Date:   14/12/2025
River:    Hurunui River, North Canterbury, NZ
River Conditions:  28.5 Cumecs at Mandamus. Grade 2 – 3, water swift & clear.
Weather Conditions: Sunny & warm, with gusty nor-easterly winds.
Number on Trip: 15 kayakers (8 kayakers doing Maori Gully).
Time on River:  3.5 hours
Comments:  The stars finally aligned and I was able to head out for my first river trip of the season. Gear loaded up the night before, hopefully with nothing forgotten, an early breakfast and I even managed to get to Belfast well before the stated departure time. I got my boat loaded on Milton’s vehicle with my paddling gear, and then got a ride with Jacko so we’d have a extra vehicle to do the shuttle with.

We had fifteen paddlers on the trip, with over half keen to do Maori Gully. We got changed into our paddling gear at Seawards, left the dry gear in Jacko’s car and drove up to the Jollie Brook put in. After a safety briefing, we split into to two groups and got the boats on the river.

After the traditional warm up around the put in, we set off downstream with our group, led by Milton, going second.

I always enjoy the early part of the Jollie Brook section, with its’ little boulder gardens and small play waves. It is always a fun warm up and gives you a chance to remember how to paddle while testing to see how much of your fitness remains. I felt pretty good considering I hadn’t paddled for a while and my lifestyle hasn’t been as active as I would like.

It was nice to hit the rapids again and get some good kayaking shots. I’m always excited to get home and see what I’ve managed to capture.

There was lots of fun to be had and everyone seemed keen to have a play, catch some waves and otherwise enjoy a beautiful day on the river.

Jacko did a great job showcasing the performance of his packraft, breaking out like a pro and surfing everything that the kayakers handled. Packrafts have certainly come a long way and offer a great way to explore new rivers, where carrying a kayak would be too burdensome.

Plenty of fun to be had and I got to take plenty of photos too. It was awesome to be out on the river and I seemed to still be able to paddle.

Nice to see people pulling tricks again. Tail stands went out of fashion for a while when everyone started paddling river running creek boats, but now almost everyone seems to be paddling something similar to a RPM, with a nice slicely tail, tail stands, tailees or whoopies are back.

The groups converged above the South Branch confluence, with people having fun surfing or trying the get into the mezzanine eddy on the face of the bluff. A number of people managed to catch it and there were no dramas, so fun was had.

From the South Branch confluence down, we noticed some changes in the river as the winter floods had moved tonnes of gravel about, shifting channels, filling eddies and altering rapids.

Some old favourites had disappeared and in some places it was almost like paddling a new river, as the channel was so unfamiliar. The channel that Devil’s Fang Falls was on had very little flow with the bedrock that formed the rapid exposed in places, definitely no drama there. I took the other channel as it had more water, but that was mainly a small and bouncy wave train. The bluff at the bottom was largely bypassed by the flow and didn’t provide the surprise it gave me last time.

It was nice to see the rapid and play wave below the Dozy Stream put in was back again.

The was plenty to surf and play one, with most of the group taking a turn.

I managed to get some nice photos of most of our group pulling off some stylish moves. There were some good smiles to be had too.

From there we carried on at a reasonable pace, noting more changes in the river, especially the old “Eddy of Doom” which was completely filled in with gravel, so much so the river bypasses the bluff completely. At Seawards, a group of us got and ran the shuttle, with me arriving at the Maori Gully take out with the dry gear car, not long before the first paddlers got off the river. I certainly didn’t miss climbing the hill, though the view was great from the top, it’s not a view I enjoy from the bottom.

After we’d all got changed and packed up, we headed back to town with a brief stop for a cider at the Brew Moon. My kayak went ahead on Milton’s vehicle and he didn’t stop for a drink, but fortunately it was waiting for me when I got to Belfast. From there it was home for a pizza and a rest after a great day out on the Hurunui.