Show Weekend

Friday night we drove over Jacks Pass at the back of Hamner Springs stopping for a beer at the local (dutch courage). With snow falling and building up on the road , we wondered who are the crazy ones? We drove down to the river, it was up a little and running milky, we turned right and headed down stream to the Molesworth turned off bridge, to the Acheron river.  As we 4wd down river further we found the snow was slowly stopping, although the hills were covered. Finally we come to a locked gate this has now let us know we can’t go any further. We turned around and wove our way down to the rivers edge and made camp in a light rain / snow.

Friday

 After some research of reading and listening to people we thought we were ready for the shoot of a good grade 3+ rapid. However, before we even got there Graham lost his kayak and had a 2km swim and walk to catch up to it. When we got to the shoot we realized that it was more than we were able to handle. We had to pass through it as we had no way out for 205 km. So, it was lower the boats down on ropes to the next person down stream to catch and drag into the eddy a maneuver  that worked but had to be done on the true left bank, this was ok till my boat got stuck  and water pressure pulled the rudder off. We set off again, but then another rapid too big.  Therefore we had to use the same method of lowering again the kayaks down again. This time it was my turn to loose my boat just ripped put of my hands (talk about water pressure). After 1.5 hours of walking and swimming I caught up to where graham had been caught it in a back Eddie. .so much fun and we had only just started. Between us we reckoned we swam the top gorge one way or the other. The rest of the day was one big rapid after the other. We chicken routed most of them. With swimming and the walking it took its toll on time.

After starting at 7.30 that morning it was time to camp at get of the river time 7.00. with a fire going and camp set up, a nice hot meal and a can of speights, spirit soon rose.

Saturday

On the river again time 7.30am. after kayaking 80k on the Friday and getting through the top gorge we thought we had it made, how wrong can one be. Even though the river was braided the rapids didn’t decrease in size,  infact more large boulders appeared and the pressure waves and stoppers got even bigger. More and more chicken routes taken by me with Graham having bigger balls took more and more swims, until finally the ultimate a massive stopper must have been 2m high knocked him of line and against a huge boulder out he came out of the river he got but not the boat it was pinned against a rock mid stream.

Swimming out to it to attach a line didn’t work but after 1.5 hours we finally threw a log over the boat with a rope attached and managed to snag the rope and pull it free. After all this nothing could be worse so we fought our way down to the “jaw breaker rapid” and it does deserve its name, a serious portage got us around and back on the water to paddle for another 2 hours to a fantastic camp spot. A roaring manuka fire again perked us up. .time 7.00, another 11h day. Better still another can of speights.

Sunday

With 40 to 50 k to go and feeling very sore and tired, we started off at 7.30am, a late start. Within 200m both of us had washed up, and another big rapid,  not a good start considering we were in the bottom gorge by now and didn’t know what was going to happen round each bend.

As it turned out the volume was a lot more the rapids bigger and more chicken routes had to be found,(by me) the biggest advantage was there was a pool at the bottom of each rapid to give me time to line up the next.

All of a sudden we came out of the gorge and with another 2 hours paddling along a braided river,  still with some good rapids.

Great site - the bridge and only after 4 hours.

Conclusion

1. the damage occurred to both boats was not worth it,  with a big split in the bottom of mine along with a broken rudder. Grahams rudder was sheared and a damaged front

2. Don’t store anything on the deck -  you just lose it

3. Although it took 26 hours on the water allow 4 days to enjoy it - its worth it

4. Would I do it again?  NO  certainly not in a kayak.  next time will be in a rubber boat

5 Types of kayak used;  mine was a puffin and Grahams was a new john dobbie. Both were plastic

KEITH JOHNSON