Date:   12/09/2021
River:    Ashley River, Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   18.9 cumecs at Ashley Gorge. Water very discoloured and cool. Grade 2.
Weather Conditions:   Sunny & warm, with brief cooler, overcast periods. Very strong NW winds.
Number on Trip:  10 doing top section, 3 doing both sections and 4 doing only the bottom section.
Time on River:  4.5 hours.
Comments:  Kerry announced on Facebook that the road in to the Lees Valley had been repaired after sections were washed out during a period of very heavy rain around the end of May. With the road reopened to the public, an Ashley Trip was once again a possibility, river levels & Covid-19 permitting. Fortunately with the river flowing at 24 cumecs & everywhere except Auckland having moved to level 2 (whitewater kayaking permitted), Keri gathered a group to go paddling on the Saturday, while I held off for the club trip on Sunday.

We received Kerry’s notes from his trip on Facebook before heading out the next day…
“Most of the rapids have changed to some degree or more, most are a lot easier now with obstacles removed or shifted making the lines more straight forward. However there are some significant changes you should probably be aware of. There’s a branch in the crux rapid entrance line so be aware when choosing your lines, this would be a hazard at lower flows. John Hunter’s most disliked rapid no longer has a tongue entry but is a river-wide ledge which you can punch river right. The main drop in the centre of the gorge no longer exists and is a nice chicane rapid. Three trick rapid (second to last hard rapid and one exiting the gorge) is bordering on GIV now. Rockfall on river right has filled in the eddie at bottom that people used to play at catching. The rapid consists of two drops into two holes, if you don’t have a bit of speed you could have a little play time with a lot of rocks. There’s a diagonal line river right to left however this may be more challenging at lower flow.”

It was nice to know there hadn’t been too many significant changes, but as this was going to be my first whitewater trip since February, I was feeling a little bit nervous when driving to The Peg for the meet up. There was quite a group assembled when I arrive, many keen for a first paddle of the season. We decided to split into multiple groups, with one running the upper, grade 2 section and one running the lower, grade 3 section, while Bill was keen to lead a group doing both sections. I decided to do the upper section with the possibility of doing the lower section if I felt up to it, however by the time I reached the put in at the Lees Valley, I’d managed to talk myself out of doing the grade 3 part.

Once in my paddling gear and on the river, it felt good to be back in my Blitz but I felt tired & unfit, the result of not having done much in the way of exercises with the lockdowns & various Covid-19 related restriction.

I’d told Bill that I didn’t plan to do the lower section and his small group disappeared into the distance fairly quickly, as the rest of us made the most of our time on the river.

The flow seemed higher than I would have expected for around 18 cumecs and the water was very discoloured, making it hard to spot rocks or judge the water depth.

It was fun to catch eddies and surf the various small waves along the way, feeling my confidence returning as I remembered that I could actually paddle and wasn’t quite as unfit as I thought I was. The main grade 2 rapid was pretty much as remembered and didn’t cause any issues. We were also pleased to note that although the river banks were scoured by the May / June flood waters to a height of several meters above the current river level, there didn’t appear to be any wood forming major impediments in any of the rapids.

We had a good bunch of people with us and it was great to see everyone trying out new things or helping out when someone’s roll didn’t quite work and they ended up swimming. There were a few times when we had to chase boats for a wee way before getting them to shore and reuniting them with their paddlers. At one stage, I recovered a drifting paddle and then set off after the boat (the kayaker having made it to the river bank). After a bit of a trial, I managed to clip the water filled boat to my towline and then struggled to get it to the bank whilst juggling the two paddles. Blair kindly lent his boat to the boatless kayaker and then swam down the river to where we were waiting, which was pretty keen since the water was very cold.

It was a amazing day to be out on the river and the Ashley graced us with plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy and some fun whitewater to keep us entertained.

The were a few places where the river split or was a little shallow (hard to tell with the cloudy water), so you had to keep an eye out for the best routes, just in case you got beached. Some of the side channels offered additional features like the small chute pictured above with Blair.

There were also some nice play spots and it was great to see many of the paddlers giving them a go. There was always some fun to be had and we took our time getting the most out of our paddle.

Near the end of the section, the river opened up and became more braided, some of the channels got a bit shallow and you had to be one your toes to avoid getting stuck. There were a few trees in the river, so care was required to avoid the hazards they posed. Near one tree, a paddler took a swim and their paddle got stuck in the submerged branches. Blair kindly rescued the paddle after employing himself as a human torpedo, swimming out and grabbing it from the downstream side. We had to chase the boat for some distance but eventually managed to bulldozer it ashore.

Eventually the bridge appeared and it was nice to get out and into some dry clothes, as I was a bit cold & wet. The vehicles were shuttled and we drove out to the highway bridge (the campground & domain were closed to the public) to drop one of our group back at his car and were quite surprised to find Bill’s group had been waiting there for about 3 hours in their paddling gear. They had run both sections in a little over 2 hours while we had taken over 4 hours just to paddle the top section, needless to say they were glad to get changed and head home. As we were fairly late getting back to town, I ordered Hell Pizza from the Belfast carpark and arrived home just before it arrive. A great reward for a fun day out.