Mardi Gras '08

Who said kayaking was a summer sport....

The plan was: Sanga and Butters roll from the Bay on Saturday morning and meet up with Jamie in Waiouru who was doing the hitching mish. Then we were going to meet up with another crew and go run the Waihohonu on the desert road. After this it was mardi gras time on Saturday night and a hangover paddle at Kaituna on Sunday. Mean I hear you say.... Little did we know...

The weekend of the 28th will go down as one of the epic-ist (yes its a word) of the year so far. Well for Sanga, Butters and Jamie anyway.

It started off at 7.30am for the three of us, only we were all starting in different parts of the country. Jamie started with his thumb out on the side of the road in Waikanae and Butters and Sanga started in the Hawkes Bay.

As it turned out there was a slight hiccup in the weather and Sanga/Butters had to use the rolla as a snow plough to clear the Taihape road which had about a foot of snow on it on the way to Waiouru. Luckily the rolla is a beast (the thirstiest beast in the world as it turns out), and all was kosher. Jamie rolled into Waiouru 45mins later very, very, happy with himself and life in general (can't say why). By this time we had discovered the other crew weren't coming which was average but nevertheless, we went off to do the Waihohonu. By the time we did the shuttle and put on it was snowing pretty hard and we got some weird looks walking down the desert road in all our gear. It was a sweet run with a funny incident at the end involving a 25 foot concrete slide -"just tuck up bro, it'll be sweet"

After this it was off to Ohakune to celebrate/prepare for the next day. The night was a stunner despite getting a flat battery (one of many) from listening to the stereo with the car off;

AA lady, "Hello how can I help?"

Sanga, (slurring slightly) "Hurro we're th' only car in O'kune wif kayaks on the roof cin u send someone to fix it?"

The night was a stunna! 4 goons + 3 of us...Probably the less said from here the better. But Jamie did some how scam a ride on the kamikaze. (the sweet show ride that was there)

The next day we awoke to more snow, another flat battery (simple minds people, simple minds..) and news that all the roads out of Ohakune were closed due to snow. After a couple of hours of waiting, the roads were good to go and we were off in our petrol drinking beast. It was all looking good for a few relaxing afternoon runs on Kaituna, when all of a sudden Jamie awoke from feeling sorry for himself and noticed the level at the control gates in Taupo looked suspiciously low....


Heart rates started to rise as we walked onto the bridge at Huka and saw it was at a mint flow. Not paddling it was not an option as it was Sanga and Butters' first time and Jamie's first in a playboat. Everything went sweet and it was three very amped boys at the bottom pool.

From here we continued on our way, it was finally time to head to the Kaituna! We arrived there with an hour of light left and managed to sneak in two cheeky runs that couldn't have happened without the help of Sam's sister as shuttle bunny. That was choice! Then we headed back to the Hawkes Bay to end a primo weekend.