Day 13 - Wednesday 10 March 2010Canoe Dist: 35km? Canoe Time: 7 hrs 15 min.
Day two is the biggest day but we didn’t wake up until late and by the time we’d had breakfast we were second to last to leave the camp, just ahead of the Germans. The Dutch were away first of course, the kiwis didn’t care and English couple were happy just to beat the Germans.
The fog was only just lifting as we hit the water and the sun struggled over the high, bush clad riverbanks. We slipped away down river barely making a sound, sliding past the ducks sitting like sentries on the dark grey rounded boulders. It was like a scene from “The Deer Hunter” and we half expected to be ambushed by Viet Kong. I think this part of the world is even too remote for banjos, and we certainly didn’t hear any squealing pigs!
More amazing rock formations today and lots of flat water paddling in between the all to brief rapids today. The river was about 400mm below normal flow which makes for extra paddling but better rapids. The weather was perfect again with clear blue skies and a very slight tail wind in some sections.
We braved the chilly water for a swim today. Well, at least I did. The others spent so long procrastinating on the muddy bank that they must have disturbed an eel who thought it would be fun to first nip Shari on the leg, then pierce its teeth into Adam’s foot, drawing blood and sending a screech echoing up the canyon. That got Reid heading for high ground too and so was the end of our Whanganui River swimming experience.
The “Bridge to Nowhere” walk is on this section of river so we pulled over to the bank and tried walking instead of paddling for a change. Reid and I decided to run up the trail to the bridge which only took 15 minutes or so. At the bridge we met a bloke on a mountain bike who’d ridden 33km from Ruatiti and gave me all the scoops on the best way to mountain bike the Ruapehu region. We’ll be back.
Seven hours is a long time sitting in a canoe and we were sure glad to see Tieke Kainga Camp at about six o’clock. We ended up overtaking the Dutch as they stopped to fix a stopbank or something? We paddled past the English sunning themselves on deck chairs and the Germans must have got side-tracked invading Australia (or maybe the Frenchman surrendered?) but we didn’t see them until very late that evening. By then the other Kiwis had drunk most of their beer and were ready for bed.
About 3am I crept out of our tent to check the stars and it was just incredible. With no light pollution and very little moon, the milky way was a glowing white streak across the sky and Crux and Orion’s Belt shone brightly on opposite horizons of the river valley.
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