Date:    6/03/2022
River:    Avon River, Christchurch, NZ
River Conditions:   2.094 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water clear. Grade 1.
Weather Conditions:   Sunny and warm, light NW winds.
Number on Trip:    1 person.
Time on River:  1.5 hours.
Comments:  It was a beautiful, warm day with the temperature pushing 27 degrees and I’d be for a walk with Lauri down to the river and the sun sparkling on the water was hard to resist. So after afternoon tea, I got changed, grabbed the Blitz Special for a change (I had it in the garage as a friend wanted his son to try it out) and headed down to the river.

Seal launched off the bank and paddled downstream, the tide was high and going out, the water glassy with the trees reflecting in its’ surface. As always it was nice to be back in my kayak and on the river, the blitz special pushed smoothly through the water. I paddled under the new Medway footbridge, which looks like it is getting closer to being open, the accessways on both sides of the river are in place, just seeming to be missing the handrails along the sides.

Down past the Dudley Creek confluence, said “hello” to a large shag, resting on the river rubbish trap. Noted the photogenic willow tree near the downstream end of Morris Street had disappeared, apparently blowing over into the river during some strong wind a few weeks back. Said “hi” to another recreational paddler paddling an old fiberglass rivercraft upstream.

Paddled under the Gayhurst Street bridge and checked out the new Dallington Landing from the river. Apparently it is almost completed and will be a great recreational asset to bring people in to enjoy the Red Zone and the river. From here I carried on down to the new Snell Place footbridge.

Work has progressed since the last time I was here and the bridge is now in place and much of the approach work has been built. It is definitely the nicest looking bridge of the three new footbridges in the Red Zone, with stylish wooden arches crisscrossing the bridges deck. Keen to check out the bridge, I pulled into the bank and clambered up a conveniently placed stepladder onto the deck of the bridge. I took some photos and walked over the the other bank to complete the trifecta of crossing the new footbridges (only the Avondale one is officially open at this stage).

Box ticked, I climbed back into my boat and slid back into the river and headed for home. Time was ticking on and it was getting into early evening, so I needed to get home and put the chicken in the oven for dinner. Going upstream against the flow was not quite as easy as the trip down, but I made steady progress. Briefly startled the large shag at the rubbish trap as I passed. As I neared home, I said “hi” again the the recreational boater returning from his upstream adventure, apparently he’d paddled upstream for an hour and a half before turning back, so had a wee way to go before he could rest.

I paddled up to the Swanns Road bridge to check out if one of our local duck characters, The Rev (a Muscovy cross), was about. He was still looking good and paddling around with a number of other ordinary mallards. There is also a nice family of pukekos living around the bridge & landing area, that seems to be steadily increasing in numbers. From here I paddled back to the get out and squeezed out of the boat, taking care not to fall in the rive After I’d got the boat out of the water, I noticed that some foul person had taken a dump on the landing area. Fortunately I hadn’t chucked the boat or paddle in it, but it was still kind of gross and feral. Yuk.

I walked home, said hello to Peri who’d jumped out our upstairs window to ask where I’d been. I defrosted the chicken and warmed the oven while still in my paddling gear, so dinner dinner was happily roasting in the oven before I hit the shower to get rid of the wet poly pro stench.