13th October 2019: Avon River

Date:    13/10/2019
River:    
Avon River, Christchurch, NZ
River Conditions:   
1.885 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water mostly clear. Grade 1.
Weather Conditions:   
Sunny but cool.
Number on Trip:    
2 people & 1 duck.
Time on River:  
2 hours.
Comments:  We decided to take the kayaks down to the river to have a paddle around with Greta the Paradise Shelduck that has recently befriended us. We put on the river at the bottom of Eveleyn Couzins Ave and paddled up to around the Swanns Road bridge, which is Greta’s favourite hangout spot.

Lauri says “hello” to Greta the Paradise Shelduck on the river.

Greta seemed pleased to see us on the river and was happy to paddle around with us. It was nice to see her in her natural environment, going about her duck business, feeding and paddling about.

Once a little stream, now flowing underground. Earthquake cracking visible in the pipe.

One of the interesting things she did a couple of times, was to fly up to a hole under the bridge that the pigeons had been roosting in, but being somewhat larger, she didn’t have much success and we weren’t exactly sure what she was trying to do.

A beautiful day to be puddling about on the river.

Apparently good territory is hard to find and a pair of Shelducks were keen to muscle in on Greta’s spot. We named the male Flame, due to the white “flames” around his eyes, and his girlfriend, Moll. Moll was very aggressive towards Greta, repeatedly flying at her in an attempt to drive her off, while Flame was a little more standoffish. We tried to position our kayaks to protect Greta, and defend her territory, Lauri putting her canoe polo skills to good effect. When pressed, Flame and Moll would retreat to a spot near the black swan’s nest, a little way upstream from the bridge, not wishing to disturb the swans, we generally retreated. After a particularly aggressive flanking attack on Greta by Moll, we ended up chasing them a way upstream and they didn’t return.

We spent some what longer on the river than intended, but eventually we said goodbye to Greta and got out at the boat ramp and wandered home for lunch.