This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
by Paul Critchley "Let’s raft the Gorge instead!" New paddles under construction for lightness, my old paddles weigh 2.9 kg. After a bit of thought from Geoff and some input from myself, we came up with our own type of paddle. A bit of plywood, aluminium tube, fibreglass and timber, fashioned into an indestructable paddle weighing only 1.25 kg. we also came up with a split paddle for a spare. Just finished in time on Friday. After leaving the truck at the road end, we raced the Fit trip to the Swing Bridge, so we could keep our party together. Carrying a full weekend pack, plus the raft, wetsuit, paddle, gear frame, lifejacket and other non=-tranping equipment weighed in at a mere 35 kilos. After a steady climb up Saddle Creek and onto the. Plateau, I passed my raft onto Geoff, giving him the extra 11 kilos. Travelling along the mud covered track across the Plateau, down to Arapito Creek, down to the Otaki River. Up the river for 20 - 30 minutes looking for the new Waitewaewae Hut, I thought my legs below the knee were going to drop off, and other parts of my anatomy were like big lumps either side of my adams apple. Finally arrived at the hut somewhere past midnight. A hot brew and into noddy land, someone worked hard all night with a chain saw, but the wood pile never got any bigger. Morning arrived before we slept, we dragged our sleepy eyelids open and began breakfast. There were only 6 of us and a young hunter in the Hut, but you would have thought there were at least 30. After a leisurely breakfast, we prepared our craft for the splash down. A good belly ache was achieved when Robbie and Jonathan produced their wooden spoons which were swapped for our spare paddles. After a practise testing with new teams, we set off down the Otaki, 15 minutes
on the Fit party were floating down on their tubes. We stayed with the tubers for a short time watching them fall off their tubes down the rapids. Rex and Mark showing us how to shoot part of a rapid. without the raft. Rex, Mark, Geoff and myself left Jonathan and Robbie to be tail- -end~charlies with the tubers. We hit Kahiwiroa Stream on the true left, immediately after, there is a 1.5 m drop cascade into a shoot, which would be a grade 3-plus, then numerous grade 2-plus to 3 rapids. You then hit a good drop of 2.4 m (the legth of our raft), with the approach to this being a rock garden pool where the river goes to the left bank and turns sharp right, halfway into the turn starts the drop. It goes over a rock like a large 2.4 m nose with water spilling off to the right, hitting a rock under the right hand side of the falls, into a large pool of foaming white water with a log at the end. This would be a grade 4. The rapid straight after would be a grade 3-plus, but you need to watch out as it is a big and boney with plenty of sharks teeth to get snagged on, so we decided to portage around this one. Other rapids of 2-plus to 3 most of the way before stopping off at the Biv on the true left, an excellent view of the Tararua Peaks could be seen from the true right. We had a detour up Whatiuru Stream to find a camp site. After half an hour upstream there was no show of a campsite, but there was a hope of Rex. and Geoff finding fresh meat for breakfast. We wandered back down to the river to a nice grassy bank on the true left, just the right size for 1 fly and an eye spy on a grassy slip on the other side of the river to watch the deer go by in the evening as we set up camp. Watching the fit tubers go shivering by to their camp site, sends thoughts through ones mind, nice to have the rafts keeping one drier and warmer. In the morning another leisurely breakfast, sun bathing before we launch our crafts. We met up with Andrew’s fit tubers. On one rapid, Geoff and myself followed Lyndsay down, at the end we managed to go over the top of him (ran him down to be precise). He called us a few names our mothers would dispute and as we pulled off him, Rex and Mark went over him, their mothers would also dispute the names he called them, further on Lyndsay had an unexpected egg shampoo. On this trip, Geoff and I found out how much water these rafts really hold. On one rapid we wrapped the raft around a rock - I’m left standing on the rock with a finger in my ear - "Now what?". Not being able to empty it, Geoff says to go with the raft full. "OK!", I jumped into the raft with water up to the waist and with a heave we got the raft over a drop, crashed into a wall, over another drop and cascaded down this dog-leg shoot. Feeling the strain on the paddles as we tried to stear this lead laden craft, was like pushing a wheel barrow full of cement up the Ngauranga Gorge. It did not want to go where we wanted it to. The scenery on this trip is best spent lying back on your craft. Waitewaewae to the Forks would be 6 hours of steady paddling in average flows down to Otaki Forks, without mishaps, or punctures, or lost gear and other hinderances like cracked ribs or smashed knees. Another great trip on the Otaki.
Raft mates: Rex Benbrook, Mark Loveard, Robbie Morrison, Jonathan, Geoff Crockford and myself, Paul Critchley.