Paddle: 21km

Day 3 of Whanganui River Journey

A short and very wet last day! We had to leave a bit more sharpish this morning as we were being collected 21km down the river at 2:30pm. We set off, forwards and not last, a great start for the Dupoys. The weather was better too, less humid and clearer skies.

Today was rapid day. So far we had experienced fairly tame rapids and had dismissed the techinical notes that we'd been supplied with as being quite unnecessary. Uh oh. Our trick with the rapids was to go down the middle where it looked fastest and most fun, which had worked so far. We knew that today we would meet the "big' rapids and so when we came across and successfullly navigated some "big rapids" we whopped and cheered and thought our work was done for the day. I was kicking back, lying on the bags with my lif jacket undone when we came across the sound of more gushing water. Scott said he'd paddle me down but thought I ought to help a bit so I sat up and did up my jacket. We ploughed straight down the left hand side where most of the water was heading and striaght into a 1m pressure wave! The open canoe filled with water, we spun right despite Scott's cries of "Paddle, the Wife!" and his best steering, more water poured into the vessel and we slowly but surely tipped right over! Scott, Claire, the boat, three oars and 4 flip-flops all went floating off in different directions. Scott's first shout to me was "Grab a flip-flop!". He the asked if I was alright to which I replied "Ye..." as a bit wave dunked me and I got a mouthful of Whanganui! His next request was for me to push the boat over to the right banks where we could dock on some drift wood as he got pulled round to the left hand side of a rock and away from everything else. Armed with two paddles and two flip-flops I did my best doggy-paddle to get the boat over across the current. Scott arrived later with the other paddle but a flip-flop down - disater!

How funny! We tipped the boat to get rid of the water and then watched as six more boats came down, three of which also filled with water and wiiped out. So much for our gentle rivver cruise and a lesson that when Kiwi's say there is a hazard they tend to not exagerate! Scott read the techinical notes for these rapids AFTERWARDS which a large section in bold on how best to tackle this difficult section. Oops!

We, rather nervously now, navigated the last few rapids and pulled into our landing spit. We had been quite confident that our Ortlieb-super-German waterproof bike bags were invincible but when the boat flipped the straps undid and water seeped into them - boo! Wet stuff!

On the bus back to National Park the weather turned wet and nasty again so we checked into a room in Plateau Lodge, whacked the heater up to full and dried all our belongings including the tent. It was money well spent and I certainly slept with a smile on my face in a lovely comfy bed!