Whanganui River 2

Highlights from the trip:

• My first trout, donated to us by a friendly angler on the river
• The sole survivor! I was the only one to stay vertical (and dry!) for the whole trip.
• Paddling through a gorge that has amazing shell fish fossils buried under 20 metres of rock! In the middle of the central north island.
• Wondering how the cow walking up stream on the bank of the gorge would get out (it couldn't turn around coz it was too narrow)... or in fact how it got there in the first place! It was pretty steep.
• Tasty snacks!
• The big rapid! Lots of fun there. Especially watching the others tackle the eddy not realising that the current goes in the opposite direction... which led to 2 capsizes and one near miss!
• A cave full of mud! Even more fun!
• Another cave with a waterfall inside it.

  From malcyb's travels

Whanganui River

This past Easter I took on a different adventure for a change. For the last 5 years I've organised a group to stay at Erua in National Park and then done some 1 day tramps. The Crossing, Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu Crater Lake, Tama Lakes and others. This year however, I joined up with Sarah's Whanganui River trip.

3 of us were from Welly and 4 from Orkland for a 5 day 4 night paddle down the river from Taumaurunui.

The first day was a little bit too eventful for our liking! Due to some dubious help from the company that put us on the river - late, rushed, little to no tutoring o

n how to use a canadian canoe! Great! This led to a number of demoralising capsizes throughout the day which slowed our progress considerably, made most of the group cold and wet (except my boat, thanks to 7th form P.E! :) and left motivation at an all time low by the end of the day.

Fortunately on Day 2, by about mid day we'd sorted things out. Canoes were starting to go in the right direction and the scenery started to get a bit more isolated.

And man was the scenery worth it, or what!? Day 3 and 4 were really impressive. Canyons with vertical faces, amazing geological features, wild goats, paradise ducks, trout from a friendly fisherman, gentle rapids to make the trip quicker, cosy camp sites and many waterfalls!