Well its time for another hobby...Packrafting! What is that you may ask? Well in nut shell its a very light weight durable one man dingy! The idea is that you take your pack raft in your rucksack, along with your fold up paddle and instead of hiking out or trekking around the lake, you paddle it! Imagine this, your faced with a ten hours tramp out of the bush along a gentle flowing river, you've been out in the bush for a few days now and your ready to get home but your not looking forward to the hike out. Well with your packraft you simple pull out the one man tent sized 2.2kg inflatable boat and inflate it in a couple of minutes, stick your ruck sack on the front and away you go, paddling down the river enjoying the sights in a third of the time it would have taken you to walk out! Home in know time or you've saved yourself that extra day and energy to go explore deeper and further. Check them out. http://www.alpackaraft.com/

I've only tested it out so far but here are a few pictures from the test run down the Matukituki River...you'll be seeing plenty more of this beast in action!