Monday, February 16: Very cloudy to begin with but not as cold, reverting to sunshine with a few clouds

Poukaria Campsite (DOC, $14)

Kayaking: 35.7 km

GPS Tour
YouTube video

I awoke at about 5:30 and could hear Simon baking the ciabatta he had promised us. Was promptly up at 6:00 and had a breakfast of muesli and then scrambled eggs on toast and some coffee. Simon returned back to bed while I threw the rest of my stuff into the rucksack and a couple of shopping bags.

Pea was waiting for me at her place when I went over just before 7:00. Soon Gavin from Yeti Tours was there with his car to take us to the depot, a little scroungy looking, but these kayak people have their own laws. We had been fitted out for life jackets at the briefing yesterday and so only needed the boat, paddles and spray skirts. Then I realised I had forgotten the butter (in the fridge) and as we were leaving I asked Gavin to call past Sue & Simon’s place to pick it up.

There were three others starting from Whakahoro today – a young couple from England and a youngish women from Bremerhaven. Our mysterious couple who were also leaving from Cherry Grove but who had not contacted me about whether I could join their tour were Roger and Jackie from Melbourne who seemed a decent enough couple. Perhaps Yeti had failed to pass on the message, and it would have been good to know that they were planning on using a whole set of camping sites, rather than huts, for the whole journey. Roger was staying at his cousin’s hotel in Ohakune, the Tussock Grove. While the dry bags were being packed, Gavin alerted me to the fact that the hardware store next door was now open, and I went in and got a gas bottle for my small burner for $8.

We left at around 9:30, first to pick up the butter, which was successful even though Simon was still in his pjs, then along the road to Taumarunui which we reached about an hour later. Down at the launching place the boats were unloaded. I had made sure that the A470, its bag and the holder were available for fitting, but couldn’t locate the other camera nor the GPS tracker, so today was one of those rare days that will have to be mapped in GoogleEarth again. A bit of a pity, but there you go.

We pushed off as the first of our group (the others were in single kayaks, we, of course, in a double). Gavin had showed me how the rudder was meant to work but remarked that if it was constantly in use it would break, so I decided to try without.

Pretty soon the rapids began, at first nothing more than was experienced on the Leine but then the fun really took off. I got a couple of drenchings, and the rapids at the Bluff were quite a thrill. This all involved a lot of steering on my part since at this point in time Pea was only doing a very basic driving stroke. It worked out fine and I was concentrating on getting her to identify dangers such as rocks just below the surface. We slid over a couple of rocks, but the boat was very stable. The camera had become detached and I spotted some sand where we headed for a landing. Good thing that I had packed a sponge in with the boat because water was getting in over the spray skirt and had to be removed every now and then. Camera was reattached, boat dried and Roger & Jackie caught up with us, with Jackie remarking how hard it was to steer without a rudder (theirs also had rudders, but they had to retract them for the rapids).

Apparently, we had reached about 1/3 of the first day’s journey, and had passed the worst – or best, if you like – rapids. We pushed on and were overtaken by a jetboat on one of the more exciting rapids, which didn’t make it any easier. We passed a tour group in canoes who had left just before us and were picnicking on the shore. A little while later we saw a couple parked on a ledge and exchanged the time of day for information about how far was to our envisaged lunch break at Ohinepane Campsite. They said it was a few km, but actually it was just around the corner, which lightened spirits no end. We took a kamikaze dive for the shingle beach, where people from the campsite were standing. Out of the water everything had to be taken out out for lunch and eventually we settled on some bread, cheese and an apple each. Disaster of disasters was that the emergency toilet paper had gotten completely soaked, so this called for a dedicated solution.

Whanganui River Journey: A Great Paddle, February 16-20, 2015

As we were leaving a couple in a canoe turned up and we asked them about whether they had seen our co-kayakers – they said they had been passed by them and that was about it. Along the way a fisherman had caught a rather large fish and showed it to us before he put it back in.

From the map I could understand something of how the river ran from now on. At one point we became stuck on some rocks, and after pulling Pea off and taking a renewed run up to the rapids, Roger & Jackie turned up and we kayaked pretty much together the last few km.

GPS Tour

At Poukaria there were many more people than I had expected. Pea got out of her wet clothes, and then we set the tent up. Barely the measurements described, but then it is only for one night (for her). Everything up on the “table” I found all of the equipment I missed from this morning, and exhausted the batteries in the A470 taking some sundown shots in continuous mode.

Dinner was noodles, onion, bell pepper, oxo cube, tomato sauce, parmesan slices and garlic salt. At washing up, the pan had to be scrubbed with sand, but that was quickly done. A lot of the stuff got wet today and is hoping to dry tonight, and we have packed the food into dry bags to keep the rats at bay. Time for teeth-brushing and then to bed.