I loved being on the water! I’m not very elegant in it mind ;) But it was excellent fun. This is shot from our tent – pretty sweet view. You could paddle right up close to the waterfall… Looks a lot larger and more fearce up close! On a high tide they say you can get under it.. Sounds a bit dicey ;)
We have a fair amount of paddling planned this holiday so thought it would be a good idea to get in an early practice. Both naturals I think, looking forward to more :)
You come across a few large river mouths following the east coast, and for this one the trail notes suggest kayaking around. A bit of sea kayaking sounded like fun! I was secretly a little apprehensive beforehand about going out to sea in a kayak after only having paddled around a lake before. Not knowing how choppy it might be, or how strongly currents might affect us. But it turned out to be an absolutely fantastic day!
We had awesome weather, flat seas, and glorious sunshine – perfect conditions. And our guide Mark taught us well as he took us through rock channel formations and round the headlands, with a quick stop on Goat Island for a picnic. ( I can recommend his lentils and pickle – tasty! ). A spectacular way to check out the coast. It feels surprisingly relaxing and graceful, ( not hard work at all ) silently gliding through the water, admiring it’s turquoise colour, and gaping at a few exotic looking sea birds. And lots of fun with a few more waves! If you come this way you have to give it a go!
Kayaking was an amazing experience, and so much easier than I’d imagined. Get’s the miles done swiftly too ;) It was easily my most favorite part of our month so far in NZ, and I’m tempted to try and squeeze in as much as we can on the route ahead. There’s a few rivers and lakes I have my eye one – it’s still arm and leg power so it counts eh ;)
We nailed it down Moir Hill from the logging area to the historic village of Puhoi, for some messing around on the river. Instead of kayaking we opted for the old fashioned open top canoe and single paddles. It was a little less stable feeling than the sea kayak even though the water was flat as a pancake, but against all the odds we managed not to fall in! :D
We decided to give the Canadian Canoe a go on this one. I think we both found the heavy paddle hard work compared to the lightweight double-ended jobby on the sea kayak.
Puhoi was a lovely little town, they even sold enourmus 1 litre bottles of Tui in the store, got two for our picnic lunch :)
When we got to the hire place and they saw our packs they knew immediately we were on the Te Araroa trail. We’ve been following in the footsteps of 3 hikers for over a month now, and it turns out we’d missed one of them – the infamous Dirk – by about 15mins! We’d been hearing about him everywhere we’d been. We had to jump in the water and chase him down!
Well, it seems that paddling with massive wooden paddles in a chunky boat is much slower than a slick streamlined sea kayak with double paddles … Especially when you stop every 5 mins to film another angle, or backtrack to re-take a shot ;) There was also a bit of a wild goose chase ( quite literally ) … We thought he was a swan.. and after ‘furiously paddling’ to get an up close shot he turned out to be the ugly gooseling instead.
Anyway, it was lots of fun, and thinking we’d missed our hiker compadre we pottered up and down tributaries merrily in the sunshine, shouting at wildlife, and singing pirate songs.
When we finally rocked up at the beach and clambered ‘gracefully’ out, we spied a hiker, socks-off under the tree… We’d got him! It was The Dirk! :D We couldn’t believe we’d caught him up. ( But then we realised he’d actually been waiting about an hour for us! Haha :o – Sorry Dirk! ).
We had planned to paddle all the way down the Whanganui, but after a slightly disastrous first attempt, we set our sights on just getting to Pipiriki and hired a river guide to help get us there in one piece!
I’ve been so excited about rowing down this river since we decided to come to New Zealand. I imagined floating along with the sun twinkling through the trees, fishing rod in the water, and pausing for picnics. The reality was a fast flowing river full of boulders, and strip after strip of rocky wavy rapids. I hadn’t really appreciated this. And once you’re in a kayak hurtling down the river there’s not a lot you can do about it! :/
Feeling well rough for a few days probably wasn’t helping but suddenly realising you’re totally out of your depth in a situation like that is unnerving for sure! It had rained a lot over Christmas and the water, although dropped a bit, was higher and faster than normal. In theory that should make it easier. But clearly Cookie and I hadn’t got our steering rehearsed for strong currents and time after time we slammed head-on into boulders catapulting us into the water, the upturned kayak smashing down on your head as you scrambled to grab something and pull yourself up for air. The water is fast and your legs are swept away smashing against sharp rocks and boulders. It was all I could do to just keep hold of the string on the side and keep my head above water while I coughed and spluttered and gasped for breath, the capsized boat filling with water…
This kayaking is not much bloody fun!
After volcano fun with my parents, they gave us a lift this morning to start our much anticipated kayaking adventure. We’ve hired a doubled kayak from Taumarunui Canoe Hire and filled it choc-full with 8 days worth of food & rum, ready for 150 miles of paddling aaaaall the way to Wanganui. It’s a semi-official part of the Te Araroa, the official trail doesn’t actually meet the river until halfway down, but this is a popular (and shorter) alternative.
The Whanganui River rapids are classified as Class I and II on the international scale, which means it should be an ideal river for land-loving idiots like us. There are 239 of them mind, and there’s been A LOT of rain recently, so she looks pretty fast and furious to me.. Here we go!
So what happened?
Not much visual evidence, as there was way too much spray in the face to risk getting the camera out, but by my reckoning we were going backwards after a spin by rapid No. 7, had run aground and need to get out and push by about No. 10. Trying to pass on the righthand side of a big boulder, that the river really wanted to send us down the lefthand side of, left us heading straight for it and promptly tipped out in to the river, on maybe No. 16. After quite a bit of encouragement, I finally got Nicky back in the kayak only to be tipped out again on a really lame bit of river somewhere near rapid No. 18 by a submerged rock with no white water in sight. Not a great start..
Thank god I’m out the water!!!So after emptying the kayak of water for a second time (not easy with 8 days worth of supplies I can tell you), we took stock of the situation. Continue to the first campsite? Continue to the next time we’re alongside a road? “I’m not getting back in that kayak” says Nicky, ok I’ll go get help then..
We couldn’t phone for help (no signal), we could flag down a passing canoe, but might be the end of the day before they were in a position to get word to Taumarunui Canoe Hire. The best option looked like just walking back, only was about 4 miles of farmland, jeep track and roads to get me back to the hire place, so I went back into the river (had to be on the wrong side of it didn’t we..) After swimming across the river, I made my way towards the farmhouse where I would hopefully pick up a track to take me back to the road..
So I’ve calmed down (a bit) now :) I was a bit rattled yesterday to say the least! But we’ve had the day to chill and recuperate in the guest house. The river looks high and brown when I look out the window. Bit apprehensive to be honest about getting back on the water. But I’m assured by everyone that it’ll be fine and there’s no way we’ll capsize with the guide on board tomorrow. We’re yet to find out if the river is calm enough to head out on… We’ll see! Still feeling a bit rough today. So I’m really glad of a day off to hide under a duvet to be honest :)Thankfully the weather is so poor at the moment, they’re not putting anyone in the water today, rivers seem to busting their banks all over the country.. So we have a bit more time to chill out and consider our options. The bright side of our present situation is – we realised we were a bit out of our depth, didn’t go very far, so made it back quickly and safely. The new plan is to hire a local river guide to steer our canoe and teach us the ways of the river (when it’s safe to do so!). Our guide is actually one of the Karen’s (many) children, in fact the same guy who came to help us transport the canoe out the farm and got a right ‘croc of shit’ for his troubles. He promises that with him at the helm Nicky will never fall in again (sorry Nicky, it was obviously all my fault..). I’ll be on my own in a single kayak, so don’t worry there should still be thrills, spills and stories a plenty of me crashing all over the shop!
They got me on the water again! ;D And it was great fun. Never thought I’d say that after the first crack on the rapids. But I’m so glad we came out to do the rest of the river! Brilliant fun and loads of laughs. If you’re ever down this way you have to do it!
Turns out that previously we’d launched out into the hardest part of the river in the hardest to steer, most likely to tip vessel, in low water ( meaning the rocks are all exposed, and there are loads of areas to run aground, be turned and flipped by the current). They are also Grade II rapids, so not perfect for beginners really. We’ve been sea kayaking before, but river kayaking is another matter! Not being able to stop is a bit disconcerting and having obstacles all around and hidden under the water is tricky, plus the likely hood of smacking your head on boulders underwater if you drop out. The sea is definitely much easier! Nothing to hit if you fall out :)
All the other beginners were bundled in a van and taken down to Ohinepane to start on the easy stuff ;) So that was the plan second time around plus with our pro-guide Josh on board, and the river nice and full of water, the rapids softened for us, we headed out to have another crack!
Ps. Ohinepane is my favorite kiwi word so far, pronounced something like Oh-Heeneh-Punny, which sounds like Oh-Honey-Penny with the middles switched around. Tricky words these!
We weren’t sure if we’d be back in the water today, all the rain yesterday has left the Whanganui flooding with fast dirty brown water. But we keep getting told “It’s actually much easier when the river is high”, kind of counter intuitive, but it actually was!
Our first day back on the river was exactly what we had imagined the Whanganui would be like, a big deep and wide river with very little white water or obstacles. In retrospect we should of started from Ohinepane in the first place, we probably would made it all the way with no troubles. I would probably recommend avoiding shallower more technical stretch from Taumarunui unless you feel pretty confident in a canoe.
So here’s our teenage companions for the next 4 days, Josh our guide who is 17 and his mate Mitchell aged 14, who Josh has brought along in case we’re really boring! Quite an odd duo, but more on them later ;)
Bit nervous I was as we set out again. My knees were still pretty sore to move after smacking into those rocks! But the high water, although browner and less pretty to look at was smooth flowing, flat, and wide with no boulders, logs, or steep bits to be seen! And with Josh telling me there was absolutely no way I’d be falling in on his watch, and me a little surprised his mate Mitchell was happily taking on the challenge i started to feel like i’d been a bit of a wuss haha! We were soon all happily paddling along, listening to their banter, and learning how to read the river :) A totally different experience to last time! Good fun :)
I was more nervous about Nicky riding with a well built, bare-chested bloke in the back of her canoe, than the river today.. Thankfully I don’t think the peck-flexing impressed her too much ;) Josh was a good lad though and so pro that he didn’t even need a life jacket.
