Weekend of Kings

It started with a simple proposition, go to the Catlin region and see what kind of adventures awaited us.

But before I even left Dunedin the weekend

fun had started.

I had heard about the Emberly rail jam for about 2 weeks but I dont have a snowboard here in NZ so I was content to just go and watch it. That is until I found out that my buddy Christian was going away for the weekend which freed up his shred stick. I flicked him a quick text to see if I had the go ahead to

barrow it and get down. Needless to say once youve spent a week in the woods with a kid you can use his wetsuit or snowboard or even tooth brush.

I hustled over to Gardies to see if I could still

enter the fabled rail jam, luckily for me everyone in NZ is heaps nice and they were more than happy to take my 30 dollars and let me shred

. They had a really nice set up in terms of drop in and ample room for a landing but other than that they could have used a better announcer, sound system, heat system and maybe better weather. But hey who's complaining it was sick.

I didnt really do uber good but I did manage to stick a really clean backside 180 on the down rail which I was really pumped on and the announcer referred to as "a 10 out of 10".

Moving on.

So I was a little worried that we might not get an early start to the adventure as Doctor Lee was less than sober the night before and Gimley was MIA since about 10 that night.

I should have known better than to question any member of Caldina Hoss Squad and we were all in the car ready to send it at about 9.

Truth be told we had no idea where we were going, where we were staying, what we would see, do, eat or

how to speak native Catlin.

Just the way I like it.

First sigh

t of note was a casual loung

ing seal crew on a beach that I will reference as angry farmer point due to the presence of one angry farmer. Apparently during lambing season (spring) you cant go too close too lambs or it will scare them and they will lose their flavor? Im not sure we never found out anything except farmers do not want you near them.

We cruised over to Nugget point from there and saw the light house and a really cool out cropping of rocks off the point. We were about to get back in the car and mosey on to the next stop when we heard a casual baaaaaing from the car next to us. A close

r examination revealed a baby lamb hiding in the back of a cab pick up truck. Damn that little guy looked snuggly. We contemplated freeing him or kidnapping him but then determined both were baaaad ideas.

The information center had given us an idea of where we were camping that night but it wasnt until we pulled up at the beach that we really understood how cool of a spot it was. Tents dotted a large field that lead right up to a sandy beach which

was flanked by massive white banded cliffs. It was a great spot to watch the sun rise and set.

I coined a new term for camping out of a car: Carmping. Needless to say wikipedia has already contacted me about proper use of the term.

The next morning we decided to quest to the foot of the cliffs. This adventure proved to be typically awesome and involved heaps of scampering and bouldering.

As we headed back to the Carmp site I spotted a notorious Yellow Eyed Penguin. Yup Pierre was sitting right up amongst the rocks almost waiting for us. Pierre is a stay at home dad who is eagerly waiting for his

chick to hatch so he can go back to playing penguin rugby and making his own sushi.

We left the carmp site and headed to Owaka to get dinner supplier for Sunday night because we knew we had to stay there again.

From there we cruised all over the Catlins exploring every water fall and beach that we came across. I think we saw 3 different water falls each more spectacular than the last finally ending with the "Random Maori name" falls. We stopped at the bottom section of the falls and were captivated until we decided to continue the trail up and were rewarded with what we thought was almost a 100 foot section of cascading water.

It was my personal favorite section of the trip and Catlins region.

I just realized that I forgot to mention Jacks Blowhole whic

h we saw on Saturday. It looks like the opening to a large cave but at the bottom instead of darkness and rock their is a constant churning of ocean water. What makes Jacks Blowhole so cool the fact that it is about 200 meters from the actually ocean meaning their is a tunnel that waves rush through and eventually crash into the 35 meter pit. Unfo

rtunately I dont have a good picture of Jack's Hole but Im not really too worried about it.

We pitched camp one last time Sunday night and everything was going pretty smoothly. That was until Dave began speaking like a Mid evil Lord at the sight of fire. He roasted bread on a stick and declared that he was in fact "the smartest man in the land" and we were all peasants. Joke was on him though because he had to share a tent with Nick "gut rot" Lee.

I made it back to Dunedin in time for my Maori tutorial which is always good.

You know what else is good?

Nutella

until next time

Matt

Here we see his Lordship David the Palelegged fording a mighty stream