Kia ora New Zealand

The expedition team has just arrived in New Zealand! The team gathered just outside Queenstown on the South Island from which the team will start their expedition. This was actually the first time the whole team met as a whole as some members are living in New Zealand and some in the Netherlands. The whole team shares a Dutch ancestry and a passion for canyoning!

Our first activity was preparing the huge mountain of equipment which was kindly donated to us by our generous sponsors without whom this expedition would not have been possible. One of the expedition bags got lost in the journey (whoops!) so one of our members had to find some personal canyon gear to borrow.

As a warm up exercise we made a descent of the nearby “Major Mayhen”. Focus was on communication and team logistics as this was the first time we were in a canyon as a expedition team. We also familiarized ourself with, what is, the new generation of thinner and stronger canyon ropes provided to us by CE4Y. The 7.6 mm Quickline and even the super skinny 6.0 mm Slick-line which was soon nicknamed “the shoelace”.

It was a joy to finally get ourself wet in this classic kiwi descent after almost a year of preparation! Stay tuned to see how the expedition will progress!

Expedition sponsors:
Aspiring Safety - https://www.aspiring.co.nz
Canyoning New Zealand - https://www.canyoningnewzealand.co.nz/
Canyonzone - https://www.canyonzone.com
CE4Y - https://www.canyoning-equipment.com
Guara - https://www.guara-outdoor.com/en/
NZCA - New Zealand Canyoning Association - https://nzcanyoningassociation.org/

Packrafting Queenstown - https://packraftingqueenstown.com/

Radix Nutrition - https://radixnutrition.co.nz/

Rope Access Noord - https://www.ropeaccessnoord.nl/

Tebylon - www.https://tebylon.com/

Canyon School - https://www.canigoucanyoningschool.nl/

Canigou Outdoor - https://www.canigououtdoor.nl/