What may have been only 20 minutes felt like quite a lot longer than that, as I sat in my boat in a tiny eddy all by myself, holding onto a handful of fernlife sticking out from the gorge walls. Rising and falling with the surge of the boils around me, I had plenty of time to reflect on my present position. Hmmm...my third trip down the Hutt Gorge, and here I was in a short squirty kayak, with expert kayakers in creekers all around me....
It was a cold, rainy Wellington day, the Hutt gorge was up, but instead, 4 of us were keen to escape the Wellington “summer” and head up to beautiful Hawkes Bay in search of some summer sun and warm water.
Here is a message from Polly Miller, President of Whitewater NZ (aka NZRCA) please read this – we need plenty of help to save the Hurunui River from being dammed.
We are having a working bee on May 2nd to fix up the steps down to the river. Some of us oldies are having to strain our bodies to get up the steps, some of the bushes are growing over the track and there are 1-2 steps missing at the bottom. So bring your old warratahs, sledge hammers, treated logs, picks and shovels.
We had a successful AGM on 17 March and a full committee. It is very pleasing to see that most of the current committee have made themselves available again and also to see some new “blood”.
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
Download the replica of "And Now We Are Ten" from here
For day trips on the river - some things you need...
