A free afternoon of fine weather miraculously materialized between attending a workshop in Franz Josef and going back on to a regular drilling shift. Equally miraculous a spare car and two passengers keen for a walk and hot spring soak. We drove over to the Wanganui River, the next major valley north of the Whataroa. I had heard the bottom 10km or so made a good introduction to Class III West Coast heli-kayaking which I interpreted as a prime packrafting run. I could go for a run/tramp on the track up the valley, scouting the river as I went. When the time was about right or the river started looking scary I could suit up, inflate, and off I could go back down the way I came.
Initially I strolled with Jamie and Anton down the track but soon I became restless and eager to see as much as I could with the few hours I had. I would be solo from here on and meet them at Amethyst Hot Springs, conveniently right at my take out. As I ran on, the track quickly deteriorated to riverside boulder hopping interspersed with muddy bush track with knee-depth mud pits. We left the cars at a gloomy drizzle but the surrounds turned to sunny skies as I headed upvalley.
The river looked fantastic, a beautiful boulder strewn, fast moving, glacial blue. I saw a couple features that impressed me and noted a navigable route for my later passing. I made it a little past Mystie Flat (~6km) before deciding it was time to inflate. I wanted to be sure to have time to stop over at the hot springs after all. I made quick time and quick movements inflating my raft and putting on my suit as the sandflies looked for their window of opportunity. Soon I was off, quickly paddling to thread my way through the first long rapid, which had a committing finish. I soon got into the stride of it which allowed for plenty of chances to enjoy the rapidly changing views. Threading through boulders and charging through long waves trains, other stresses and commitments happily faded.
Before too long I made it to the beach at the Hot Spring Creek confluence. I tied off my packraft and jaunted up the creek. I quickly discovered the hot springs were nowhere near the location marked on the map but intuition guided me to a curious creek dropping over a terrace on the true right. I crossed over and sure enough, warm water. I followed the creek up through a marshy area to about a half dozen very hot sources. It was clear the springs had not been used in a while but I could see that with the right maintenance they could be made into a comfortable soak in a magic spot. After dipping little more than a foot in one of the pools I was satisfied and it was time to head on.
The Class II obstacles continued and I made good time, much faster than the run/tramp up. One final almost gorge and the valley began to open up on the rangefront. One final spectacular hole made the last obstacle of consequence and then a somewhat calmer drift down shallow riffles to Amethyst hot springs where Jamie and Anton were comfortably waiting. I joined them for a pleasant soak before we drove back just in time for dinner. It was very high value for only about a 3hr jaunt. I would love to do it again, next time venturing a bit further upstream for some new river. Hopefully my onsite schedule will allow a few more fine weather jaunts. The coast has so much fine packraft potential!
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