Cheers from New Zealand -
For those who are wondering where I dissapeared to, I'm in the South Pacific for 3 months to study (right) and tour the countries. Steve suggested I send out some trip reports, so here goes... (If someone has a TR from the Mexico trip, send it my way).
Two weekends ago a group of 40 Tech students took a trip to Rotorua with plans to sledge (riverboard) and raft. Since I helped bring RaftAbout all that business, they hooked me up with a Bliss-Stick Huka and river guide named Phil (former Swiss freestyle champion) for my trip down the Kaituna River on Saturday. I paddled the lower section with the sledges as a warmup for the upper section, which the rest of the group planned to raft in the afternoon. The river winds its way tightly through the rainforest, and the massive fern trees give it an eerie jurassic-era feeling.
On the lower section there were lots of class 3 waves and a really strong recirculating eddy with a whirlpool that made for great spins.
After the lower section, we went back up to the base to outfit for the rafting trip. Once on the water, Phil and I stayed behind the rafts, and the photographer was nice enough to take photos of us as well. The upper Kaituna is alot pushier than anything I've been on, but the lines weren't that technical. The run is short and the drops are closely spaced. With all the recent rain, it was at the highest raftable level.
Here's the first rapid, a delayed boof. I was nervous about the river before this drop, but after cleaning it, I was pumped for the rest of the run. The next major rapid was about 15 m downstream.
Phil led the way over the horizon line, and after about 15 seconds, I followed. When I got to the lip I could see him getting worked at the bottom, and I barely avoided a head-on collision. I still hit his boat hard enough to knock him out of the hole, for which I received many thanks (and unfortunately no beers).
Here's the Kaituna's claim to fame: Tutea Falls, the highest comercially rafted waterfall in the world. After catching the cliff-side eddy on river-right just above the falls, I listened to Phil's instructions. Peel out to river-left, cut hard across the lip of the falls, clear the curling wave and boof hard to river right. Easy enough.. Well, the falls is alot wider right below the lip, and I ended up 2 feet off my line to the left. That equalled major meltdown. Nothing wrong with that though. I just ended up submarining and shooting out and away from the hole, upside-down. I was a bit awestruck by the sight when I rolled up and looked at the rapid. Thank god for a creek boat - I'd heard horror stories from people taking playboats down it.
Here's the famous playboating hole at the end of the run, known for being able to loop creek boats. This is me failing miserably at an attempt. After this was the take-out, a must make eddy. In my guide's words, "Do not miss the take-out. Just downstream is a waterfall that will undoubtedly kill you." Since I'm writing this, you can be assured I made the take-out.
On Sunday we tackled the Wairoa River on one of its 26 release dates per year. Two groups from Tech were rafting, one right after the other. My plan was to raft it first, see if I thought I could handle it in a kayak, and then kayak it with the second group. The decision was easy.. the Wairoa is on my list of rivers to kayak in the future.
Here's the main factor in my decision not to kayak it - a very nasty group swim on the first major rapid called Mother's Nightmare. Our raft was too full of air, which led to us flipping when we hit the entrance hole sideways. I was on the upstream side and got launched through the air, bowling over my friend on the other side. All of us but one ended up swimming the whole rapid (50 m long). To put it shortly, lots of rocks, lots of water, and lots of vertical drop = one hell of a swim. I kept getting bashed between the raft and rocks under water, and when I could get to the surface to swim for an eddy, I only had time to ball up for the next drop. I ended up with a big gash on my right arm, scrapes galore on my left elbow, and a bruise/scrape on my shoulder about the size of a CD.. guess I'm pretty lucky. No one else got seriously hurt except for numerous bruises and scrapes. Since it was two of our paddlers first ever rafting experience, they were a bit hesitant about continuing. One of them walked a rapid and sat in the bottom of the boat most of the way down. Now we can look back and laugh at the pictures, but at the time it was no joke. (There aren't any pictures of us flipping and swimming the first part of the rapid.. as our photographer said, "you weren't supposed to flip on the entrance rapid")
for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to stand up and scream at the camera while our guide told us to "get down"
here's one of our paddlers getting launched out the back of the raft.. you can see her fly out and then disappear into the water with her legs sticking into the air.
I've rafted Section IV, and the Wairoa definately made section IV feel easy. New Zealand has all sorts of adventure-company protection laws so that they can do whatever level of life-threatening activity they want to, without fear of liability. If you're ever in NZ, I highly recomend this river.
I'm leaving on Thursday for Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island and staying for 3 days. I'm paddling and camping with a local club, and if the rivers are worthwhile, I'll send out another TR.
- Ryan
