TA Days 68 to 72: Floating the Whanganui River

What a trip! Traveling along the Whanganui River over the past five days has been one of the highlights of my Te Araroa experience!

It felt a bit like an end-of-year field trip with eight of us students, a teacher (who is actually a teacher), and a chaperone. In reality, we are all adults and there was no real supervision, just good times surfing the waves.

For the first four days, Distance Frog (who became «Captain Chill» during the boat ride) was my canoe companion. Maneuvering the boat was a little more difficult due to our weight differences, but we made it work.

The first day of the trip I was quite exhausted because a thunderstorm had kept me awake the night before.

I used to lead canoe trips for work, but I have no real experience on the river other than flipping a kayak and losing or destroying some equipment. Needless to say, I was a little scared to turn around.

Although a little wobbly and nervous every time we hit rapids, I went into fast paddling mode and we made it through without incident.

The first night we stayed at the John Coull campsite. Fortunately, we had already set up camp before the storm hit. At dinner we sat under a shelter on the hill above our tents; safely observing the torrent of rain and lightning that falls around us.

During a short break in the heavy rain, we managed to reach our tents. Despite the noise of the downpour, I fainted instantly that night.

By morning, the storm had moved on, leaving less threatening clouds.

Even after raising our canoes quite a bit the day before, the water was much higher and we had plenty of water to get out of our boats.

Our second day on the river ended up being very enjoyable and we were also able to stretch our legs a bit. We made a small detour to walk towards the Bridge to Nowhere. It was a nice walk through the woods to the bridge.

The bridge was built to reach from farms given to veterans after World War II. We ended up taking a nice lunch break there before returning to our boats and continuing down the river.

That night we stayed at the Tieke Marae campsite. At the riverbank, thick, slippery mud greeted our ascent from the water to camp.

There were quite a few people who stayed overnight at Tieke, including two school groups, several tourists and a large group of Māori helping with a rural health programme.

For Maori, maraes are sacred tribal grounds with meeting houses. You must be invited to the venue to enter.

Historically, friendly tribes arrived long before night to other villages. Sneaking away in the dark was usually an indicator of an attack, rather than a peaceful encounter. To show that the visit was peaceful, the women entered first and the men at the back. Then there would be an exchange of greetings and songs from both sides, before touching noses. Touching your nose was a sign of respect.

Despite arriving shortly after 5:00 p.m., we were able to participate in a traditional pōwhiri (formal welcome), complete with nose touching.

That night turned out to be a bit chaotic due to a medical emergency. Around 7:00 p.m. they asked everyone in a certain area to move our tents so that a helicopter could land. The first helicopter arrived, but the injured man needed to be able to lie down to be transported. This helicopter was not big enough to do the job, so a second helicopter was called.

As it was already dark, a group of about twenty people with headlamps and flashlights stood at the top of the hill with our lights shining into the sky to help the helicopter find us.

By this time, everyone else who had their tents on the hillside had also taken them down to make room for a larger, more powerful helicopter.

It was quite an experience helping to direct a helicopter to the camp, watching it land and seeing the person being taken away. It wasn’t until after 10:00 p.m. that we were able to set up our tents again.

The next day on the river was absolutely beautiful with many waterfalls. We also reached a zone known as 50-50. It gets its name because half of the canoes that travel through the area tend to capsize in the rapids.

However, for us the river was high, which made passage easier. In fact, none of us really knew we had done the 50-50.

Before reaching the section, we stopped for a short pee break and ended up accidentally breaking the wooden board holding our barrels to our canoe. Fortunately, we were able to install a different system to keep our barrels in place.

While this was happening, we missed our “teacher” and our “companion” accidentally capsized his canoe. Their equipment got soaked, but luckily they were both okay.

Although we didn’t turn 50-50, Captain Chill and I had a harder time steering our canoe due to the weight difference. So later we ended up speeding into a tree. Fortunately, we hit the tree and veered to the side and didn’t tip over. There was quite a bit of water in the back of the boat though.

We stopped for lunch at Pipiriki before paddling to Matahiwi for the night. After arriving, we had some soup for dinner and also saw the boat used in the movie; the Queen of the River.

With each passing day, everyone became faster and better at reloading the barrels on the ships. However, we always had long days on the river.

This was partly because we took our time. Our group really enjoyed rafting; singing songs, playing the ukulele, talking and just having a good time floating slowly down the river together.

The last night on the river, we ended up staying at Hitenga Park. It just so happens that we were there on checkout day. Box day is when people try to drink a liter of beer every hour for 12 hours.

This also happened to be the day most of us met our first bogans. Bogans are essentially rednecks.

In fact, they were very friendly and helped us move all of our barrels to camp with their ATV. They also kept inviting us to join their group for drinks.

However, being hikers, we tend to go to bed early. So when they came over later to see if anyone was interested in joining, almost everyone was already in their tents for the night.

To be nice, our teacher and our date were going to go out for a drink, but they couldn’t find the house. We also felt a little uncomfortable, because in addition to drinks, they were also trying to offer us drugs and talking about going deer hunting. The last thing you need is drunk, high guys shooting things.

I was lying in my tent, writing in my journal when I heard the ATV arrive. I immediately turned off the flashlight and stared through the crack in the door of my tent. Outside, one of the guys was trying to get the few people still up to go have a drink. He even started offering cups of tea instead of alcohol to tempt.

Then he asked, «Where is the old man who promised he would come for a drink?» Someone pointed to our “teacher” tent.

My tent was very close to his, and as the bogan walked, his lantern illuminated the entire place. Meanwhile, I was lying in my tent pretending to be asleep. Finally I heard the boy say; «Hey, you promised you’d come over for a drink.» Meanwhile, our leader, very diplomatic and respectful, called again saying that he had tried to find the house, and he had it. Then he continued saying; «Sorry man; I’m tucked in. I’m tucked in.»

In the end they left us alone and we were finally able to go to sleep.

The next day we relaxed in Hitenga Park for a long time because we couldn’t go out until 2:00 pm when the tide was low. We really wanted to do more rafting, but the current wasn’t very strong. After advancing about 200 meters in half an hour, we were forced to row.

It was a long day on the river paddling against the wind, but it was also a fun last day. Early in the afternoon we arrived in Whanganui and ended up staying at the holiday park.

One of the highlights was a large inflatable pillow. We spent a lot of time jumping and laughing a lot. A fantastic trip culminated; One of the highlights of my Te Araroa so far.

Many waterfalls, goats, ducks and most importantly; An amazing group of people!