9. Ohauora – Mangawaiiti (WRJ 4)

Sunday, February 17: Fog very early in the morning lifting to patchy cloud; quite warm & sunny by the afternoon

Kayaking: 22.8 km

Mangawaiiti Campground (Doc, $20)

Sleep was more fragmented last night; don’t quite know why. The pillow has a(nother) hole in it and the mattress is barely comfortable. Went through the stages of lying on the sleeping bag, lying under it, and then finally in it, and just after 6:00 it was bright enough to get up, have breakfast, and get packed, long before Ross & Sasha were up and about.

Technical challenge of the day was to get the camera shooting @ zoom 6 (35 mm/52°), then to get rawopint started. First, the gimbal had to be ready except for the batteries; camera, camera mount & screw ready to go. Second, get into the life jacket and spray skirt. Third, start the camera, set the zoom, switch to rawopint, attach the camera to the gimbal, level. Doing this I discovered that the camera height screw on the gimbal was loose, and had to be tightened. Now the tricky part: If the boat is level on the ground the next stage can be done there, otherwise the boat has to be put into the water. Next, put the batteries into the gimbal, activate it and switch to “follow” mode, & finally start the camera shooting. Today’s shooting was @ M size to fit more onto the card.

Putting the bandaids on (they were stored in the minor compartment of the camera pouch), I found card “H”. Won’t be of any use on this trip, but now I think I have most of them back together again. Rapids were a bit more civil today, and the spray skirt was not getting wet at all. One longer stretch was so calm and so straight that I have dubbed it the Vale of Mirrors.

Slide Show

I was surprised by the appearance of John Coull Hut just after 10:00. Just before I had spotted a karearea (New Zealand falcon). The warden, Margaret, was tidying up around the place and we had a chat for a bit while I had my lunch. Then I went around and took a couple of photos before returning to the boat. Ross & Sasha had just arrived (they are aiming for one campsite later) and I had to change the batteries in the camera. This means that I have two sets of half rundown batteries in with the electronics and I am currently completely using up one set with extended time lapse. The gimbal batteries are also all half full (the large ones) so I will have to work out what to do with the power banks tonight.

Anyway it was off down the river, with a few more challenging rapids, which did involve wetting the sleeves of my shirt and the spray skirt. Some very nice scenery here as well. Two rivers enter the Whanganui along this stretch: First the Tangarakau, and then the Whangamomona. Shortly after that I could see the sit-on-top and had reached Mangawaiiti where yesterday’s Americans (Dylan, his pregnant wife/girlfriend, and Maya) were having an extended lunch break and jumping into the river. I had reached my day’s destination and just wanted a little time to see if I wanted to take any more demanding photos on this trip, i.e. exposure brackets.

Interactive Map

This is a stunningly pretty place for a campsite, very deep ravine, and quite a climb up to the grounds. One rat didn’t make if to the top and had to be removed from the steps, and up here I had the choice of all sites. Seems like they have quite a bit of water as well. Tent was set up to dry, as was some of the washing from yesterday. The edibles for the next 24 hours were put in a ratsack & the rest returned to the boat. There was a bit of leakage from the blue top container (possibly due to it not being screwed on properly) and in search of a short term solution I discovered a sink here that hadn’t been cleaned for a considerable time, so I did my best to remove dead leaves & sand, and give it a once over with rei. Thought that one or two cheap wipes might be useful, because the cooking bench here really needs a wash as well. Will see about sacrificing the tea towel as there is really no need for it to dry stuff. A billy of water and a bit of hand scrubbing got the thing relatively clean, and it can dry in the wind. Will now go and see that I can get my hair washed in the river.

Youtube Video

Four AA batteries were charged with the 8800 mAh charger in about six hours. Two of the large gimbal batteries were charged to full strength with the 10000 mAh charger in two and a half.

Today’s timetable: