Buller Fest

Over the weekend a whole bunch of the Okere Falls crew headed south for the Buller River Festival.  Its a long drive but it was sunny and we stopped for many swims along the way.  Our car was not really interested in shopping in Blenheim for food and clothes so we headed off and found some cool swimming spots and a heard of Eels.  I may be wrong, it could be a flock...

Anyway back to the story.  Now on the road for the second day we slowly made our way into Murchison in time to put up the tent and I think we went for another swim! By this time you probably understand that it is quite hot!

Unfortunately the sun did not burn off the sand flies and we were not coping well.  Like big cities have traffic jams, ghettos have gangs and parliament has John Key, Murchison has sand flies and they are a pain in the... well everywhere! While I will not mention them again in this story just keep in mind that everything explained was done while battling them tirelessly!
Day 3 started with Boater-cross and as the fog drew back the sun pounded down on the course of rocks rocks and more rocks.  As the rest of NZ knows, the rain has been non existent this summer so the course was low.  Round 1 was a seeding race and I was up against Tyler Fox Matt Burton and 1 other.  Tyler had a fast start but I caught him and snuck through to take the win.  My second race I had the right side again and got out to an early lead and finished 1st again.  Race 3 was much the same but winning that put me up against Barny, John Snook and Jamie Sutton.  With a bad start I struggled against the wake.  I thought I found a gap mid way down but Snook spun me and I was out of the race.  Tyler and Jamie went on to the finals with Kenny Mutton and Murchison local 'Foxy'.  The Okere Falls crew couldn't hold him back and 'Foxy' took the win.  After that it was back to camp for dinner and a few drinks before going to the prize giving.
Day 4 was the slalom and raft race but I decided to have the day off and watch the racing from the bank.  After the racing was over it was time for the dress up party.  Okere Falls decided to boycott the party theme as we thought it sucked so we decided to all dress up as Ben Jackson.  It worked well and was a pretty fun party! Sadly the security took their jobs WAAAAY to seriously and it really put a downer on the whole thing.  Sunday was the Cardboard Cup race which the girls all entered by wrapping themselves up in boxes and swimming with a floating box.  They came in a close 2nd but were disqualified because they did not use enough cardboard?? Anyway they did not loose out on anything special so all was well.  That afternoon was spent eating, drinking and a couple of laps on Maruia Falls.

After a long, long weekend we were all shattered and on day 6 we started our long journey home. Not much to be said about the drive other than long and plenty of fast food.  Back in Okere Falls now for some more work and a wind down till the 5th of May when its Cali season!
Cheers for a great Buller Fest to all the Okere Falls Crew!

Josh

Summer in Okere

This summer has been great so far.  I found a sweet house on Okere Rd for Tyler and I and the best part is that its right over the fence from Sam, Flick and Jamie.  Communal cups of tea and gingernuts are frequent and the odd paddle and surf thrown in for good balance.  Not to mention every Thursday we have Wine and Cheese Appreciation Society meetings at either house! 

- A casual Thursday evening meal at the Society - Photo and preparation Felicity Thomas

I started the season off without a creek boat so I was doing a lot of freestyle in the hole which was a great change.  Once my shiny new green Tuna was ready I was back on the creeking schedule.  Due to bad knees I opted out of the 6hour Enduro Race where competitors had to paddle the river then run back up to tag their team mates over a 6 hours period.  It was one of the best run kayak events I have seen and hopefully next year ill have the knees to compete.  Next up was Xmas @ the Kaituna event which was a little last minute but great on the day. We decided on a structure change this year and Brendan came up with this awesome idea to run a progressive boater-x.  After a time trial ranked everyone for speed they were separated into groups of 4 who would race each other from the top to the bottom of the weir.  From here the 2 fastest and the 2 slowest were separated and it went on till the last race of 4 was down to the bottom hole.  The freestyle event was 2 groups who had 25minutes to display 4 award winning maneuvers.  Best trick, biggest air, retro move and most enthusiastic paddler.  I couldn't manage to pull off any big loops that day but came away with the retro move in an old olympia! Awesome day!

-Winning the retro move competition - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Trying to get some air in the big air competition - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Getting tricky - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Taking home the big dollars! - Photo Sophie Hoskins

Christmas and New Year were mostly spent surfing which was awesome! Now its back to the falls and earning money to make the next year better than the last! Where will I go this year... we will have to wait and see.

-Christmas at Castlepoint - Photo Josh Neilson

Cheers and sorry for the lack of updates lately! 

-A new creek I found this summer - Mangaone Megaslide - Photo www.wams.org.nz

-Simon Davidson's Birthday paddle - Photo Josh Neilson

-Jamie G on Trout Pool drop - Photo Josh Neilson

-Me, Soph and G-rod - Photo Josh Neilson

-Tyler on the put in slide - Photo Josh Neilson

- A shot from last summer but still out there fighting fires, saving lives - Photo Lake Okareka Fire Force

Josh

Nicaragua surf

-Maderas beach

Where did 2012 go... Actually the last two years have been such a blur its hard to remember what happened in which country and when it happened! With transcendence film shows all wrapped up and Malaria all over I boarded a plane to get away for a while. I left the kayak gear in the shed at Nick and Harmonys and swapped it out for a some surf gear.  Nicaragua was the destination of choice following a successful trip there in 2007.

-The deck at Tres Hermanos

San Juan Del Sur but more specifically Playa Maderas was my first stop and within 24hrs of leaving Cali I was paddling out to catch my first waves.  I had rented a room at a hostel run by 3 brothers aptly named Hostel Los Tres Hermanos which was as close to the beach as you can get! The sand literally flows inside.

-Madera Massif

-My room - Bed for me, bed for gear, bed for surfboard! 

-Whales passing by Maderas

-Didnt make it under this one...

For the first week or so I woke up, paddled out, surfed for a few hours, came back in, ate, drunk fruit smoothies, took photos, slept and repeated the process day in and day out.  At the start the waves were a little on the small side but every day it seemed to get better and better. Over the week I met a dude called Eliya and his girl Anile and made a trip North to Popoyo which was mad!

-Eliya and Anile

-Nice right at Popoyo

The waves break on a shallow reef which on the first day were a little much for me but the next day I had a great time out there.

-Swamp kayaking and bird watching

-White bird in flight

-Paddling back to Hacienda Merida

Super nice island lots of cool things to see. After Ometepe I headed to Costa Rica to meet up with Cova, Aline and Albert for some rafting and drinking in the Caribbean.

-Me on a nice left

-One of the locals 

Back in Nicaragua for the last week I spent time surfing every day. It was very hard to leave with good new friends there and the thought of leaving the warm weather and hot water surfing! Rather than write too much here are a bunch of photos from the trip!
Cant wait to go back to Central America!!
Cheers everyone I met along the way!
Josh

-Fishermen on Lake Nicaragua

-Big Bird flying above Maderas

-Little Bird flying above Lake Nicaragua

-Chicken Bus makes its way round Volcan Maderas

-Nev at Maderas

-Cafe Revolucion boys

-Standard Maderas sunset

-What a way to end the day

 All photos ©Josh Neilson 2012

Uganda 2012

Ok so I left Voss a few weeks ago and have been working making raft videos on the Nile here in Uganda since. It has not been super busy but getting there now. I haven't had a chance to get out much and paddle other than for work but that will come soon and Ill have some more kayaking shots but for now here are some shots I have taken during a trip to a small wave down stream.  Nothing much to report and not too impressive to get the camera out for but a great day had by all! All these shots were screen grabs or photos from the Gopro HD2 which is great by the way! Small and unobtrusive and produces some great results. More pics to follow!

-Kids wait and carry your kayak to make a few $$ to buy school books so they can go to school

-One mans trash is another mans treasure

- Kids at the put in for Superhole

-Doing a touch of freestyle

- On the drive home

- Beautiful long orange roads

- A contrast of colors

-My kayak carrier

- "I need a job Mr"

- So many smiles

-Excited much

Cheers
Josh