Epic Kayak Trip

Last week was our week long rec trip.  I posted some of the picts on picassa: http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.dayan/EpicKayakTrip#

It started off with some paintball for some of us.  It was supposed to be a club game but since there was a tournament nearby, only three other people showed up.  It was actually sweet with only 7 people playing.  It was way easier to keep track of what was going on.  Anyway, later that day we met up with everyone else in Rotorua and then headed out to our first campsite way off in the middle of nowhere.  The next morning we took a hike, and of course ended up wandering off the trail and getting lost.  But we made our way to the river that the campsite was along.  I thought the hike was going to be easy so i wore my Teva's, which in the end worked out great, as everyone else tried to stay out of the water and one by one everyone fell in.

Later that day we made our way to Lake Waikaremoana.  It is amazing that this huge lake has no houses around it and very few people.  We saw only a few other people the whole time.  The water is even clean enough to drink.
That first afternoon we got everything packed into the kayaks in the rain, but as soon as we launched it stopped raining.  Apparently the lake was 4 feet higher than last time Jon was there, and what was supposed to be our first campsite was underwater.  We paddled on and actually made it to what was supposed to be the second nights campsite.  This was a sweet place with a big hill and an inlet for swimming and snorkeling.  Since we did all the extra paddling, the second day on the lake was just a completely relaxing day with no planned activities... except for celebrating Rich and Hannah's birthdays, which were that day and the day before.  We planned on bringing two bottles of liquor, but through a minor miscommunication ended up with two vodka and two rum.  It was a bit of a sloppy night, and because of that day three was also a chill day while everyone recovered from their hangovers.  The next day though we paddled on and then went for a hike.  We went to a new campsite that night.  The following day on the way back, we went to a place on the lake where a 50 footish high waterfall is that you can actually paddle behind and through.  It was quite a beautiful place.  Then the trip ended with a trip to the polynesian spa in Rotorua.

We got back here at about 2am, and the following day I went to pick up the new volunteer, John.  We did a weed bash on wild ginger and wooly nightshade.  And we've also started getting our own spa bath setup.  We've got a big tub set up next to the gazeebo at the house.  The past couple days, we've put in some posts and have started framing up a deck to come off the gazeebo and go around the bath.  Jon has been busy with some administrative stuff recently, so it has been mostly up to me to plan how we are doing this building.  It's quite interesting since I've never really done this before, especially with leading other people to build it.  Once its done I'm sure i'll get some photos up.

This whole post might be a little disjointed... this would be because we are all watching Team America right now and I am not so good at blogging and watching at the same time.  So, bye for now.