Whanganui River

Over Christmas the whole family paddled down the Whanganui River. The sun was shining and it was hot; not the usual December weather. :D

Anyway, we started at the 24th of December, at Whakahoro, and paddled down streams to a little hut, John Coull Hut, where we slept.

The river floated slowly through a big gorge with steep rock walls on each sides. In the stone there were many caves, some smaller, others very big. We went in to one of them, and it was huge.

Kingfishers dived into the olive green water and small water falls fell down from the riverbanks. We came past many rapids, but most of them were easy. The canoes jumped over the waves and water splashed up.

After 37 km and 6 hours we were finally there,

at John Coull Hut, where we stayed for the night. The hut was very simple, and so was our Christ-
mas dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce and fresh rainwater. :D
We spent our Christmas eve with cardplaying and chocolate eating.

It was already pitch dark and we were on our way to brush our teeth, when we saw the hut ward and his wife, trying to open the door to their hut through the window with a self made spear. They had locked themselves out, and if they  wouldn't get up the door, they would have to sleep outside-cold!

There were barrels in front of the window, but Janne could just squeeze through them and open the door from inside. The hut ward and his wife were very, very happy, and gave Janne and me a present: a little self made basket made of Flax, a plant from which the Maori made their clothes when they first came to New Zealand, with a little peace of blue mussel formed like a leaf. We got a Christmas present after all!

 

In the morning of the second day the hut wards wife showed us how to make very pretty flowers out of Flax. The paddling was quit like the first day, very sunny and over many rapids  and past caves. Janne and I relaxed most of the time, and I almost fell asleep in the canoe. We stayed at Tieke Kainga, where we got a traditional Maori welcome ceremony. It was very formal, and the hut ward sang a song on Maori to the Sun God.

On the third day we got away early, and the morning mist still hang over the river. It was mystical and beautiful. We stayed at a huge cave, where an underground waterfall fell down to a big natural basin.We swam in the clear, very cold water, and it was amazing.



 We came across three challenging rapids, and we got a whole lot of water in our canoes, but we didn't capsize. They were only at grade 2 on the difficulty scale, but we thought it was hard enough. (The hardest grade is 6, but that is barely possible to survive.) In Pipiriki we got picked up at half past one.

The three days of paddling have been very exciting, fun and interesting!