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The next day after a pretty heavy evening of beer until the early hours we set off at stupid a'clock for the event centre for our lift to the river. which is located opposite The Raurimu Spiral, which (dad you may know) but is a engineering feat, the railway line at that point has to climb around 500m in a space of just a few kms, therefore a spiral and tunnel was made to overcome the height gain. That morning I stood and watched a train a km long slowly wind up the spiral disappear then wind around the hill again further up the hill then disappear again. Pretty remarkable stuff, at the risk of sounding like a train spotter!
So there we were with our 5 sealed barrels with food, drink, tent (borrowed!) and everything else crammed into them, all packed up we left for the river. In the truck, with our battered canoes strapped on top, we met a nice Belgian couple that would be our partners for the next three days. Hung over but excited about the next few days, we rolled about in the back of the truck, through windy lanes until we got to the river. After unloading, our driver ran through the basics to canoeing and sent us down the river. After a few small arguments and fairly big rapids we settled into the paddling and the river. The only drama was a massive splinter from the side of the canoe, sunk in under my finger nail, all the way to the back! We had to beach the canoe and borrowed a swiss army knife and started pulling out the shard of timber from under my nail. After hours of bleeding, (photos will be available) and wrenching at the lump of wood it finally dropped out. ( It was proberly the worst splitter I've ever had, apart from a bit of oak entering my palm at wood last year, that was pritty bad) The first day was 37km long but beautiful, finishing with a flattish section 9 km or so ending with rapids which was hard work, due to the lack of rain the last few weeks the river was low! This section of lower water reviled strange reflections on the sides of the river like Maori carving of faces, which was magic!
Staying at the John Coull campground.
The campground was set out like steps up the hill with 10 ft steps to pitch your tent. Beautiful spot above the river looking over at the cliffs to the other side! That night every one slept well from the paddling throughout the day apart from two German fellows that were filming down the river, snored all night that kept the whole campground awake!
The next day many of the aches and pains were refreshed first thing, carrying all the tent and food barrels down to the river and set off paddling again. The 2nd day was not as far, but still had some long slow sections were we would need to paddle all the way through for hours. Half away down the 2nd day we stopped at the end of a track, names 'the bridge to nowhere'. Debbie stopped back at the river, ankle playing up something rotten, and thought it was best to rest it. Whilst I jogged up the 5-6 km to the bridge. It is simple a very well made concrete bridge, to serve a road that was never completed. Nowadays there is a cycle path up there, but the bridge is pritty impressive considering it cost more to get the parts and concrete to the site than the bridge itself! The area was farmed and very few(very hardy people) were sent up there to live and work. But it became pointless, and the road was never finished and the people moved away. It must have been hard living, it's just hills, mountains, bush and river gorges! The bridge remains intact( in better condition than half the road bridges we crossed all over New Zealand!!) only to serve a walking and cycle track. Then I returned down to the river, to tackle a few more rapids! That evening we stayed next to a Marae called Tieke Kainga, swam in the river and spoke to a few people on the same journey down the river. We ate food and went to sleep, the snoring wasn't as bad tonight, but I was woken up by possums and rats scratching around the tents, a wee bit unnerving!
The last day on the river began early, we had be told that during this section there would be several sections of river that would give us 50/50 chance of sinking! Knowing this we were apprehensive about every section of white water we came two! It turned out that we dropped through all the sections unharmed, which was fun! Untill the last rapid! We approached and there was a canoe to the left capsized and the Swiss couple we met the night before standing on the right with a camera.... As the rapid took us in the first wave hit us and we were fine, however there were four or so waves one of which was a meter in height! We kept paddling with all our might but the canoe had taken on too much water! And we had filled right up and the was just Debbie and I waist deep in water paddling away, canoe just below the surface! No harm done, but our pride was dented! We pulled up to some rocks and started bailing out the boat! We waited on the Belgian couple we met, to come through this section and they were fine! Only half filling with water! Then sadly it was on back down to the end were a guy was there to pick us up and take us back to our van!
If you ever have a chance to do this three day canoe trek, do it!!
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