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Hutt Gorge Tubing - January 27 by Brian Johnston Photos by John Rhodes
It had been just over a year since my last tubing trip down the Tauherenikau river in December 2005 and I was looking forward to getting wet again. The Hutt gorge trip is the easiest in the Wellington region by way of access at both ends — straight out of the car and into the water just down from Pakuratahi forks then out again and into the car park at the end, no long walks involved. Total distance is about 10 km. The trip was promoted for several weeks at club night meetings and there was some interest but list numbers fluctuated during the week leading up to the trip. Numerous emails & phone calls were exchanged bringing the finally tally to 9 by Saturday morning. There were several first timers along. Assembly point was at platform 9. Wx forecast was for some light showers & southerlies clearing later in the afternoon. Jenny had dropped off 1 son at the airport and the other made a big decision to spend the day playing computer games with a friend rather than go tubing. Most already had their tubes inflated but we stopped at the Caltex station in Upper Hutt to add extra air. We left 2 cars at the Te Marua end where we met up with John Rhodes from Graytown. At Kaitoke waterworks car park Jonathan & Murray hurriedly inflated their kayak/raft. It was to make a big difference to overall time & for 2 of the punters. The rest of us had tube rafts of differing configurations. John’s method was different again using just a car tube tied to his chest and swimming the pools. He did more walking around some rapids than the rest of us but also spent plenty of time on the
raft. He also had a few tows by me through some of the longer pools and was the only one with a camera taking numerous photos. We entered the river at 9.50am. The gorge begins from the start and water level was at a rather low 1.1m which meant scraping rocks in some of the shallower rapids. At the 1st exit point a short distance down river no one showed any withdrawal symptoms so we continued on our way. A new ridge track which gives a 2nd exit point has been cut and can be picked up further down opposite Putaputaweta stream. About 2 hours down we came to a large log jam that has been growing in size over the years. It was too risky to go under so tubes & raft were passed over the obstruction by all hands. There were 2 other log jams to get around at different points. Both were low lying logs across the full width of the gorge and in slow flowing deep pools making it easy to pass under. Some of the rapids along the way were quite turbulent and not everyone managed to stay in their tubes. At one waterfall Jonathan & Murray went through backwards squeezing through a tight narrow gap below the drop. They liked it so much they went back and did it again going front first. Along the way Jonothan took notes at our many stopping points marking them on a map of gorge features he’s working on for later release. His notes included counting all of the rapids which came to about 60, +/- a few. Further down we had our lunch break at the usual spot. Some time after lunch Sharleen was thrown out of her tube in a turbulent spot and slammed sideways into a rock leaving her a bit bruised. A quick change around saw her swap places with Murray in the raft and she continued down river for the next hour. At times Murray played aquabat leaping from the raft & from rocks — 2nd childhood I think. The gorge section of the river continues for much of the journey opening up more towards the end with the first sign of civilization being the high tension lines across the river. In the last pool are 2 teenage girls with curious looks on their faces as we exit. For most of the trip we had an overcast sky with soft lighting and no harsh shadows giving the verdant green bush & rocks a more even color range. No wind for much of the journey meant an easier time paddling our way down river instead of having to fight southerly head winds. In the slow long deep pools the silence was most relaxing just drifting with the current and no one else around. The only wildlife sighting was a goat wearing a radio collar early on. We finally exited around 4.20pm having taken 6% hours and without any one suffering any serious injuries or punctured tubes. After being tossed around in a rapid section some time before midday, John unfortunately lost his expensive glasses leaving him a little bit blurry eyed for the rest of the trip. One of his zoom lenses suffered from water damage and was later written off. His estimated cost of the trip was $167/hour. My phone also got a bit wet and has since been replaced at a slightly cheaper hourly rate. An awesome, exhilarating time was had by all, just ask Jenny — sure beats playing computer games & house painting. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been down the Hutt gorge, it would be at least a dozen.
Above: Murray and Jonathan Left: Jenny
Punters: Brian Johnston (Leader), Christian Hoerning, Constanze Schwind, Jake Botting, Jenny Cossey, Jonathan Kennett, John Rhodes, Murray Drake, Sharleen Grounds