Friday, February 20: Sunny, warm, with a few clouds

Kayaking: 22.1 km

Sue & Simon’s

GPS Tour

The rooster crowed at about 7:30, and I got up to boil some water for what pitiful drowned remains of the coffee were left. Not much else left for breakfast, a couple of muesli bars and an egg. Got Rebecca to give us her email address and everyone was off before we had finished packing, all except for Andrea, who didn’t want to be left to leave last, but then a couple of canoeists turned up who were leaving later from the lodge (Bridge to Nowhere Lodge). We were underway and soon overtaking the others.

We passed the Ngaporo Campsite at about the halfway point at around 11:00; Pea wanted to get a bit further before descending on the last remaining food. I spotted a shingle bank not very far past the campsite and we decided to finish off as much as we could there.

GPS Tour

This was pretty much right before the ‘big one’. Gavin had warned us that you either ‘chicken out’ and drag the boat over the shingle bank, or go through the ‘chicken guts’ and get wet, if not capsize the boat. When we arrived the kids from Welly High were getting instructions on how to pass it without getting the boat full and capsizing. We charged on after hearing a brief description – and made it through, not only alive, but also with very little water in the boat.

The landscape was already changing, farmland and cultivated forests had started to reappear, and soon after, Pipiriki was signed, and a longer rapid followed, most of which we seemed to do via the bank. In any case the landing strip was soon visible. We had reached the end of an amazing journey.

We might have been among the first, but there were plenty of boats behind us. Managed to catch up briefly with Rena before his group was transported away. Impressive small blokes shouldering Canadian canoes by the seats and steering them towards their trailers and packing them onto them. Then the schoolkids transported all of their barrels up the hill and their boats were taken away, finally Gavin turned up and began loading our stuff. We had unloaded all of the dry bags long before he arrived, and were trying to avoid standing around for too long in the sun.

It was about a ¾ hour drive back to Ohakune but we stopped along the way to catch a glimpse of Ruapehu (with the company of plenty of bees). Back in town we stopped by the office to collect the valuables, then it was on to the storage yard to offset the boats. I pointed out a problem with the pointy screws which fixed the rudder in place (probably wood screws), that needed to be sawn off and made flush, and while Roger & Jackie were unpacking their boats, Gavin drove us back to Station Lodge with our packed dry bags which we unpacked at leisure on the patio & divided the booty. Then it was across the railway line to Sue & Simon’s. Quite a hot day by now, and they had all the doors in the house open.

Celebratory meal was at the Powderhorn, this time we managed to eat everything – a classic burger for me and a veggie one for Pea, with chips and a handle of Tui. The lot came to $54, and I guess we were just happy to eat something resembling real food again.