Day 48: Kaitieke to Whakahoro

Sharon and Roger offer a breakfast so as instructed, we went over to their house at 7am for cereal, bread/toast, yogurt, coffee/tea. Sharon asked each of us for our highlight, lowlight and the one thing that someone should absolutely visit if they come to our home countries. There was also news from the Canoe Hire that our trip tomorrow will likely be a go unless it rains more today than forecast. Since I won’t have access to any more wifi or cell service before the canoe trip if it is a go, I sent a few messages home before heading off. The entire walk today was along roads. It was raining lightly when I set out and it did intensify a few times but would also stop for a bit. I enjoyed atmospheric views of the surrounding hills.

The afternoon brought a few thunder storms and it was quite wet when I got into camp. It did clear in evening though and we had some beautiful sunshine to end the day. Everyone seems quite optimistic that it didn’t rain too much today and that the canoe will go ahead tomorrow. Since we don’t have cell service here, we will only really know if we’re going out on the river if the Canoe Hire people show up in the morning.

There was also a bit of drama this evening with a helicopter landing beside the campground next to the river and then a second helicopter arriving. It seems that there was concern that there was an accident in the river since an overtime canoe had been spotted, but thankfully everyone was accounted for and it was apparently a false alarm.

Day 49: Whanganui river, Whakahoro to Magawaiiti

The tension was palpable this morning, we were all quite optimistic that the canoeing would go ahead but we had no way of knowing for sure until someone from the Canoe Hire showed up. They had said they’d be there at 9-9:30 so by the time they showed up at 10:15 with the canoes in tow, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was a lovely morning once the mist lifted from the valley and the water level was just low enough for us to safely head out on the river. There were about 50 people to organise and we had to finish packing our gear into the barrels and then load the canoes. Catherine and I didn’t head off until just after noon. We had 47 km to do to our campsite, but we flew down the river, the current was swift.

In the first rapid, we took on some water from a wave or two over the bow, not nearly enough to swamp us. It was exhilarating and a lot of fun. We bailed out the water and continued on. The river was magical with tall cliffs rising up around it and waterfalls coursing down into the river.

We did have one close call on out last rapid, at the last second we managed to use our weight to stop the canoe from tipping. Getting into the campsite at Mangawaiiti was interesting since there was little space and a steep climb up to the tent area.

It was hard going pulling out the canoe and bringing up each of the barrels, probably harder than any of the paddling to be honest. The 47 km were achieved in just over 4 hours given the fast current. Once at camp, we set up and were enjoy dinner when it started to thunder, then the rain started. What would be a day on trail without a good bit of rain! At least there’s a shelter at the campsite to cook under.

Day 50: Mangawaiiti to Tieke

It rained all night so it was a slow start to the morning waiting for water levels to go down. Laura, Liam, Catherine and I made our bacon and eggs breakfast, which was absolutely delicious. We finally set off at 11:20 and had about an hour’s paddle to the track to the Bridge to Nowhere. This bridge crosses a gorge and was meant to access a settlement that was envisioned but never came to fruition. It was surprising to find what felt like a gazillion people there, they had arrived via a jet boat from somewhere.

Back on the water, with some distant thunder and light rain , it was only about an other hour’s paddle to Tieke, our camp site for the night. There’s also a hut here and a Marae, a Maori meeting house, with a big carved pole outside that represents the river and all its eddies and rapids.

When everyone had arrived we were invited to join in a welcoming ceremony, led by the hut warden and his family. A man from each group had to introduce himself and explain his reason for doing the river and then the women had to sing a song. We choose Silent Night since our original idea, Jingle Bells, was taken by another group. The last man to introduce his group had to give a symbolic ‘koha’, or gift or appreciation, to our hosts, which was a fern frond. We then all greeted the warden and his family by shaking hands while touching foreheads and were shown inside the marae, which had some weavings representing the river on it’s walls. This is the only campsite that has this type of ceremony so I was glad that we were able to experience it. There are a lot of us here again, the campsite is just tent upon tent and some others in the hut. After another evening thunderstorm, it cleared up although I still used the hut to cook and eat dinner.

Day 51: Tieke to Flying fox

This morning was a repeat of yesterday’s bacon and eggs although we jazzed up the eggs with some veggies and cheese. It was even better the second time. We had about 53 km to do on the river so we didn’t have quite as leisurely a morning and set of at about 9:30. The river was stunning again and we had a few rapids today, which were really fun.

Laura had made us Nutella and jam English muffins for lunch and Catherine and I ate ours during a sunny, calm stretch just drifting down the river.

Catherine’s Strava gave us an average speed today of 10km per hour, but we were still going 5-6km per hour just floating. I felt like the current was slightly less strong than the previous couple of days. We got into camp, the Flying Fox mid afternoon. Although the walk up to the campsite is steep and muddy, once you get up there with all your barrels, it’s a lovely spot amid some citrus and avocado tees with chickens pottering around. It also has a sheltered kitchen, a warm shower and even some wifi, my first connection back to the rest of the world in 3 days. It’s called the Flying Fox because it has a cable car thing for access from the other side of the river where the road is.