{"id":3475,"date":"2019-10-06T20:53:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T07:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/?p=3475"},"modified":"2019-10-07T22:11:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T09:11:00","slug":"6th-october-2019-avon-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/?p=3475","title":{"rendered":"6th October 2019: Avon River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>6\/10\/2019
River:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Avon River, Christchurch, NZ
River Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>1.89 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water mostly clear. Grade 1.
Weather Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Sunny but cool.
Number on Trip:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>2 people.
Time on River: \u00a0<\/strong>0.75 hours.
Comments:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Not quite what I was expecting for my first trip of the season, but it was a nice day and Lauri was keen to get out on the river, so we set about digging out the kayaks and sorting out gear. It always seems like a bit of a mission to haul the kayaks out of the garage, but eventually we were all clad in our kayaking gear and the kayaks were arranged on the over the drive way. Peri, our cat checked out the kayaks, while Greta, the Paradise Shelduck who had recently befriended us, honked the occasional warning while watching proceedings. Lauri’s kayak trolley was assembled and had the tyres pumped up, before strapping her kayak on top and we were ready to go. Peri decided to head inside and Greta showed no interest in following us down to the river, choosing to stay on our driveway when we crossed the road to head into the Red Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tide was in and there was a nice launching spot at the end of Eveleyn Couzins Ave, where bank protection works provided a nice stepped platform. We got Lauri’s boat into the water and helped here in, feeling a little stiff and creaky, not having sat in a boat for a while. We got her deck on and she paddled off upstream, while I got in to my Salto. The boat felt very roomy, but it was good to be on the water, with a paddle in my hands again, so I sped off after Lauri, with the bow of the Salto cutting cleanly through the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kayaking up the Avon, the Red Zone on the right, Avonside Drive to the left and ahead is the Stanmore Road bridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The in-flowing tide made paddling upstream easy and I soon caught up with Lauri. She was enjoying being back in her Prijon Fly but was finding the back rest a little uncomfortable, but after some on river adjustments, she was all happy. It was a beautiful, sunny day, the water was clear and it was a real pleasure to on the river. On the northern bank, the Red Zone provided a refreshing rural outlook, only intruded on by the traffic noise from Avonside Drive running beside the river on the opposite bank. We spotted a black swan, a pair of Paradise Shelducks (but no sign of Greta), the odd shag and other ducks, and even a largish trout near the Stanmore Road bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid overdoing it, we turned back at the Fitzgerald Street bridge instead of popping in to Pomeroy’s for a drink and some pork scratchings. On the way back, Lauri spotted something moving across the water, I gave chase and was soon on the tail on a large swimming rat. It dived to try and throw off pursuit before reaching the bank and scrambling into cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got back to the jetty below the Swanns Road bridge where we planned to get out, as Lauri finds it difficult and painful to climb out of her boat due to health issues. Unfortunately the way was blocked by a fisherman and his white baiting set up. We spoke to him but he wasn’t prepared to let us out there, despite it being a public boat launching ramp, not his personal fishing wharf. Eventually we decided it was less hassle to get out where we got in, rather than persist arguing with a rather rude individual. With a bit of difficulty, we managed to get Lauri out of her boat without falling in, got the boats out and loaded up, before walking home for a well earned cup of tea, feeling surprisingly tired considering the less than extreme nature of this adventure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: \u00a0 \u00a06\/10\/2019River:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avon River, Christchurch, NZRiver Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.89 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water mostly clear. Grade 1.Weather Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sunny but cool.Number on Trip:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02 people.Time on River: \u00a00.75 hours.Comments:\u00a0\u00a0Not quite what I was expecting for my first trip of the season, but it was a nice day and Lauri was keen to get out on the river, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":3492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kayaking","category-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3475"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3475\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}