Paddling is fun!

I'd returned to Wanaka to attend my second annual packrafting meetup. This is the silver lining of being a COVID refugee in NZ. Instead of windsurfing in WA and skiing in Japan, I'm catching up with new and old friends for a few days of paddling around Wanaka.

I missed the first packrafting session of the meetup, because I'd booked in for a 90 minute full body massage, and well.... I needed that more than I needed a lake session and a float down the Clutha River to Alberttown. I could have made the paddling session, just I get a wee bit lethargic after a massage...

We had a communal dinner out at Hawea and a few speakers presented. One was Stu, who talked about the trip he'd just completed, though he painted a slightly different picture to what I remember, not that he neglected to talk about how pretty unpleasant some bits had been. I had thankfully joined him after the bit when Bill and him ran out of food for a few days....

The next morning we ran the Hawea River from below the dam to the Alberttown swing bridge. In the middle is the Hawea Wave, which we got to play on with a little instruction from Huw of Packrafting Queenstown. I didn't manage to get into the wave, but I had a fun play anyway.

The Hawea River was a pretty easy paddle, and in the afternoon we headed out in convoy to Cameron Flat in the Matukituki Valley, getting a tractor ride over the river to stay at Tititea Lodge for a couple of nights. I was on cooking duties that evening, spending a couple of hours boiling a lot of potatoes for a salad!

Day 3 we waded back across the river to our cars and drove up to Raspberry Flat, then walked up the valley to Aspiring Hut. We had lunch and then headed down to the river and launched our boats. It was a fun Grade 2 paddle down to just above the Rob Roy Glacier swing bridge, our takeout for the day. Experienced paddlers chose to run the Grade 3 rapid, which was fun to watch, outside my pay scale I'm afraid. 

I'm super happy with my attitude on the river this year. I'm confident, my skills are definitely better, and I'm no longer anxious every time I see an approaching rapid. No longer do I feel like a liability. That's a welcome improvement, and I'm really enjoying myself. People like Jude and Stu have also noticed how much more relaxed I now am. Yay!!

Day 4 was a walk up the East Matukituki River to Junction Flat. There were three options for put ins. I decided I wasn't going to attempt the Grade 3 rapids so just three of us walked to the lowest put in. I joined Graeme (who is super experienced but had to drive back to Christchurch that day) and Kristy who has a gammy hip and knee and can't walk very far. I didn't really have an excuse for just doing the lower section, but do I need one??

We had a lovely cruisy paddle down, with lots of time to play a little, eddy catching, ferry gliding and surfing. There wasn't much in the way of exciting rapids, but it was still fun.

We dried our gear in the sun and had lunch, then Kristy and I drove back to Wanaka. We noticed a small fire at West Wanaka, probably quite soon after it had started, and by the time we got back to town it had become a major wildfire and the road was closed to all traffic whilst the fire crews fought to get it under control. All the other paddlers got caught waiting for the road to reopen, so my decision to do the lower put in paid off!

Here's some video from the event. It has footage of the gnarly section under the Rob Roy swing bridge which most of us didn't run, but it's still cool. David, one of the organisers put this together. Hope you enjoy.

Wanaka PRANZ Meet 2022 from David Stephenson on Vimeo.

The Wanaka meetup was really well organised. The number of attendees was a bit down on last year, around 60 people rather than close to 100 at St Arnaud. That was a better number, with more opportunity to actually get to chat with most people. I didn't end up doing any trips after the meetup, or rather, no-one invited me on any of theirs! But no matter, I had signed up to go tramping with the local tramping club instead.

That's next...

(Thanks to Shayne, David and Sheralee for extra photos and video)

West Coast Wanderings

I woke on January 1 to a headache and feeling somewhat queasy. Yes it felt like a hangover, but I'd not drunk a drop of alcohol and had just had 13 hours of sleep! Too much sun and not enough water: the main reason I'm not a fan of summer tramping.

It took me a couple of days to recover, not such a bad thing as I had a few days to kill before getting back to Wanaka for the annual packrafting meetup, and it was far too hot to go above the tree line. So I packed up camp and drove south to Hokitika, where I booked in to a campsite overlooking the beach. The site is an old psychiatric hospital and now houses backpackers and a few permanent residents. There are numerous communal dining areas, a couple of kitchens, a pool room which doubles as a music/disco room, and a small, weird museum. The decor of odd nicknacks and old dolls, and the fact that the buildings are dreadfully rundown, makes the place oddly endearing. It's seriously kooky without quite feeling spooky.

The campsites look out onto the waves rolling in off the ocean, and I'd definitely stay there again.

I went for a drive around Lake Kaniere to Dorothy Falls, and then on to Hokitika Gorge.

I hadn't been to Hokitika Gorge for a few years, and in the meantime DOC have extended the walk up the gorge a bit more and added another swing bridge, creating a lovely loop walk through the forest that is perfect for families and those who can only manage short walks. 

From Hokitika I continued south, veering off the highway at Hari Hari to investigate the Hari Hari Coastal Pathway. This is an under publicised loop between two river estuaries that can only be completed when the tide is low enough. Helpfully, DOC provide the low tide times at the carpark so you can plan accordingly.

I chose to walk anticlockwise, following a 4WD track skirting the Wanganui River estuary, interspersed with whitebait stands, all locked up and pulled out of the water now the season is over. The tide was high, so it was lapping the shore quite close to the track, and further towards the beach were huge rafts of driftwood floating in the sheltered coves. It felt very old world and forgotten, reinforced by the rotten degrading wooden boardwalks over the swampy ground behind the dunes. This track didn't seem to be high on the maintenance list.

Near the beach I met a couple who had failed to get around the Bluff at the southern end of the beach due to the tide being too high. They had also failed to find the track up to the top of the headland on the southern side of the inlet. I hoped to have more luck.

The track to the top was indeed overgrown, but with little more than a good look around I was able to easily find the way up to the top of Mt One One (hardly a mountain!) and some awesome views both up and down the coast as well as inland up the Wanganui estuary. It felt quite adventurous following this neglected path but it was just in need of a good trim with a brush cutter.

Back down at the beach I headed south, the tide now going out. The driftwood piled up into the dunes was prolific, it felt very remote. I had to weave my way through the wood to get to the Bluff at the southern end, and then rock hop under the Bluff, which had signs of recent subsidence. Since it was a warm dry day I felt my risk of the cliff falling down on me was somewhat reduced, but I didn't dawdle.

About three quarters of the way along under the Bluff was the crux, where the waves were crashing over the rocks and I needed to climb up over some fallen scree and debris to continue without risking getting wet. Just as I got there a family appeared, walking in the opposite direction, so I knew I could get through. Over the small slide and then back to the safety of the rocks again, and soon I was back on the sandy beach, and off to explore Pureora River estuary.

The Pureora is a much smaller river, but unfortunately the tide was still too high for me to walk along the shoreline to the holiday baches upriver without going for a swim. I retreated back to the high water track, which I was grateful to have not missed out on, as it wound through lovely lush forest on an easy climb over to the baches that I'd spied from the beach. One of them had a water tank and tap, so I refilled my water bottle for the walk back.

The track climbed away from the river and then sidled along above the swampy ground between the two rivers. A recent slip had to be crossed, but it was otherwise an easy benched track, in much better nick than the one on the other side. The swamp needed to be crossed, but the track was well drained and had some boardwalks so was super easy. There were still some Kahikatea growing, but all were quite young, the area having been logged extensively in the past for timber. Further south at Camp Creek there is still a remnant of the Kahikatea forests that used to clothe the swampy lowlands right along the coast, until someone discovered it made great timber for butter boxes!

A thoroughly enjoyable, lost world type ramble over, it was back in the car and back to the highway for a couple of nights camping at DOC campgrounds before driving over the Haast Pass to Wanaka and a long weekend of packrafting.

That's next...