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And almost as quickly as it started it ended.  My two and a bit months in New Zealand is over and what a time it was.  I spent the majority of my time in NZ teaching school groups as a freelance kayak instructor, with different groups each week, moving around and teaching kayaking, mostly on the Mohaka river.  With my non-work time spent paddling many many laps on the Kaituna river.  

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For my last NZ paddle day I had the opportunity to go safety kayak a Class 4 trip on the Mohaka’s scenic gorge.  It was an awesome opportunity to get paid to paddle a new section of river which is always fun.  The section was even more scenic than I had been expecting with a whole bunch of fun rapids along its few hours of paddling. Plus these wickedly tame eels at the lunch spot who have gotten used to eating the odd food scrap from the rafting trips.  I snapped a few pictures with my Gopro camera.  Big thanks to the guys at Mohaka rafting for having me along.  

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My NZ Camper Van saga ended poorly, after the engine getting less and less powerful, especially on hills, combined with water I later found to be a leaky oil tank I ended up having to scrap the van loosing much of what I had paid for it and rater scuppering my plans to re-coop some of the initial outlay of having a vehicle in country.  It would be easy for an experience like this to put you off of a country entirely, but I know I was really just ripped off by one bad apple of a used car dealer in Auckland.  I certainly feel as though (in spite of this episode) I have unfinished business in New Zealand. Especially as I didn’t make it down to the South Island at all (because of the damn van!!), but another time.  I have learned some lessons form the experience and at the ned of the day, that is what counts.  

So now after what felt like a week long journey back to Canada that included an amount of brain melting time travelling  I am now back and gearing up for some spring STAKEOUT paddling.  Nothing says a good time like big volume whitewater, ice chunks in the river and an over familiarity with ice cream headaches. 

Thats all for now, maybe heading off for another North America Based mission in a couple of weeks so watch this space.