Date:    27/01/15
River:    Clarence River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   2.4 Cumecs at Jollies (NIWA). Grade 2+(3), water clear.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny & warm at first, the overcast but clearing later in the afternoon. Light NE winds.
Number on Trip:    4 rafts, 4 guides & 10 clients.
Time on River:  7.25 hours.
Distance covered: 38km (185km travelled in total)
Altitude dropped: 171m (700m dropped in total)
Comments:   Another sunny morning and on the river by 9:15 with Clint on the oars today for our last day of the trip. We stopped at Matai Flat for morning tea and explored the forested grove and clambered over the fallen logs that formed natural bridges over a small dry stream bed.

Heading towards Matai Flat, the hills now heavily forested.

The landscape changed as we moved out of the forested area and into farm land as traces of civilisation began to appear, the sky also changed as clouds covered the sky for the first time on the trip. We had lunch above the Glen Alton bridge and the gear rafts were taken off the river to meet us back at the rafting companies base in Clarence. There was a group of kids & their fathers putting on the river for an overnight raft trip as a birthday treat for one of the boys. The bus managed to get stuck as it crossed the gravelly river bed with the rafts on a trailer behind it. There was a certain amount of digging and pushing (and probably some swearing too) before it managed to break free.

George Bluff was exciting but both rafts avoided being pushed into the bluff. From here down there were plenty of nice, bouncy rapids (I’ve done this section before and it makes a nice day trip). The was sediment flowing in from Wharekiri Stream, which seems to have it’s headwaters on the opposite side on the range from Fidget Stream, so its due to the geology of that particular area.

Navigating George Bluff.

Above the State Highway 1 bridge there were a lot of “Sputniks”, nasty river protection works consisting of large cubes of cement with railway tracks protruding from each face. We all got of the rafts and the guides took them through solo, which made for some exciting pictures.

Clint rows our raft solo past the “Sputnik” river protection works.

A train passed over the railway bridge just after we floated beneath it, unfortunately my camera battery had finally given up the last of it’s charge and was dead. More rapids followed as we approached the sea and the before we could be swept out of the Clarence and into the breakers of the Pacific, we pull over to the side and hauled the rafts into the estuary and paddled across Ellis and the waiting vehicles. The trip was over and we were pretty exhausted.

The rode back to the rafting base in Clarence, sorted out our gear, exchanged contact details and the Ellis took us back to Cheviot and the Tree House for a well needed shower, another delicious meal and a good rest in a nice soft bed. Thanks Ellis, Sanna, Clint, Kaca, Gus, Sam, Go Wild Productions and Clarence River Rafting for an amazing adventure,

Date:    26/01/15
River:    Clarence River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   2.5 Cumecs at Jollies (NIWA). Grade 2+(3), water clear.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny & warm, with light NE winds, winds strengthening in the afternoon.
Number on Trip:    4 rafts, 4 guides & 10 clients.
Time on River:  7.5 hours.
Distance covered: 37km (147km travelled in total)
Altitude dropped: 126m (529m dropped in total)
Comments:   Lay in bed watching the sky lighten through the trees and were off to slower start than the previous days. Bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms and scrambled eggs made for a welcome breakfast. Another beautiful day on the Clarence and on the river by 9:15 with Clint captaining our raft today.

Sam rows the gear raft while Sam captains the paddle raft.

Plenty of interesting geology today with dykes, intrusions and granite boulders on the beaches. Sawtooth Gorge is one of the highlights for the trip and features a number of the the named, grade 3 rapids. Jaw-Breaker was first and the drop was long, straight and bouncy. Nose-Basher was next and featured a big rock in the middle. Handkerchief was a long, bony boulder.

Sam cools off with a swim.

We had lunch at a beautiful grassy meadow hidden from the river by the surrounding stand of manuka trees, it was sunny and the soft grasses beckoned invitingly as the warm air and ample food made us dozy.

The highest point of the Inland Kaikoura Range, Tapuae-O-uenuku in the distance is 2885m high.

We camped that night at Dope Patch (apparently some enterprising locals were cultivating an “investment”, thinking it was far enough upstream to be found, not realising the number of people coming down the river) in a nice manuka grove with a beautiful view of the river. We spent some time before dinner swimming and playing in the rapid opposite the camp, much to the amusement of the guides who were speculating on how long it would be before one of us was bitten by the aggressive eels that frequent the river.

Pre-dinner drinks & snacks, sometimes outdoor pursuits can mean roughing it, but not today.

Dinner was roast pork, again cooked in the Dutch ovens and quite delicious, something we’d come to expect from the food on this trip. Another fine night so I once again slept under the stars.

Roast pork cooked on a camp fire in a Dutch oven.

Date:    25/01/15
River:    Clarence River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   2.5 Cumecs at Jollies (NIWA). Grade 2+(3), water clear.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny & warm, with gusty NE winds.
Number on Trip:    4 rafts, 4 guides & 10 clients.
Time on River:  9 hours.
Distance covered: 39km (110km travelled in total)
Altitude dropped: 177m (403m dropped in total)
Comments:   We were on the river by 8:30 with Sam as captain, for another day of beautiful weather and impressive scenery, with the highlights being the frequent basaltic flows & dykes and the chalky mountains. We had a nice cool swim at morning tea and Jenny swapped with Maire for a place in our raft.

Another gorge beckons.

There were lots of good wave trains & boulder gardens and we ended up chasing a group of cormorants downstream through a series of gorges as they insisted on flying ahead of us instead of just watching us float past.

Heading down a rapid.

The paddle raft runs a rapid.

More geology, rafts & rapids.

The Inland Kaikoura Range in the distance.

Noticed a cloudy flow out of Fidget Stream as it joined the larger Clarence River. A strong head wind picked up in the afternoon, making paddling harder and the going slower and we were glad when we reached Pink camp (so named as the defoliant sprayed on the gorse etc had a pink dye added which turned the sprayers, who had camped here, a pink colour hence Pink camp) above Sawtooth Gorge.

Pre-dinner snacks with our wine, included crayfish and we had roast chicken, cooked in large cast iron Dutch ovens, for dinner. Another swim in the evening and then as the weather looked good, I decided not to use the fly sheet and camped under the stars. It was another beautiful clear night and the stargazing at 2am was superb.

Date:    24/01/15
River:    Clarence River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   2.6 Cumecs at Jollies (NIWA). Grade 2+(3), water clear.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny & warm, with light NE winds, winds strengthening in the afternoon.
Number on Trip:    4 rafts, 4 guides & 10 clients.
Time on River:  8.5 hours.
Distance covered: 39km (71km travelled in total)
Altitude dropped: 103m (226m dropped in total)
Comments:  We rose early, had breakfast and were on the river by 8:30am with Gus as our guide for the day. The highlights of the day were a particularly dramatic gorge and a large white, limestone hill. Gus would often take cooling dips by dropping off the back of the raft, Lauri and I joined him at one stage as it was pretty hot (even though both of us had removed our over-trousers and additional clothing but I kept my dry jacket on because I never really get that warm).

Here be geology.

One of the cool things about this trip is that the river cuts through a wide variety of geological formations and side streams also bring in an interesting selction of rocks. Where we stopped for lunch, there were some nice basalt boulders on the bank and we had a nice swim to cool off before getting back on the river.

Our camp site at Squirrel.

We camped at Squirrel (the site was a little hidden so it was named by the guides as Secret Squirrel hence Squirrel) near Quail Flat. We visited to old cob cottage homestead before a dinner of salmon steaks (and sausages for me).

Cob cottage at Quail Flat.

After dinner we went down to the river, where the guides were feeding the salmon heads to a number of large eels that lived there.

Salmon head & eels at Quail Flat.

Sam & Gus did a spot of impromptu possum hunting with a large machete but only managed to bag a hedgehog. Lauri got a better nights sleep as we properly inflated her mattress and made sure it didn’t down in the night. I slept under the fly sheet again and was up at 3am re-inflating my air mattress but didn’t really mind as the sky was clear and the stars looked amazing.

Date:    23/01/15
River:    Clarence River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   2.7 Cumecs at Jollies (NIWA). Grade 2+(3), water clear.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny & warm, with light NE winds.
Number on Trip:    4 rafts, 4 guides & 10 clients.
Time on River:  6.75 hours.
Distance covered: 31.9km
Altitude dropped: 123m
Comments:   Waking early at The Tree House in Cheviot, after an enjoyable evening of wine, delicious food and excellent conversation with hosts Ellis & Sanna, we breakfasted early and said good bye to the trappings of modern living. Running a little late, we drove to Hanmer via Waiau through the early morning fog. No time for a coffee before trying to find the rest of our group without any luck, time for some phone tag and a final flush toilet visit, before boarding the Clarence River Rafting bus. Brief “hello’s” to the fourteen strangers we’d get to know much better over the coming days and then we were off.

The drive over Jacks Pass was a bit rough and dusty and came to a brief halt when we found the road blocked by a couple stock trucks.

At the Acheron / Clarence confluence we sorted our gear and got changed into our paddling gear. Since our personal buoyancy aids didn’t have the latest NZ safety standards printed on them, we weren’t allowed to use them, meaning we had to use the supplied ones which had a distinct lack of pockets. We got our water proof over-trousers, sleeping mats and requested tents, with Lauri and I deciding to share a tent. We packed our gear into the dry bags and these were loaded on to the two gear rafts along with a substantial amount of food, cooking utensils, furniture and assorted group gear.

Loading the rafts near the Acheron confluence.

Once everything was loaded, we picked our rafts, a simple choice but one that decided who our travelling companions for the trip would be and what level of exertion would be required of us. At the time it didn’t seem to matter and we ended up one the oar raft rowed by Kaca, together with Gale & Maire. The remaining six members of the group were on the paddle raft with Clint as their guide, while Gus and Sam rowed the the two gear rafts.

We were on the water by 10:30am and we drifted along at a fairly sedate pace with the low water level, Kaca rowing and the rest of us soaking up the magnificent scenery and providing a little additional paddle power when required. After having an early breakfast, we were pretty hungry by the time we stopped for morning tea at Dylan’s Stream around lunch time and Lauri’s blood sugar levels were getting low, but there were plenty of tasty things to eat and that picked things up nicely. We stopped for lunch about 1km above The Chute in the middle of the afternoon and ravenously devoured all that was set before us before carrying on to The Chute.

Gus paddles the gear raft below the Chute.

The water was very low and the guides weren’t sure if our rafts would fit through the gap. Gus probed ahead in one of the gear rafts and made down without much drama and the rest of us followed. This was the largest rapid of the day and one of the named grade 3 rapids on the river and was a relatively straight forward chute and at the low flow, it wasn’t too challenging. The rest of the rapids were generally fairly small but still fun, the scenery throughout the day was quite stunning.

The paddle raft runs a rapid.

The scenery was awesome.

We made our way down the gorge to the first camping ground near Rough Creek and were off the river at 5:20pm. We were both pretty tired from the heat and long day, Lauri was also feeling the effects of the low blood sugar by the time we got off the river, so we got some food into her while I set up the tent. We discovered that the two person tent really was a two person tent and was going to be pretty cramped with both of us in it, so I opted to set up a fly sheet next to it and camp under that, which seemed to work. We had pre dinner nibbles with a choice of wines, followed by fish and salad for dinner, Kaca kindly prepared chicken for me since I let them know I didn’t eat fish. We went to bed early and I slept well but Lauri had issues with her mattress deflating in the night and so had a hard time sleeping.