22nd March 2025: Ashley River

Date:   22/03/2025
River:    Ashley River, Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:   9 cumecs at Ashley Gorge. Water slightly discoloured and cool. Grade 2.
Weather Conditions:   Sunny and warm, light NE winds..
Number on Trip:  6.
Time on River:  3.5 hours.
Comments:  As we were now into Autumn and I still hadn’t managed to get a trip in I was starting to feel desperate. Having sorted out this years peach crop, but with nothing promising on the horizon in the club’s trip list, it was time to take matters into my own hands. As the weather was looking good for the weekend, with a southerly change on Sunday, I put some feelers out on Facebook to gauge interest levels. Jurgen emailed the club and there was some interest, but no one was keen to organise an actual trip, so in the end, I bit the bullet and made the trip official, meaning I couldn’t just pike out on Saturday morning. Plus having a Saturday trip meant kayaking wouldn’t interfere with my Sunday chores, including making peach crumbles and the Sunday roast.

We met up at The Peg around 8:40am and discussed the two options, to either paddle the Hurunui River, at approximately 17 cumecs, from Jollie Brook to Seawards or run the Ashley River, at approximately 10 cumecs, from the Lees Valley to the Middle Bridge. Popular consensus was to go for the Ashley, as there were several paddlers who hadn’t paddle the Ashley before. The closer location also appealed as it meant I’d be home at a decent time and we wouldn’t have to drive so far. We loaded the boats on to two cars, with John R arriving while we were doing that. It was great to see a familiar face and nice to have another experienced kayaker along. It also turned out that it was Johns’ first trip out in over two years and he wasn’t the only one returning to whitewater after an extended break.

We hit the road shortly before 9am, almost a record for me as I’m usually running late even for my own trips. The countryside was blanketed in a thick fog, which made navigating the back road “short cut” a little trickier than usual, but with John navigating in the front vehicle, we didn’t get lost, breaking through into the sunshine as we reached the hills. The road through the hills was a little rough, with plenty of potholes, so going was slow and a little dusty but eventually we arrived at the put-in in the Lees Valley.

A spot of practice by the Lees Valley Bridge to warm up before heading down the river.

We got changed and took the boats down to the river while Jaap and Nick ran the shuttle. The shuttle took a while and it is potentially worth taking an extra vehicle to leave at the middle bridge to avoid this delay. Eventually we were all on the river and had a bit of a warm up before turning downstream around 11 o’clock.

On our way down the Lees Valley.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm with little wind, and it was great to be back in my kayak. It was nice to catch the little eddies behind boulders and surf the little waves, but I certainly wasn’t feeling fit.

Jaap makes a splash in bright sunshine.

It was such a beautiful day and there was a real joy to being out on the water. I pushed myself a little too far in places and managed to find myself upside down after turning into an eddy and catching the blitz’s tail on a shallow rock. Upside down and pushed up against another rock, I bailed out and had a short swim before hauling my kayak to the shore and emptied the water out.

Pam breaks out into the current.

Everyone was having plenty of fun, doing tricks and catching waves, as we made our way down the river. It was especially good to see John R back in his boat and putting it through its paces.

John R sets up his tail stand.
John pulls a tail stand while Eaon watches on.
Nick carves out across the river.

This section of Ashley has a lot to offer for grade 2 paddlers, even at lower flows, and provides enough opportunities to challenge one’s self if you choose to. I had another swim one the harder rapids as I challenged myself, again catching the tail on a submerged rock as I carved into an eddy. At lower flows, the Ashley can be a little bony and I didn’t really want to spend too much time upside down, bouncing along the bottom, plus not having a lot of stamina, I pulled the deck quickly and swam to shore towing my boat and paddle.

Looking down one of the boulder garden rapids.

It was a bit of a shame to miss most of the best rapid, especially as I also missed the opportunity to photograph the others as they ran it. Still, I got a nice photo (above) looking down the rest of the rapid from the spot where I emptied my boat out.

Eaon runs a rapid.

From here, I eased off a little and made sure I didn’t have any more swims as my lack of fitness was showing and I was feeling a little cool.

There was still plenty more fun to be had, though I focused more on taking pictures than doing tricks (mainly because I don’t really have any tricks in my repertoire).

Jaap setting up for a tail stand.
Jaap shows how to do a tail stand.
Pam make a splash on the river.

It was a great day out and a very enjoyable reintroduction to the joys of kayaking, but by the time the river widened out, I was feeling a little tired and quite glad when we neared the take out. I definitely wasn’t going to suggest doing the next section.

Pam heads to down stream as the river widens out.
A sunlit waterfall by the takeout, with Eaon and Nick.

The waterfall near the take out looked beautiful in the sunshine and it was nice to capture the shot, normally it is shaded and so doesn’t look quite so good. The take out was a bit smelly as someone had dumped a couple of possum carcases near the car park, when the could have thrown them in the bush. The sandflies were also particularly vicious, so it was nice when the shuttle vehicles arrived back and we were able to head back to town.