Andy: Wendy and Steve are off to the glaciers, so I'm paddling with Chris and his kiwi friends for the next few days. Today we boated the Whitcombe, a steep, pushy, high-volume river. Usually, rivers are either steep or high volume, but not both. This river was both - what fun! This run had my full attention - lots of big moves around rocks, and huge hydraulics - with the rapids coming one after another. Through the crux section, Colliers Gorge, we'd paddle 100 yards, get out of our boat to scout a rapid, run the rapid, then paddle another 100 yards, repeat.
I won the unintentional-rodeo-award with one stunt just a few minutes from the put-in.
There was a nasty, river wide hole that we decided to sneak around. Sneaking it required sliding your boat between two rocks and pushing off over a 5 foot drop. Unfortunately, I pushed the WRONG way. Imagine my surprise as I slide into the exact feature we were trying to avoid. Yuck. That's not the way to sneak a rapid!
Fortunately, after a good trashing I flushed from the hole - still in my boat. Phew. Apparently, many an unlucky soul have exited this hole without their boat.
Colliers Gorge from the helicopter |
The same view from river level
|
Lots of fun boofs were had by all
|
|
Check out the gradient on this river! The kayaker in the lower, left gives the photo some perspective. Hard to believe there was a clean line through all those rocks and holes, but there was.
|
|
This was a fantastic 8 foot drop into huge, foaming hydraulics.
|
|
Peter, enjoying the last rapid of Colliers Gorge
|
|