Tuesday, February 17: Very dense fog on the river to begin with, clearing to fine and hot
Kayaking: 23.8 km
Whakahoro Bunkroom (DOC, $10)
GPS Tour
I had gotten the most of a night’s sleep and was awake again by 6:00. The valley was shrouded in very dense fog and I wondered what a time lapse would look like if I could get the camera to focus. It continued to lighten, some voices chirped up and eventually others were awake and up and about. Of course, everything was wet, and my legs were peppered with sandfly bites from the short time between arriving, putting up the tent, and getting the deet and spiderman suit on.
No signs of rat predation so either the rats do not try to get into the dry bags, or they are in insignificant numbers.
Anyway, breakfast was on the agenda; an egg, a muesli bar, some bread and butter, black coffee. The task of getting everything back into the boat. We now seem to have two dry bags over, so they were used as watershields. Finally the tent had to be dried as best as possible and shoved into its bag. It will get wet again on the deck, so dry is a relative term.
We were ready to roll just after about 9:00. This time the camera was not deployed because the case was still wet on the inside, but the tracker came in handy, although there doesn’t seem to be a waterproof plastic bag packed in for it. I also had my glasses with me on the outside to try to read the map on occasion.
Progress throughout the day was pretty consistent. On one rapids the boat, myself and the cooker broke a branch, and that also left a mark on the cooker case. Not too much water was taken on. At one point we decided to count rapids. Pea thought that we had passed four, I was pretty sure we had passed at least ten. Anyway, the next 14 were counted together.
It was either this or practising singing that made us miss our lunch stop which was supposed to be Maharanui Campsite. As we passed a couple in a Canadian we asked them where we were and they said we had passed Maharanui and would be about 4 km in front of Whakahoro, even though it was just past 12:00. Anyway we were happy at having such a short day, even if finding the landing at Whakahoro was a little difficult. Arrived there and immediately transferred the lunch things to the hut and had lunch to the tune of a helicopter transporting stuff and a hunter with dog into the hills: The rest of the bread, a third of the cheese, some crackers (& butter) and an apple, with some walnut/raisin mix.
GPS Tour
Then the major transfer of everything that had to be dried had to be organised. The boat was pretty full of water, which for most of the edibles would have been OK, but not stuff that might go off or become unusable when repeatedly made wet such as the vegetables, and the sugar and coffee had almost been totally ruined if not for the miraculous waterproof containers they were in.
We managed to get everything dry – perhaps tomorrow will not make everything wet again, at least the edibles can be stored more appropriately. The campsite had a washing line, and I managed even to dry out all of the paperwork and somehow restore it, except for one of the laminated maps which was cracked.
The otherwise lazy afternoon in the sun was interrupted by a trip to the local café, The Blue Duck, for a couple of soft drinks for $2.5 a piece. While many ancient dogs mosied around, a little boy played on his bicycle and various characters slouched in and out, one with a lot of hay in his boots, one with a hunting knife on his belt, complete with whetstone. The proprietor had two Middle Eastern “businessmen” with him who he was discussing all sorts of micro- and macroeconomics with, just like in a Business English textbook. The proprietor, a farmer, is big into tourism and offers young people from around the world the opportunity to learn how to hunt a goat, shoot it, and then eat it. All very eco-friendly, of course. After about an hour of this we headed back to the ranch.
Pea went down to the river for a swim and I discovered the rest of the campsite. Whakahoro is on a hill overlooking the river and one corner has a view over the final bend we took today. Was considering taking a sunset series from there – which I decided not to – but may take a time lapse tomorrow morning.
The campsite is now occupied – not with the five other guests booked into the bunkroom and that there is no trace of – but by a herd of sheep. The human areas of Whakahoro are all fenced off, so I closed all the gates, except for the one to the picnic area closest to the house, which is hardest to close.
Michael had gotten his OK over dinner and I changed the batteries in the spot (they had been transmitting for three days) and I took a sunset series, back to the sunset, with some clouds lighting up nicely.
Tomorrow a longer day.
