Date: 17/10/2021
River: Rangitata River, South Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions: 85 to 90 cumecs at Klondyke, water cold and slightly discoloured. Grade 2.
Weather Conditions: Cool, occasional rain with strong northerly winds at times.
Number on Trip: 10 (plus 3 doing the grade 4 gorge section)
Time on River: 3.25 hours
Comments: The Rangitata came up on the club trip list and is a river I quite enjoy paddling, with its’ boulder gardens and bouncy wave trains, so I was definitely keen. The weather forecast was looking ok, but with the possibility of some range around the main divide, and the flow was looking good too. I managed to rush out the door, only running a little late and managed to get to Caltex Hornby a little after 8:30am. True to Bill’s plan, we were loaded up and away before 9am, surely a record.

A brief stop in Ashburton to pick up Aiden before heading to the grade 2 put in at Klondyke. The shuttle was sorted out while we got changed, there was some discussion regarding placement of keys and I made sure the team running the shuttle knew where the get out was for the grade two section. The team doing the upper, grade 4 section were in a rush to get started and quickly raced off, which was probably the start of stuff up that was yet to come. In the past, drivers from the grade 2 accompany the paddlers running the gorge and then drive their vehicles back down to Klondyke, this didn’t get mentioned and there was no discussion on how the grade 4 paddlers would pick up their vehicle.

John Hunter turned up and we completed getting changed. It is always a little daunting, looking down from the top of the cliff at the weir, as it is always challenging to start any trip on the hardest rapid. Once lines were picked, boats were shouldered and we walked down to the put in “beach”, that seemed to be a bit smaller than it used to be, since the floods earlier in the year.

John was the first to run the weir, possible to make sure I didn’t photograph him if things went wrong. Another paddler followed him down to make sure he hadn’t come to grief, bouncing down the weir to the right of the main flow. I went next, wanting to get a few photos of people running the rapid, I rode the tongue down the main flow, possibly disappearing underwater at the bottom (possibly similar to the person pictured above) before cutting across the flow to pull into an eddy on river right.

The next couple of paddlers took the chicken route down along the right bank, but this still made for some nice photos with the weir in the background. This was followed by the braver or more experienced paddlers who went down the main tongue, disappearing briefly at the bottom before resurfacing to be cheered on by John & photographed by me. No dramas for anyone, so once everyone was down what was potentially the hardest rapid on this section, we carried on downstream.

Below the weir, is a nice boulder garden that always provides a great warm up as you try to catch eddies and surf your way through the rapid. This was fun and I got some nice surfs, though I had to make sure I didn’t keep everyone waiting.

Most of the rapids seemed a bit better than previous times, probably due to there being a reasonable amount of water in the river. Sound of the bigger grade 2 rapids were quite bouncy and presented a bit of a challenge to some of the newer paddlers, but most offered easier routes at the sides and no one had any real dramas.

There were plenty of boulder gardens and nice rapids where a surf could be had, making this a fun but not too challenging trip. Most of the group was happy to just run the rapids, but I tried to have a bit of fun on the way down.

The weather hinted at clearing up but never really did, so it was pretty cool on the river and we were looking forward to getting to the take out. I kept miss picking how far it was, expecting the final rapid to be just around the next corner. When we got there it seemed a bit different, the floods may have moved the channel around and the higher flow possibly washed out some of the rocks. We could see the Outdoor Pursuits Centre and the odd car, which was a good site. At the take out, the flow had eaten away at the bank causing a large tree to fall into the river. We avoid it, broke into the eddy and clambered up the bank. The vehicles didn’t seem to be there.

So we waited, and waited. It began to rain and we found shelter under one outbuilding before sheltering on the veranda of an old house. We waited some more, time passed, we waited. It was cold and raining but we were in reasonable humour and warm enough. Every time heard a vehicle on the road we got excited, only hear it disappear down the road. Eventually the grade 4 party turned up and we all headed down to meet them.

When we got down to where the vehicles were parked, we noticed some of the vehicles were missing, specifically the ones with the dry clothes. In the following discussion, it turned out the other group couldn’t find the keys to the other vehicles and so had just moved the ones they had keys for. Since all the vehicle keys had been placed on the same shock absorber and they were now no longer there, we realised that they mush have fallen out somewhere on the road between the put in and the take out, not a small area to search. An offer by the grade 4 group to take one person with them and head back to town, leaving the rest of us was not seen as a solution and so a group went back up to the put in to search, while we waited.

…and waited. Eventually it got a bit too cold sitting outside and since the door was unlocked, we went into the OPC to warm up and have a cup of tea. Fortunately some had a phone with them and they let us contact our other halves to let them know we’d be late home.

The group came back with another vehicle having found one set of keys lying on the farm track. It wasn’t the vehicle with our gear in, so we had another discussion on what to do. Heading back into town in our kayaking gear was one option and we had enough cars to do this, but with all our keys, phones & wallets locked in the stranded vehicle, it meant we wouldn’t be able to drive home from Caltex Hornby. In the end, we called the AA to see if they could get someone out on a Sunday evening to open the car, while the cars owner went back up for another look for the keys.

We spent a bit of time bouncing around on hold with the AA, they were very helpful but there wasn’t a lot that could be done, we didn’t even know what type of vehicle we were trying to get into. As the phone only just managed to hold a connection whilst outside, it was pretty cold & miserable waiting.

We were just about to seriously commit to trying to get a locksmith out from Ashburton to open the car, when Murray drove up, having managed to find the key after some very thorough searching by some very motivated people. Dry clothes were gotten into, the last boats loaded up and we were out of there. A bit tired and cold, but very glad to be dry and heading home. We arrived back at Hornby around 8pm and then on home to a not very happy Lauri.

Lessons learnt…
Like most stuff ups, this one was built on a foundation of assumptions & miscommunications then rushed, so to hopefully prevent this happening again or at least give people some tools so that can recognise the signs of a stuff up in the making and then take positive actions to prevent the stuff up from actually occurring.

• Firstly if you are not happy to do something or don’t understand the “plan”, say something at the time. If you don’t want to run a shuttle, aren’t clear about vehicles, where keys are to be left, where the take out is etc, say something so alternatives can be sorted out or details clarified. Also even if you are not involved in actually running the “plan” and can see some likely flaws, speak out too, as you may have spotted something others have missed.
• Positive communications are key, communicate the “plan” clearly and then have the participants repeat back what their role is and the expectations of them are. It is also worth checking whether they see any flaws or have any suggestions that might improve the “plan”. Make sure everyone is clear and agreed on to the “plan” before putting it into operation.
• Try to avoid rushing. Act in haste, repent at leisure is definitely a true aphorism. Taking an extra 5 minutes at the start, could save hours of wasted time later.
• Make sure that those running the shuttle know exactly where the keys are going to be left. Preferably if the vehicle owner can talk to the person who will be driving their car, show them where the keys will be left and outline any issues or possible complications (unusual park brake, reverse gear or starting requirements etc), that is less likely to cause problems. If you need to leave multiple sets of vehicle keys, you can leave them all in the central console of a designated vehicle and then leave the keys to that vehicle in a specified location.
• If you have multiple cars and not enough drivers, take the vehicles with the dry gear in first. If you don’t seem to have the keys for the dry gear vehicle, check again, try to remember what was discussed at the planning stage, look again more thoroughly or ask someone else if they know where the keys are, as all shuttle plans work on the theory that the dry gear will be at the get out when the paddlers get off the river, that is the purpose of the plan.
• If possible, always leave a vehicle at the take so you are never completely stranded if something goes wrong.
• Carry spare keys. In case the keys get lost, it helps to have a spare available in a PFD or dry bag. With some cars, you can use a standard key to unlock the doors and store the electronic key in the vehicle if you are worried about taking an electronic key on the river.
• Even if you aren’t taking your car on the trip, it is worth carrying spare car keys on your person, in case your gear gets stolen from vehicles during the river trips, as you will still need to access your vehicle back at the meeting point. Similarly it is better to just take a waterproof “kayaking” wallet with you that only contains some cash, a bank card, your drivers licence plus your house key in your dry jacket, so you don’t need to replace all your cards and locks in the event that the vehicles get broken into while you are paddling.
• Make sure you have spare warm gear with you on the river, just in case you get stuck out or the dry gear isn’t at the take out as expected.
• Charge up your phone before heading out and turn it off when you move out of cell coverage or are on the river. This will conserve the battery and means the phone is more likely to have plenty of charge if you need it later.