Something was not quite right as Dean, Duncan and myself turned up to Garth's house loaded our boats and got away without much pissing about. (This can't have been a VUCC trip)
We got to Taupo just after 12 and stayed in a fellow kayaker’s house. We headed up to the Kaituna on Saturday with a stop off at Huka just to have a look. It turned out to be a very low flow 40 cum? At this point I was thinking shit what a flow to run it. After scouting it for about an hour I decided to run it if someone else would but realized no one was keen so we left.
We meet up with John a pom who paddled with us down south over Christmas at sunspots. Garth picked up a demo boat and we headed to paddle the Kaituna. It was flowing at 3 gates at 250, a lowish flow with Lincoln’s mishap still fresh in our minds. After playing in the slalom gates for a while we made it down to the top of Tutea's falls. John and I decided to run it and the others walked around it. We both made good lines and ran the falls without mishap. Every time I run that fall it still puts butterflies in my stomach. It’s just a matter of time till you will get a beating there. The rest of the river went smoothly.
We spent the night at McLaren falls in Tauranga and paddled the Wairoa twice on Sunday, all having nice runs.
We kayaked the Rangitaiki on Monday with another pom. After paddling Jeff's Joy a couple of times we cruised down the grade 2 Rangitaiki. I swapped boats with Garth so he could try out different creek boats.
I saw a nice small play wave and was making my way towards it when I saw a log pointing up stream just below it. Bugger better be safe and not catch that wave, so went around the wave. Just as I made my way around to river right of it, I saw the log ran just out of the water all the way to the bank. "Shit" I tried to paddle up over it but it spun me upstream so I grabbed the log and leaned into it dropping my paddle. As I saw the others coming down I pointed for them to go river left. But it was too late for John who got pinned right on the tip of the log. He managed to push himself around the log but got his paddle stuck. In the end I managed to roll my body and kayak up over the log after trying two attempts at rolling. I decided to pull and swim. I hate swimming and knew I would get shit for it.
Luckily our paddles were retrieved just down river. As I got to the side I looked back up stream and saw Duncan pinned against it. As I tried scrambling through the bush with a throw bag I heard from Garth he had got himself off.
It turned out that he hadn’t seen John and me pinned on the log. Maybe this trip was a VUCC trip in the end with a bit of carnage. As Garth did the shuttle we found out that our car with all our gear was left at the get in with a few doors and boot open.
With kayaking you're always waiting for the next swim, the longer you wait the bigger it will be. So I'm pleased to get it over with as I was building up for a big one.
As we made our way back to Wellington I asked just to have a quick look at Huka. I ran to the bridge. If it was too big we would just get back into the car and go but it was still low. F#@% it. The flow was a little bigger then Saturday but it made the line over the falls look easier. Dean was weighing up the run. After looking at it for 15mins I decided that I would run it.
As soon as I had told myself I was paddling it I wasn't nervous. I knew I was going to do it and that’s that. I got changed and the other lads offered to set up safety. As I was taking my boat off a man came up to me and asked if I was going to take long because he wanted to leave. That fired me up. I was going to tell him to f@#$ off but just told him I was just running them now.
As I seal launched into the eddy I splashed my face and ferry glided across to the top of the gorge. I looked down to see people packed on the bridge.
Here I go. I paddled down and managed to go hard left over the weir. Dean had managed to climb down into the gorge and set up slings and throw rope if I needed it (luckily I didn't). I ferry glided back into the centre and paddled the pencil sharpener below the bridge and caught the second eddy. I waited here for a bit with nothing going through my mind. Some of you might say that’s normal but I found it odd.
I paddled down hard left got a lot of speed over the ramp and put in a paddle stroke on the right. Next thing I knew, I’m upside down at the bottom of the falls.
I was just waiting for my boat to be sucked back into the falls. I had a shocking attempt at a roll. The second time managed to roll up expecting to be right at the base looking into the hole but had been pushed towards the left bank. This might sound arrogant but I felt gutted that I had to roll.
As I had visualised paddling them so many times. It’s something I wanted to do right. Thanks to Garth, Dean and Duncan for doing safety and for waiting around. I knew I was ready to paddle them when I saw the line and flow and had just spent 3 weeks paddling down the south island.
All up a good Wellington anniversary.
James Coubrough
