Wednesday, February 18: Some fog at dawn, clearing to fine and sunny

Kayaking: 35.2 km

John Coull Hut (DOC, $32)

GPS Tour

Snoozed until about 7:30, then I had to get up to take the sunrise time lapse in the valley. A bit of low cloud or fog about, but the river was mostly free, so I set the camera going and returned for breakfast. Had the water boiling as Pea was getting up, then it was the favourites of egg, muesli bar, the remains of the crackers and coffee.

Moving all of the stuff back down again proved to be simpler that moving it up. I seemed to miss just one blue dry bag but while Pea was back at the hut trying to find it I found it in the boat. By the time she was back, nearly everything was in the boat. Roger & Jackie turned up just as we were about to go & they took a couple of pictures of us before they took off up to the Blue Duck for a coffee.

With the camera back on board and happily clicking away we took off down the tributary and into the main river.

We reached our first stop at Mangapapa after about two hours and had to find a way of getting on land. The group led by Rena, a Maori, was there ahead of us and told us to take a sharp left turn just after the start of the rapids. No mean feat and soon we were on dry land for our first snack. The others pushed off, and I could follow the path they were taking through these rapids. Just as we were getting ready to leave, two women turned up, a Columbian and a Dutchwoman – the Columbian in nothing more than a very skimpy bikini – and we directed them to shore. They wanted to have their photos taken and I shot a dozen or so for them. Then the Columbian came out with her friends’ book which we filled in. Then we were off for another two hours. The battery had run out but I didn’t want to spend too much fiddling about with the camera, so the second section went unrecorded. Pity, because it was a very deep section of the valley, especially dark, with very lovely scenes.

At the next campsite, Ohauora, we had a sunny table overlooking the river, where the remains of cheese were eaten with a packet of biscuits and a couple of apples. I fitted out the camera again with a pair of batteries – quite possibly the heat in the small bag is causing the batteries to run out faster. Anyway, camera reassembled on the deck and shooting away, Roger and Jackie caught up with us for the second last time – they were staying here for the night.

We pushed off for our final destination. At first there was a series of rapids followed by flat river for a very long stretch. I thought that there must be something wrong with the map when a further rapid appeared which would have put us at about halfway down the section. In reality we were almost at the hut. A couple of rapids later, and a sign advised of the imminent arrival at John Coull hut. We pulled the boat up on the shingle and were met by warden Jo (obviously American) and then Pea went up to reserve a couple of sleeping places.

GPS Tour

The camera had stopped working just before 5:00. In any case, the bag is dry and the whole caboodle stayed in place today despite one or two rough passages. The key was to minimise the amount of sticky tack. The only problem I have is that it is almost impossible to view the screen to check orientation and direction when luggage has already been loaded onto the boat.

In a spare moment I went down to the river and had a swim to at least get some personal hygiene done.

Pea and I decided on rice, cabbage, onion and carrot for dinner, and I was given the responsibility for the rice, which unfortunately was no longer dry. By pure fluke I got it to work (appears to require about 50% more water than the wet, washed rice). Cooked very slowly and carefully the rice was soft and fluffy, all the water was used and nothing was burnt. Quite a bit of a meal as I had used 2½ cups of wet rice, and we used ¼ of a cabbage.

In the meantime I sent a spot message to Michael and the place filled up to capacity – both the dormitory and the tent sites. Pretty raucous group – especially after last night, so there may not be much sleep.

Snorers galore last night but got about twice 3 hours’ sleep.