Mount Faraday (4925 feet)
Paparoa National Park
5th November 1998
My First Ascent
Martin Thoma’s first parapente descent.



I'd been keen to get into the craggy Paparoas for years. After several exploratory trips in the Four Mile road, which allowed me to get the car a good deal nearer the peaks. I still did not know which road went where. Young Pierre Champness of Punakaiki told me he had climbed Faraday with his Dad (Graham) several years previously and he would show me the way. He said it would be a long day trip. When the weather looked settled for Guy Fawkes weekend. I got Pierre to agree to be guide. Martin Thoma decided to join us and I picked him up at Cobden Bridge on a promising morning at 5.a.m. Martin lived in Kaiata and cycled to the bridge. We squeezed his bike into the back seat of my ageing yellow Datsun 160B and drove on to pick up Pierre at Punakaiki at 5.40. We drove as near to Faraday as I thought our family car could take--- 10 km into the four-mile road and right up on to the terrace just before the Nile crossing. Five km along this we walked for 20 mins to a gap in the roadside cutting which allowed us to drop down the steep bank to the Nile. One hour of easy fast going got us to the ridge up through the bush to the main Faraday ridge. Martin was keeping an eye on the river bed for possible landing sights-non too promising.---Two hours more saw us out of the bush on the tops in lovely weather and great views. Another hour saw us on the summit of Faraday. The peaks to the North and East looked really craggy and impressive. A near neighbour, Mount Mendel had a most unlikely looking off-set horn of rock as its summit-- must visit this! After a bit of lunch we slothed around till about noon. Martin was contemplating the possibilities of a flight. He thought it worth a try, with the option of aborting it before the bushline if there was not enough lift. While he set his canopy out on the tussuck slope beside the summit facing West Pierre and I hurried down to a subsidiary peak with a better view down to the river. On the first attempt, one side of the canopy caught on the tussock and it spun sideways on to the slope behind. The second try was a perfect take-off and with a great whoop, Martin was airborne and getting lots of lift. He zoomed past us on our earthbound peak and flew out over the Nile valley where he circle once and disappeared into the final riverbed hidden by the bush. What a sight! That descent took him 5 minutes. Ours took us two hours to duplicate. Pierre managed with great skill to keep us to our upward route and we emerged at the exact spot we left the riverbed -to find a newly-erected cairn which we took to mean Martin had got down in good health. We got to the car to find Martin who had had time to do some fishing downstream and still get to the car just less than an hour ahead of us. lt was a day of firsts---- First Parapente descent of Mt. Faraday.---- First Parapente descent of Mt. Faraday carrying a fishing rod. ---- Martin's first Parapente descent of a mountain he'd climbed up. I was first (with Pierre) to watch all this! ------- My first. climb of Mt. Faraday.