Motueka River Dec 21

We enjoyed a lazy morning hanging out with Richard and were just about to leave to enjoy yet another sunny day when Richard suggested we join him and a couple friends on a float down the Motueka River. I had been kayaking down the Mot with Richard a couple years back and had a great time. I looked at Sara and shrugged. Why not!

 

We drove to the petrol station, filled up the innertubes to the max, and set off for the river. Between the five of us we had a rag-tag mixture of 2 whitewater kayaks, 2 innertubes and a boogie board. The river was low so we slowly made our way down the flat bits between the small rapids. At about the deepest place on the river we had found that someone had left a rope leading to a nice cliff jump and couldn't resist.

 

Richard and I had been the furthest downstream, keeping an eye out for Jaws (photo above), the only real rapid on this stretch of the river. Eventually we saw the tell-tale horizon line. I escaped halfway down the rapid to take pictures of Sara. She handled the rapid with about as much class as you can in an innertube.

Unbeknownst to me, Dan had dislocated his shoulder pretty seriously in the rapid so we all rushed to his side and came up with a plan. We walked to the road and flagged down a car- I would rush Dan to the hospital in my car while the others dealt with the kayaks and other car. It turned into a long afternoon but long story and several doctors later Dan was eventually fixed by the good doctor Brewer. Although the day did not quite go as planned, the float down the river was still really enjoyable.