Date:    25/10/2026
River:    Avon River, Christchurch, NZ
River Conditions:   1.492 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water clear. Grade 1.
Weather Conditions:  Sunny and warm, light NE winds.
Number on Trip:    1 person.
Time on River:  1.5 hours.
Comments:  It was a hot day and Lauri had basically melted after a street corner meeting with our MP and had no plans to venture outside again. Mowing the lawn or tidying the garden didn’t hold much appeal, so I decided a paddle on the Avon would be nice. It had been a while since I’d been in my boat and over a year and a half since I’d paddled on the Avon, despite it being just across the road.

I changed into my paddling gear, buoyancy aid and all, shouldered the Blitz and headed down to the river. My usually launching spot was flagged off due to native plantings, but I avoided those, climbed down the steps, into my boat and seal launched off the bank. Fortunately I didn’t get my nose stuck or tip over, so didn’t look like an idiot to the people watching from the jetty.

It was nice to be back on the river and I set a solid pace, paddling past all the whitebaiters set up along the banks. It had been such a long time since I’d paddled this stretch, that they’d managed to build a whole new footbridge. I’ve walked across it plenty of times, but this was the first time I’ve paddled under it. the bridge is a different style of design from the other new bridges and is the only one not replacing an older bridge removed after the earthquakes.

There was plenty of waterfowl on the river, including a family of swans with seven signets. Hopefully they all survive to adulthood, though swan numbers seemed to have increased dramatically over the past few years, displacing the Canada geese to a certain extent. We also spotted a few shoveller ducks, which are not something we’ve generally seen on the Avon.

I managed to make it all the way down to Kerrs Reach without expiring, so I’d obviously managed to keep some paddling fitness over winter, and my bruised knee coped with being jammed in a kayak, so that was good. At Kerrs Reach there was a family of Paradise Shelducks with 8 little ducklings and after taking their photos, I turned around and began the paddle home.

There were a lot of other people on the river, paddling an assortment of watercraft from race boats to stand-up paddleboards. I caught up with a group of mainly paddleboarders at the new footbridge, so I stopped a while to take photos of the underside of the bridge, which has a gridded deck instead of a solid concrete on.

Whilst passing a set of whitebaiters on either side of the river, one of them commented that they gave nicknames to all of those paddling past and because my whitewater boat was so short, they called me “half kayak”.

I was sufficiently tired by the time I got back to the jetty, but I still continued up to the Swanns Road bridge to see if we could see one of the other ducks we have names for. No luck with that, so I paddled back to my put in spot and clambered out of the Blitz and up the two foot bank I seal launched from earlier. Then, with kayak back on my shoulder, I wandered home for a shower and afternoon tea.