Day 52 - the river
Taumarunui —-> John Coull hut
68km bus + 35km paddle
Once more I woke up at 5.30am. I immediately checking the river levels on my phone, they looked good, and there was no message from Karen - finally we were ready to go! We all packed up in the dark and headed up to the office for our long-overdue safety briefing.
Typically, the canoe trip from Whakahoro to Whanganui would take five days, but because of how fast the river was flowing, we could easily do it in four. We’d booked huts and campsites along the way.
There were eight TA walkers. We’d been joined by Jon & Sara, a couple from the US who had finished the TA in Bluff a week or so prior. They hadn’t been able to get on the river when they were coming through (also because of weather), so had skipped ahead, but now wanted to come back to finish the final section.
We loaded into minivans and drove the 90 minutes down the backcountry lanes to Whakahoro, I was about ready to throw up when we arrived - my fault for picking the back seat.
There was another company unloading their canoes at the launch site when we arrived, so it was an hour of twiddling our thumbs in the drizzle before we could even get close to the water. We watched their van wheel spin up the muddy boat ramp and eventually slide off the side into the gutter. Entertainment provided.
Finally around 11.30am it was our turn to launch. Steph and I joined forces - I’d be the “engine” in the front, and she’d be in rudder in the back.
The river was brown and murky. It was moving fast - the rain hitting the water adding to the urgency of the flow. After one quick practice in the shallows at turning we were off! We did not care one iota that it was raining we were finally here!
We hardly needed to paddle, the force of the river pushing us along gave us all the speed we needed. By lunchtime it had stoped raining and the sun was beaming down. We pulled up to a grassy area, hauled our boat up onto the bank and had our lunch basking in the sunshine.
Back on the river, there were waterfalls gushing down from the valley walls. The rain had been very annoying but sure made the river more beautiful!
After a very cruisey few hours which mainly involved both me and Steph lying back with our feet up (we’d splurged on a canoe with a back rests) and Steph occasionally sticking her paddle in to take us around a corner, we spotted the sign for John Coull hut, our camp for the night. With the river running so fast, stopping and pulling into a landing was actually quite tricksy. Once we’d tied off safely at John Coull mostly thanks to Ollie & Peter pulling us in, we heard that a canoe just moments earlier had capsized trying to get over to the landing and continued on down the river! There would be no back paddling at all it was far too fast - luckily there is a campsite every hour on this part of the river, so they would have just had to carry onto the next one.
We spent the evening playing cards and drinking G&T. Oh the luxuries you can bring when you don’t have to carry it on your back! Michael and Wyatt had carried on down the river (something about trying to beat a record!?) so there were just six of us staying at John Coull. I’d managed to snag a bed in the hut, as did Peter, but the rest were camping. I settled in when it got dark and slept like I’d never slept before. This not walking thing felt pretty good.
