the still waters towards Mary Island but once through the gap we were into a northerly chop. Val angled over to the bush clad cliffs below Albert Edward Peak and I asked him to veer south where there were some boulder beaches. Here we found a suitable landing and dragged our kayaks into the bush. I took a GPS reading and set a waypoint as we were leaving.
Val pointed the bow up the lake and we set off. Its another 12 kilometres to the mouth of Unknown Burn were we landed on a white pebbly beach. Here we unloaded our packs and had a snack while Val backed off and headed away towards the head of the lake. The weather was sunny and cloudless as we set off into the forest. Our packs were heavy as we carried in addition to our usual camping gear, ice axes, rope and a rock climbing rack. We walked through to the creek and then up its true right bank. The going was fairly open but several deep ravines came of the sides. About 2 hours in a very deep steep one stopped us and we headed up its true right bank. Deer trails helped and at 900 metres we reached bushline. In a small stream we stripped off and went for a shower.
Above the tussock made for steady progress to the ridge line at 1200 metres. Unfortunately there was a vertical drop of hundreds of metres down the north face and as the ridge itself did not look great we decided to sidle under the south side loosing about 250 metres in the course of this. On the far side was a small valley and we found a flat grassy patch for the tent. The evening was well advanced and an orange alpenglow lit up Caroline peak above us. We had a Backcountry Cousine and settled down for the night.
We were up at 600 hours and away at 730 climbing up into a basin above us. There were remnant snow fields. Looking across towards Caroline Peak there was a gully running through the cliffs right to the ridge line to the left of the summit. We climbed this and left our gear at the top. We then roped up and set off climbing gullies and small rock faces to the summit. It was windy and cold. From the summit we could look across to the Tasman Sea to the west and Lake Hauroko to the east and a host of other peaks right throughout Fiordland. We took a round of photos including a self portrait.
We regained our packs and then set off down the gully and up and across the ridge to the east of us where we reached extensive snow fields and granite terraces overlooking the lake. We traversed about a kilometre of these to reach a steep corner peak at 1551 metres which gave access to large hanging valley to the east containing a large lake. We descended the east ridge of this peak and had lunch on some granite slabs above the col. Here it was windless and hot. After lunch we set off for the next peak ( 1381 metres) but a large gendarme blocked our route so we sidled around it on the south side of the ridge past another alpine lake. On the far side we climbed back up to the ridge. Further on was another difficult peak at 1514 metres which we sidled on the south side. We regained the ridge at a delightful tarn in a shallow col. From here it did not seem like a long way to Albert Edward but it was very deceptive and we had to climb several more peaks to close on it.
By now it was cold and windy and suitable bivi spots were difficult to find. Just before Albert Edward we stopped at a level spot 200’ off the ridge on the north side. I set up camp while Simon went off on a reconnaissance. That night the wind got up and it lashed the tent making an awful racket and keeping us awake all night. We were up at 530 and away an hour later. Back on the ridge it dropped and we had a pleasant climb up Albert Edward Peak. Looking back towards Caroline it seemed a long way off and still quite spectacular. From here we descended a ridge towards the lake. We had intended to follow this all the way down but rocky pinnacles and towers at the start of the bush precluded this. We decided to make a direct descent down near vertical slopes all the way to the lake. Interestingly we arrived at the lake only metres from our kayaks. As it was blowing about 35 knots on the lake and full of white caps we stayed put all afternoon but in the early evening it calmed down enough to make a safe crossing.
A traverse of Caroline peak to Albert Edward Peak in the Lake Hauroko region on 22-24 March 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. On 22-24 March Simon Marwick and myself climbed Caroline Peak and traversed the mountains to Albert Edward Peak and kayaked across Lake Hauroko.
I am always keen to hear of your kayaking adventures and keen to publish them on this newsletter.
Trips
Louise Parker and Mark Banham from Queenstown are organising the following two trips
Kayaking weekend at Riverton 31/3/07-1/4/07
I have a friend with a batch, (only a small one) which we are considering renting for the weekend. The usual Riverton plan- playing in the surf, learning skills from each other, walking round the headland, reading a good book or paddling round the islands depending on the weather. Will be a fairly casual and un-timetabled weekend for anyone interested.
Easter - Stewart Island
Unlike some of the braver members of the club... we are planning to sit in our kayaks ON the ferry to Stewart island, moving our paddles around in the breeze and THEN report we paddled to Stewart Island. Once rested from the ferry trip, we plan to paddle and camp around the place. Mark is also planning on running the great walk over there if anyone is interested ( or even just wants to wait at the end and laugh). Again no specific plans other than being eaten by a couple of sand flys, eating blue cod and paddling around.
I would encourage members to join Louise and Mark on these kayaking weekends. Please contact Louise and Mark by email to [email protected] or to [email protected] or phoning home at 03-4411159
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 not in a position to lead trips myself as I am committed to a sailing voyage in May and in July and August we are off on a 2000 kilometre kayaking trip in the Canadian North
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
I have just bought a Pacific Action Sail and yet to try it out. We will probably have a talk on sails at the next kayaking skills weekend we run this year.
KASK Forum Report by Jacqui and Tim Anderson
KASK Forum at Anakiwa, Marlborough Sounds- 23rd –28th February 2007
Jacqui & Tim spent 5 days at Anakiwa Outward Bound Headquaters at the blunt end of Queen Charlotte Sound ,along with Stephen Counsell, representing The Southern Network at the annual KASK forum.
We were very glad we attended this great kayak get-together in warm weather, on & under warm water with 120 other lovely paddlers from all over NZ & the world. We really enjoyed that sea kayakers often come in couples so the male/ female ratio was almost even & on top of that they were all about our age!
Over the weekend there were 49 short sessions to choose from on a diverse range of topics, held on land & in the water- paddle & rolling technique, outdoor first aid, fitting out your boat for comfort, weather, navigation, surfing, rescues, trip planning & more. Instruction was to a high level- thanks to all those experienced paddlers who shared their skills. Evenings were filled with interesting presentations. One detailing the state of NZ sea birds & a fascinating report by Nigel Foster & wife Kristen of their month long expedition along the Labrador Coast punctuated by 16 close encounters with polar bears.
50 or so kayakers packed & podded up on Sunday afternoon & paddled to Mistletoe Bay about 10 km away for a camp out, returning the next morning. This was our first experience of being pod mother & father & we were pleased to have time to get to know a smaller group really well.
We stayed on for a further 2 days expert instruction with Nigel & Kristen who emphasized finesse with a light & gentle touch on the paddle. This will take a while to master after years of forcing it & falling in!
We were pleased that there was a tribute to Andrew McCauley with some words of admiration from Paul Caffyn & a poem & a ‘demystification’ talk by friend & former paddle companion, David Winkworth from Australia.
Another workshop featured tips on customizing a kayak for a disabled paddler & there were several motions put to the AGM to encourage us to make KASK a welcoming organization for all- a message we could adopt in our own Southland Network as well. As someone pointed out, how would you feel if an injury or illness threatened your enjoyment of your favourite sport.
Another highlight was the Greenland Paddling workshop by Ben (one of the few under 40) sharing some history of the original equipment used by the Greenlanders, accompanied by a video, & then a demonstration of 28 different rolls – just a few examples of the specialized techniques developed to right the paddler in any situation including entanglement in harpoon ropes. Just amazing!
A memorable week.
Paddling partner wanted for a Martins Bay to Milford Trip
I have received the following letter from Graeme Loh looking for someone to accompany him on this trip. I’d go myself but I am too committed to other trips at present.
Hi Stan
I have signed up as a member of your adventurous group because I am looking around for a paddling partner to do the Hollyford to Milford trip when the weather is not too windy. Rob Tipa recommended that you are the people to meet. The Hollyford to Milford trip is beyond what my partner Sue is interested in doing and it will be an adventure for me. I have never done 36 km in one sitting tho plenty of 20-25 km days. I've been paddling frequently lately and should be in good condition and have reasonable freedom at work to take off and exploit the weather. Probably prefer to do it in a double kayak (I have a glass "Dusky Bay". Faster safer. I have been along the coast and over the bar before in my inflatable and am familiar with Fiordland conditions from extensive scuba diving trips and some kayaking. Have climbed Mitre Peak and dived in Sutherland sound. I am well aware that it is not reasonable to count on landing along the Kaipo coast, as much as I'd love to explore the Wolf River limestone country. But I would not like to do the trip in a hurry and would expect to take several days over it and explore where opportunities arise. Be good to try it while the days are still long and a 10am high tide timing would be ideal. Looking at the Kayaking proficiency standards, I have not been formally assessed but I can see nothing there that is unfamiliar or a challenge to achieve. Anyway that is a bit about me and my dreams. Other things on the to do list Hauroko, Wairaurahiri, Blue Cliffs. (Have rafted the Wx)and Puysegur Port Craig slowly looking in at the old sealing coves and Green Islets. On another matter entirely,
So Stan, if you would be so kind to make your people aware of my existence and ambitions that would be very nice
Thanks
Graeme
Contact Graeme Loh at 03-4876125, [email protected]
A Kayaking/Climbing Trip to the Caroline Mountains.
This summer Simon and I have been exploring the little known mountains around Lake Hauroko. Hauroko offers a fast entry from Invercargill into some astonishingly superb country. It’s Fiordland at its best_ wild, remote and breathtakingly beautiful. Fiordland is a national treasure and no where more so than this region. There is no detailed guide book so it feels like real exploration studying the ridges and tops from our kayaks as we glide upon the still waters. Our first success was a splendid climb of White Peak on Waitangi weekend. From there we debated the best route on Caroline Peak and settled on a traverse from Unknown Burn over Caroline Peak to Albert Edward Peak. There are about 12 peaks on the ridge line which is over 5 kilometres long and a series of alpine lakes dot the route. All we needed was 3 days of fine weather and freedom.
Last week the Metvuw computer models predicted a suitable window of fine weather and as we had put off our next Gumotex trip we decided on the Caroline trip. Thursday morning dawned fine after overnight rain as we left Invercargill bound for Lake Hauroko. We reached the boat landing at the road end and as we were unloading our kayak Val Mackay arrived towing his boat Namu. We hurredly packed our gear and got it stowed on the boat and then tied our kayaks across the stern. Shortly after we were cruising across the still waters towards Mary Island but once through the gap we were into a northerly chop. Val angled over to the bush clad cliffs below Albert Edward Peak and I asked him to veer south where there were some boulder beaches. Here we found a suitable landing and dragged our kayaks into the bush. I took a GPS reading and set a waypoint as we were leaving.
Val pointed the bow up the lake and we set off. Its another 12 kilometres to the mouth of Unknown Burn were we landed on a white pebbly beach. Here we unloaded our packs and had a snack while Val backed off and headed away towards the head of the lake. The weather was sunny and cloudless as we set off into the forest. Our packs were heavy as we carried in addition to our usual camping gear, ice axes, rope and a rock climbing rack. We walked through to the creek and then up its true right bank. The going was fairly open but several deep ravines came of the sides. About 2 hours in a very deep steep one stopped us and we headed up its true right bank. Deer trails helped and at 900 metres we reached bushline. In a small stream we stripped off and went for a shower.
Above the tussock made for steady progress to the ridge line at 1200 metres. Unfortunately there was a vertical drop of hundreds of metres down the north face and as the ridge itself did not look great we decided to sidle under the south side loosing about 250 metres in the course of this. On the far side was a small valley and we found a flat grassy patch for the tent. The evening was well advanced and an orange alpenglow lit up Caroline peak above us. We had a Backcountry Cousine and settled down for the night.
We were up at 600 hours and away at 730 climbing up into a basin above us. There were remnant snow fields. Looking across towards Caroline Peak there was a gully running through the cliffs right to the ridge line to the left of the summit. We climbed this and left our gear at the top. We then roped up and set off climbing gullies and small rock faces to the summit. It was windy and cold. From the summit we could look across to the Tasman Sea to the west and Lake Hauroko to the east and a host of other peaks right throughout Fiordland. We took a round of photos including a self portrait.
We regained our packs and then set off down the gully and up and across the ridge to the east of us where we reached extensive snow fields and granite terraces overlooking the lake. We traversed about a kilometre of these to reach a steep corner peak at 1551 metres which gave access to large hanging valley to the east containing a large lake. We descended the east ridge of this peak and had lunch on some granite slabs above the col. Here it was windless and hot. After lunch we set off for the next peak ( 1381 metres) but a large gendarme blocked our route so we sidled around it on the south side of the ridge past another alpine lake. On the far side we climbed back up to the ridge. Further on was another difficult peak at 1514 metres which we sidled on the south side. We regained the ridge at a delightful tarn in a shallow col. From here it did not seem like a long way to Albert Edward but it was very deceptive and we had to climb several more peaks to close on it.
By now it was cold and windy and suitable bivi spots were difficult to find. Just before Albert Edward we stopped at a level spot 200’ off the ridge on the north side. I set up camp while Simon went off on a reconnaissance. That night the wind got up and it lashed the tent making an awful racket and keeping us awake all night. We were up at 530 and away an hour later. Back on the ridge it dropped and we had a pleasant climb up Albert Edward Peak. Looking back towards Caroline it seemed a long way off and still quite spectacular. From here we descended a ridge towards the lake. We had intended to follow this all the way down but rocky pinnacles and towers at the start of the bush precluded this. We decided to make a direct descent down near vertical slopes all the way to the lake. Interestingly we arrived at the lake only metres from our kayaks. As it was blowing about 35 knots on the lake and full of white caps we stayed put all afternoon but in the early evening it calmed down enough to make a safe crossing.
A traverse of Caroline peak to Albert Edward Peak in the Lake Hauroko region on 22-24 March 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