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Published: October 18th 2008
Fernhill hike
Through the trees, very pretty native Beech forest through the ravine.Howdy Folks! Its been a good last week, I just moved into my new place in a spot called Sunshine Bay. It is a 30 minute walk into town, but not a tough one. I am renting a room left behind by some fellow raft guides that are on a bit of a vacation, so I'll be residing there for about 1 month.
I've been getting a bit of a pie belly, from all the delicious pies that are abundant around town, so I started running again. Ugh I am out of shape! Good thing there is an absurd hill to climb right out in front of the house.
I am fully assessed now and ready to guide, I am on the roster for the upcoming week, ranking at guide number 9! Kind of a low number, but not bad considering its my first season. I have pretty much figured out the Mother Section of rapids, along with Jaws, Sequel, the tunnel, and Cascade. I had a super smooth run today, which I am quite proud of.
Last Saturday myself and 3 other guides did some tree removal and other maintenance type stuff on the Kawarau river, our
Fernhill Hike
Just another picturesque waterfall, sigh... high volume class 3 run. There is a jump rock that we do about half way down, and a lovely introduced species of plant called Gorse was getting a bit overgrown around it. Gorse has all the comfort and textural appeal of barbed wire, and was introduced by the English for making hedges. Brilliant.
After we hacked it down and chucked it into the river we moved on the main piece of business. A large dead tree had lodged itself midway down the large rapid on the Kawarau stretch we run called Dog Leg. It was stuck on an island after a flood deposited it there, with about 8 feet of it sticking right into the line we run the rafts, ready to impale some poor bastard. We got out the chainsaw we rented from the hardware store and went to work on it, careful to not crush ourselves as it came apart. YOu could really hear how massive even the small chunks were when they floated down stream you could feel the earth shake as they collided with the rocks on the bottom. After about 2 hours we managed to fully get rid of it, so the run is
Fernhill Hike
A view of the Remarkables and a tiny wee chunk of the lake, took me about 3 hours to get to this spot. Keep in mind my hostel is pretty much at lake level! good to go now. I completed forgot to bring my camera along, so no pictures of the Tree Removal Mission. 😞 Sorry!
Here are some pictures of the Fern Hill hike I took the other day, along with some photos of my new place.
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