Researcher and Greymouth school teacher Andrew England hopes his work on West Coast rivers will benefit white-water kayakers and the local community in terms of enabling decision makers to use the information.

Andrew is spending 2010 navigating the rivers of the West Coast and producing reports of his journeys with the help of Sony technology.

What does your work involve? Can you describe your typical day?
This year, I am trying to describe the value of West Coast rivers to the world of white-water kayakers...that means I am kayaking all the popular white-water rivers myself, like a stock-take of what we have. I photograph anything I see that characterises that river, whether it is a rapid of a certain style or a spectacular gorge. The photos are geotagged so I can see where I've been and prove it, if necessary, as part of my report.

I'm also developing ways to ask kayakers what they think of West Coast rivers, so I've been studying research methods and creating an online survey. I interview the key characters I come across to get a historical perspective too.

A typical summer's day involves getting up around 6 a.m. and jumping in my truck to pick up my kayak team on the way to a river. We get changed and check our safety equipment while we wait for the helicopter to arrive. The pilot drops us at the "put in" near the top of the river, then flies off.

We usually take a minute to enjoy the quiet after the helicopter, and feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, then start our journey back to civilisation flowing with the river.

Whenever I see anything I want to photograph, I jump out of my kayak and check my GPS has satellite signal before taking the photo. We also stop to look at particularly dangerous rapids, where we cover each other for safety.

We might get off the river at 6.p.m. I get the contact details for the team I kayaked with that day and thank them, then head home. Flick the Memory Stick into the GPS unit to geotag the photos, then download the photos to my laptop. Make notes in my diary and update my database. Plan the next trip!

Does technology play a large part in the success of your work?
Technology is essential in this work. Web based communication with other kayakers, various data applications, GPS and digital imagery.

Of course, it would be possible to photograph and locate the images with lower technology, like a conventional GPS. But that would take ages, both on the river and back at home! On a difficult grade 5 river, I am part of a team. Every time I interrupt the day to take photos, the team is slowed down. That can become dangerous as the day gets on, and I think that without the Sony technology I've used this year I would have got in serious trouble on the river or been unable to complete the survey work properly.

It is also really useful and time-efficient to be able to move seamlessly from one media to another: photo-GPS-laptop-web. The Sony system has saved so many hours of work!

What are your short and long term career goals?
My work this year is something of a one-off as it was made possible by a Royal Society of New Zealand Teacher Fellowship. So for my career, I intend to go back to teaching and leading secondary schools after this year. I hope to be able to use my increased ability to research and to use technology to good effect within Greymouth High School.

I also hope that my work on rivers this year, the database and report that I'll produce, will have an ongoing benefit to the community in terms of enabling decision makers to use good information. I see myself as being involved in helping decision makers, whether they be from Department of Conservation, government agencies or power companies, for some time as a result of this work.

How has Sony technology helped you in your work?
My Vaio laptop is a complete information storing and processing tool, linking all other technologies I use with the world and easing my research. It is the hub of the other tools of my trade this year: Sony Cyber-shot HX1 digital camera, Sony GPS unit and Sony digital voice recorder.

The Cyber-shot HX-1 is much lighter than a DSLR camera with equivalent lenses, yet takes incredibly sharp photos with better then DSLR speed. It also balances light and shade well with its Exmor technology and has the benefit of sweeping panorama and high definition video. All this means I can take top quality photographs in an attempt to show West Coast rivers, and the art of kayaking them, in full glory.

Sony's CS3 GPS unit is very sensitive and has achieved good location signal in unlikely places such as deep gorges and bush-clad valleys. Being able to switch it on at the start of the day and virtually forget about it means that I can concentrate on safety and what is happening around me. Not having to switch on a GPS every time, then note or waymark locations against photo descriptions, which is what I would have had to do without this technology, actually enables me to explore the rivers in a fairly 'normal' and safe way. Having such a simple system for geotagging photos saves time off the river too.

Everywhere I go, be it on the river or to a meeting, I take my Sony digital voice recorder. It’s tiny size and negligible weight mean it never gets in the way. This has become my way of taking notes for myself: on the river, if I see an endangered native Blue Duck, I record an entry on my voice recorder. I can record what I see if I can't photograph it, or how I feel if I need to note that for reporting. I've even been able to conduct interviews beside waterfalls in huge gorges. When I get home, I simply plug the device into my laptop and file the recordings.

The lightness of this whole system was a hugely important factor when deciding on what equipment I needed. Kayaking a grade 5 West Coast river can easily be 12 hours of intense kayaking, rock climbing and carrying equipment. Tired bodies are dangerous and a mistake can be fatal. Ease of use is also critical, as an extra 2 minutes each time a photo is taken means that either the day takes longer and the team gets annoyed, or I take fewer photos.