The Friday forecast was for some solid rain and so I hoped to recruit some keen and capable packrafter for an epic upper Otaki River trip. The outlook seemed too uncertain for this though (too low or much too high both being possibilities) and so I went into the weekend with uncertain plans. It took some doing but eventually I managed to arrange a vehicle for myself and had a quiet camp in the rain at Kaitoke Regional Park on the east side of the Tararuas near the Hutt River Gorge. I slept diagonally in the shelled bed of the truck, cramped but thankful I wasn't any taller. In the morning I drove to the roadend and checked out the Rivendell Lord of the Rings filming location for the heck of it and checked out the river at the swingbridge. It certainly looked boatable! I drove into Upper Hutt to get WiFi and check messages. Local packrafter Martin said that there was a group of club kayakers that would be running the Hutt River Gorge at 10:30am. If I was ready to go at the put-in when they arrived and asked for Dean they would probably let me join. Seemed as good an option as any as running the semi-committing 5.5mi/9km Grade III+ gorge solo probably wouldn't be the best decision. I drove back to the put-in and had a good long time to get ready at the carpark. I saw some commercial rafters arrive, ready, and take off. They assured me the kayak group would soon arrive so I chilled once I was organized. Eventually the group of seven hardshellers arrived, I asked around for Dean, and with not too much hesitation directed at the random packrafter, I joined them on the brown tannin-tinged river.
Dean was good value and was quite deliberate in looking out for me and giving me beta until he was convinced I could handle my own with the rapids. A few riffles led under a bridge under construction at the start of the gorge. Greywacke cliffs closed in and what followed was a diverse variety of bedrock and boulder rapids. It was surprisingly scenic and despite the lowish tame flows of 16cumec/565cfs was plenty of fun. There was an interesting log weir feature that they all took turns surfing. I was in no rush to embarrass myself but after some coaxing I joined in on the surfing and managed to stay dignified and upright. It was a very social trip.
There were some nice boulder garden rapids, toilet bowl hydraulics, and a couple nice boofs that followed. I settled into the style of the river and became quite happy reading and running at the front of the group. The greywacke cliffs, sunlit waters, and bright green forest complete with nikau palms made for a very scenic paddle for most of the length. At one point one of the kayakers challenged me, mentioning that he had never seen a packrafter catch a mid-rapid microeddy in a rapid coming up and wanted to see me try. Perhaps luck was a factor but I managed to maneuver perfectly into the small boat-sized eddy at a slight indent in the cliff, comfortably stall in the pillow of water, and then carve back into the remainder of the rapid, which was more than a little satisfying.
The scenery seemed to improve the further we went. After two relaxed hours the gorge relented and we reached the takeout. I wished the run was longer and probably would have loved the push of the flow being more like 30 cumec, but it was a beautiful, fun, and overall excellent day out and I was very grateful to join the cheerful group of locals enjoying their backyard run. In not much time I was back to my car, a drive to Upper Hutt for a solo dinner, then back to Kaitoke for another night of quiet camping.
Thanks especially to Martin for making contact and Dean for showing me the run.
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