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.