Date: 7/03/20
River: Upper Grey River, West Coast, NZ
River Conditions: Low flow, 143.6 cumecs at Dobson, water clear and cold. Grade 2.
Weather Conditions: Cool but sunny with the odd cloud.
Number on Trip: 19 people.
Time on River: 1.25 hours.
Comments: The drive through the Lewis Pass was a real pleasure, the mountains, jagged against the sky, the forests, green and tall, the road winding through the tunnel of trees. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful country and have such easy access to such wonderful, unspoiled nature, hopefully we can hold on to this despite the numerous threats to the environment, that we often take for granted.

Arriving at the meeting point, the first thing I noticed was the giant ice cream cones almost everyone seemed to be eating. I pulled up and ordered a double of gold rush on top with rum and raisin on the bottom, it was positively huge and acted as fuel for the next trip. We discussed the next adventure as we finished our ice creams, before heading out of Springs Junction and turning off down Palmer Road to run the Upper Grey.

Driving through native forest interspersed with farm land, we crossed the Upper Grey, the Brown Grey before reach our destination where Palmer Road crosses the Blue Grey. We washed down our gear with disinfectant to kill off any didymo that may have hitched a ride across the main divided, before getting our wet, and now lavender scented in some cases, kayaking gear on. Graeme chose not to paddle as he had a bit of a headache and planned to meet us at the get out with his vehicle.

We divided into our two groups again to make things manageable on the river, before bouncing down the somewhat bony Blue Grey, on down to the confluence with the Upper Grey. Hugh in his pack raft kept racing ahead, while the rest of the group dawdled behind. I kept up with Hugh, to slow him down and to make sure he wasn’t on his own. He was worried that if we didn’t keep a reasonable pace on, any serious issue could mean being stuck on the river as the sunset. I passed this on to the rest of the group and we picked up the pace.

Once we reached the confluence with the Upper Grey, the volume increased and the river moved from flowing through farm land and into the shadowy green of the native bush.

As we moved further down the river, the rapids became more interesting and we tried to keep more together as a group.

There were some great play spots but with us not being sure how far it was to the take out and darkness not being too far away, Hugh urged us to keep the pace up.

I was paddling near the front of the group with Hugh, when we spotted a large tree fallen in the river. Hugh bounced down the rapid and off the tree with no drama, I “stopped” on a rock at the top of the rapid and took the opportunity to take a few photos while I was stuck, and to signal to the others in the group to go left. I had intended them to just go the left of me and avoid the tree, but the rest of the group ended up going down a small, bony channel against the left back. Once everyone was past, I wriggled myself off the rock and ran the rapid, avoiding the hazard.

Hugh was somewhat surprised to see a figure, who turned out to be Graeme, standing beside the river, as he was expecting that we were going to get out about 3 or 4km further down the river. Still we were quite pleased to see him, as it had been a fairly long day and fatigue was begin to set in. We scrambled up the bank and got changed, then Graeme drove us back up to the put in to pick up the vehicles. We drove back to pick up our gear, returning in time to welcome the second group. We loaded up and ferried their drivers back to the put in, before heading off to Reefton.

The drive to Reefton was uneventful and we checked into the Old Nurses Home Guesthouse around twenty past seven, with not much time before our dinner booking at the Dawson Hotel at eight. I dropped my bags off and phoned Lauri, before wandering down to the Dawson for dinner. There was a bit of a wait to be seated as they were pretty busy, with a number of events happening in the area, and a further wait to order. I was keen to have the pork belly, but that had been pretty popular and had run out. I settled on a T bone steak with Argentinian chimichurri sauce, which was quite delicious. We were helped to survive the wait by a young man who was having his 13^th birthday party in the restaurant, sharing his cake with our group. We didn’t get back to the guesthouse until after ten, and then it was time for a shower before collapsing into bed.