The sand flies had taken heavy losses the previous evening, however such is their devilish nature that they re-grouped and under the cover of darkness formed a mass assault on the enema and its occupants. At that point they discovered that we had played our trump card in shutting all the windows. Smug in our airtight metal and glass coffin we watched them swarm at the windows, buzzing in frustration at being thwarted. Unfortunately at around 5am we overheated and...

It was a chilly morning, especially as Bob had stolen 90% of the duvet but after a cup of tea and a bowl of the NZ version of shredded wheats we tootled off to the start of the walk up to the Pororani river. Upon leaving the Enema Bob resisted the opportunity to pat the ponies we passed and after crossing a very bouncy swing (suspension) bridge we were soon climbing through dense bushland in the mist. Enveloped by bird song and under a dense leafy canopy, the tr...

We spent a very pleasant morning clearing out from the riverside campsite before continuing along the road, following the Buller Gorge down its steep sided winding route to the West coast. The heavily forested valleys plunged straight into the banks of the wide river gently snaking between boulders deep below us. After around 30km there was much excitement and an emergency u-turn was deployed to follow up a possible kiwi sighting! The mythical beast was still pr...

I shall never again complain about sleeping in the Enema. Highlights of the night included random swatting of insects at involuntary intervals, the large rodent which ran past our heads and Bob trying to alleviate some of her back pain by sleeping on her arms, resulting in her having 2 dead arms with the obvious entertaining results. Eventually the morning appeared and a cup of tea brought some normality to the world. Our kayak had not been washed away and very ...

We started before day break and scuttled out of the trailer park having compiled a monstrous lunch and packed the nessecery items for 48 hours away from the Enema. We arrived at the kayak base to receive a very thorough briefing from a lovely kiwi called Friesia (not Friesian as I initially thought) . This involved equipment stowage, capsize drill, weather reading, chart use and most importantly how to avoid sand flies. There was a lot to take in, and the langua...