SAVEwith a - Canoe & Kayak

BOOK REVIEW
Obscured by Waves
South Island Kayak Odyssey
By Paul Caffyn
Ian dropped the parcel onto the bed and asked what was I
getting from Kayak Dundee Press. As I ripped it open, I could
hardly contain my glee; it was the reprint of Paul Caffyn’s
first book about his South Island circumnavigation.
All thoughts of getting out of my sickbed and doing chores
vanished... Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was cast aside...
I snuggled down, I had ‘work’ to do.
Half an hour later, I could tell I was definitely going to be ‘sick’ for the rest of
the day. I was captivated, enthralled, engrossed with the descriptive writing
“...the dark grey clouds in rolls and folds had ominously enveloped the
mountains...little did we know what was waiting for us in Acheron Passage...”
and nodding in agreement with the wisdom of “Although I sometimes
describe the sea as angry or friendly, it is in truth unemotional and has no
feelings; if we completed the trip the sea wouldn’t care; if we failed it would
merely cast our bodies onto the boulders as if to be rid of us.”
It was easy to be drawn into the adventures of Paul and Max Reynolds as
they paddled from Te Waewae Bay to Jackson Bay, to picture a youthful Paul,
his support crew and their antics: “We paddled through a dozen cans of beer
that were bobbing in the chop and powered onto the shingle beach.”
Passages such as “I glanced up over my shoulder and was horrified to see
the face of an eight to nine foot dumper about to break on top of me. Then
Isadora’s stern flicked up as though lifted by a giant hand. The bow dug in at
the base of the wave and as it broke the wave hurled the kayak stern over
bow...” had me wincing, shuddering, and shivering...imagining the cold, the
fear, and definitely not wanting to paddle with Mr. Caffyn.
Paul’s expedition may well have finished at Jackson Bay, but he was hooked,
and couldn’t settle down. “During the four weeks of the Fiordland trip, Max
and I fell into a very satisfying natural rhythm of life, rising with the dawn,
bedding down at dusk, an intensified awareness of the environment, the
tingling, excitement of discovery, the stomach churning of fear...”
Finding no one else keen on accompanying him on a long paddle he set out
solo, with a ground support crew from Jackson Bay to Greymouth, to Karamea,
to Nelson.........
I definitely needed another ‘sickday’, because I could not interrupt the story
of this journey for anything as frivolous or unnecessary as housework. It is
not often I can honestly say this: I did not want to put the book down.
Each chapter is sprinkled throughout with historical tit bits. Maps plot each
stage of the journey making it easy to follow. When registering distances,
first the reader needs to either think in land miles (Paul paddles at 4mph) or
multiply by 1.6 to get kilometres (10 miles = 16 km). To put the distances
covered into perceptive, Paul paddled as much before lunch as most of us
hope to achieve in a weekend, and then he did it again the next day and the
day after that...!!
The suspense, the thrills, the excitement, the fear, the intimacy with the
author and his support crew is carried through to the end of the book. The
details are never boring, just delightful: Paul Dale swam out to meet Paul
and to encourage him to
paddle a bit further
“...attached by a piece of
rope around his neck; a
thermos of hot sweet tea, the
next plastic-coated map of
the coastline...and a bag of
minties.”
Is the book inspirational?
Yes, for more youthful
wannabe adventurers or those needing to break out of their existing unhappy
mould. Does the book inspire me to follow in his footsteps? Personally no.
But, I knew what I had to do. I had to read more about this remarkable man’s
adventures, get a cheque in the post and secure his two other books still in
print before the publicity from the release of this one drew attention to their
scarcity and they sold out.
Obscured By Waves is available from Boatbooks, Auckland or kayak shops,
or directly from Paul Caffyn, RD1, Runanga 7854, West Coast for $35 inc. P&P.
(100 hardback copies, numbered and autographed will be available at
$50 inc. P&P.)
And if you are quick, also available from Paul are - Cresting the Restless
Waves (North Island circumnavigation) $30, The Dreamtime Voyage
( Australia circumnavigation) $35, limp $45 hardback.
Review by Ruth E. Henderson
Paul Caffyn has been paddling since childhood, his first
boat a 17' Canadian canoe. The South Island trip marked
the start of a remarkable kayaking career. In the summer
of 1979, Paul paddled around the North Island, and in
August of that year, teamed back up with Max Reynolds for
a crossing of Foveaux Strait and a circumnavigation of
Stewart Island. Tragically, only months later, Max drowned
in a flash flood while paddling in the Aorere River, near
Collingwood.
In 1980, Paul with Nigel Denis completed the first
circumnavigation of Great Britain by kayak, which was
followed by the big one in 1982, a solo paddle around
Australia. Japan followed in 1985, and in 1991, Paul
completed a 4,700 mile solo, unsupported paddle around
Alaska from Prince Rupert to Inuvik. Teaming up with
Conrad Edwards in 1997, they have since paddled around
New Caledonia, along the west coast of Greenland and from
Kuala Lumpur to Phuket.
42 ISSUE THIRTYthree • 2005