Hutt Valley Canoe Club

Now we need a permit to access Kaingaroa Forest when paddling Rangitaiki river.

The new place to get permits from is:

Independent Security Consultants Limted (ISCL)

Phone: 07 3478880
Fax: 07 3478880

E-mail: ktpermits atmark iscl.co.nz (replace atmark with @)

66 Tawera Road
Rotorua
PO Box 35
Rotorua

Fergs Kayaks gives club members discounts. Check this out!

Feeling like I hadn’t paddled for months and looking out at a sunny Friday from the office, I thought a paddle down the Otaki on Sunday would be a good idea. A quick e mail to Alan and some paddle partners were found!

It’s time to celebrate a year in the life of the Hutt Valley Canoe Club again, and there have been highs and lows, for the club and for me.

Here are some of the reasons why the log in the Chicayne Rapid in the Hutt Gorge should be removed in January 2008.

The VUCC A team of Dean Ford, Jo Dovey and James Coubrough won the shield back to back after a definitive win in the 2008 Hutt Gorge Race of 1 hour 7 minutes. Congratulations to VUCC A!

The river level was very low. Full results are in the table below. Although there was no Ruahine team this year we still had 6 teams - a great turnout with 3 teams from VUCC, 2 teams from HVCC and a Fergs team.

The Poutu canal was shut due to maintenance so the Tongariro Access 10 section (below Waikato Falls) was flowing at natural flow - today 39.9 cumecs! (normally 16 cumecs). On hand to enjoy the extra water were Terry, Josh and Linton (Waikato CC), Joel from Wanganui, Craig, Aaron, Bruce, Nick, Mat, Melz, Irish Phil, "thin" Phil (all from Ruahine) plus Wellington paddlers Neil, Alan, Grant, Lucy, Rich and Paul T - a total of 18 paddlers, it was like a mini-release day!

The Taruarau is a relatively small river with its source in the Kaweka Ranges. The obvious put-in is where it crosses the Napier-Taihape road, somewhere near the Taihape end of the Gentle Annie section. The usual take-out is at Whanawhana – same as for the Ngaruroro. The Taruarau joins the Ngaruroro after most of the whitewater. A Google fly-over reveals a winding, narrow river with steep-sided gorges, a road and bridge in the middle reaches, plus several zones of definite gradient and large rock formations.

Due to previous cancellations (March 2007, March 2008) King Country Energy agreed finally to release the Mangahao twice in October 2008. The first release was on Oct 4 and was the usual 30 cumecs. However, sidestreams boosted the level to around 35 cumecs for most of the trip. The 18 Oct release was programmed to be 40 cumecs and did not disappoint.

The extra flow was hardly noticeable at the beginning but as Jon Parker (JP) soon found out, it made its presence felt.