By: Louise Jull - The West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand is a well known kayaking mecca! A few weeks ago I decided it was time to step it up and get some solid boating in and I knew the West Coast would provide.

Benjamen Hjort of Norway happened to be in town so together we ventured down the North Island via my parents place for a quick Xmas catchup and across the Cook Straight to the South Island. We came to rest in Hokitika, a true West Coaster town which put on the sunshine! Dylan Thomson, Severin Haberling and Julian Stocker also happened to be in town and were also fired up for some Christmas Creeking, it was game time! After settling in to Justin Vanubles wicked barn in the Hokitika outback it was time to hit the waters. We started with a short trip down the Upper Kakapotahi- a good 1hour kayak run that was easily accessible with a car shuttle and provided some nice drops and clean boof moves.

The next day the 5 of us (Julian(Swiss), Severin(SWISS), Dylan(NZ), Benji(Norway) and I flew into the high Southern terrain of the Alps and began our descent down the Mungo river. An epic 6 hour day was filled with sick drops, burly white-water and some epic must make moves. It was an awesome day on the river and one I have many good memories from! The day ended in style as we arrived in Serpentine Hut, a small hut sitting at the foot of a valley on the Hokitika river and overlooking the fierce rapids of Viagra. Danny Ready our helicopter driver had kindly dropped all of our food and warm gear at the hut. So Benji got straight to work on the outside fire and after covering the roast lamb in dough it was cooked to perfection. Our Christmas Eve feast was incredible with mushrooms and blue cheese, roast lamb and red wine to compliment it. After roasting marsh-mellows on the fire we were treated to an amazing starry night that made for a good ceiling for a good night’s sleep.

Christmas morning was kicked off with a strong coffee to see us in to a nice warm-up on the rapids of Viagra. I was stoked to fire these up as I had portaged the rapid earlier in the year. 5hours of good boating was to be had on our Christmas day on the Hokitika river, a perfect present that we all enjoyed. Once we returned to Hokitika that night we had a quick Christmas feed and headed to the beach to soak up the last of the sun with wine and beer.

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