Whanganui

Canoeing

Me and Kieran

We decided on a whim that we should paddle the Whanganui, so we grabbed some kit from Tihoi and next thing Kieran knew he was biking the shuttle from Pipiriki to Taumarunui. Good on him.

After everyone telling us of how busy the river was and stories of 70 people in campsites, we had every campsite to ourselves but the last, where there was two other people.

Day One

6.8km
1.5hrs
Overcast

We put in on the Ongarue River below the bridge in Taumarunui, neither of us having any canoe experience (apart from me on Lake O). We quickly had the canoe pinned sideways on some rocks and once freed, slammed it into some trees. Once we found calm waters we decided reading the guide and having a look at the map could be good, and we became somewhat concerned for our lives.

Kieran was pretty exhausted from his bike ride and with rain threatening we parked ourselves under a willow tree for the night. We weren't to sure were, we weren't on our map yet.

Day Two

48km
8-9hrs
Constant drizzle

After consulting the map we realised that perhaps we should have given ourselves more than four days if we wanted to have a cruisey trip. Once we got onto the map we found that the guide book made this sound much more gnarly than it was We were going to live. Camped at Maharanui.

Day Three

52km
8-9hrs
Constant drizzle

Came to the conclusion that we still had a really long way to go, so went in for another big day. Saw another canoe on the river for the first time. Made it to Mangawaiiti, which was a very cool little spot we had all to ourselves.

Day Four

32km
5hrs paddling
1.5hrs walking
Sunshine for the morning, then drizzle then heavy rain all afternoon

Had a late start and when we got down to our canoe there were a couple of guided groups there. We managed to get ahead of them. Stopped at the bridge to nowhere and went for a walk. Things got pretty chaotic at the boat ramp with other poeple and canoes and jetboats, but we got ahead again and spent the night at Ngaporo campsite with just one other pair, a guy from Whanganui and his son.

Day Five

9km
1.5hrs
Rained all night, cleared by 9am

Made it easy for ourselves by making the last day short, so we pretty much just floated out and then made our way home.