{"id":3726,"date":"2020-02-06T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T07:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/?p=3726"},"modified":"2020-02-24T11:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T22:58:19","slug":"6th-february-2020-avon-river-otakaro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/?p=3726","title":{"rendered":"6th February 2020: Avon River (\u014ct\u0101karo)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>6\/02\/2020
River:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Avon River, Christchurch, NZ
River Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>1.492 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water mostly clear. Grade 1.
Weather Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Warm, sunny, a few clouds & strengthening SW winds.
Number on Trip:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>2 people.
Time on River: \u00a0<\/strong>1.3 hours.
Comments:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Lauri’s new spray deck had arrived earlier in the week and going for a paddle on Waitangi Day seemed like a good idea. The morning weather had been still and perfect, but when we made our way down to the river after lunch, the wind had begun to pick up and the predicted weather change was on it’s way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paddling downstream into the wind, the poplar tree in the distance gives some indication of the strength.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There wasn’t much current, though we did have a head wind for the early part, but this didn’t slow Lauri down and when ever I stopped to take a photo, I had to work hard to catch up with her faster boat. We quickly reached the point where Dudley Creek flows into the Avon and I asked Lauri how much further she wanted to go and she was keen to carry on down to the dairy by the Gayhurst Bridge, about a little over 2km down stream from our put in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a beautiful day to be on the river and Lauri really appreciated her comfortable new Rasdex spray deck<\/a> with its convenient gear pocket for her camera and snacks (duck food). We are really lucky to live so close to such an amazing recreational resource as the the Red Zone and it is wonderful to be able to walk down to the river and be in a semi rural paradise within 5 minutes of leaving our door. It is quite special to be sitting in a kayak on a beautiful river, surrounded by green parkland and trees, with views out to the Port Hills in the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clouds forming overhead herald a change in the weather.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the way down to the bridge, an almost fully grown, lone signet decided we were chasing it, despite giving it a wide berth, so it was a relief when we got past it and it eventually turn to semi-fly back upstream to it’s parents. Eventually we reached the Gayhurst Bridge, performed a few slalom moves around the pillars before heading back up stream, while dramatic clouds formed in the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back we had to paddle hard to get past the signet again, despite us hugging the bank and trying to be inconspicuous. I also had an interesting experience as a scaup zig zagged in front of me in a sort of flying, skimming way. Every time I changed direction, it would change direction to cut me off, staying a couple of metres in front of me. This carried on for over 100m, I think the scaup was trying to lure me away from a nest or chicks or something, eventually it broke off the reverse “chase” and headed back down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is always nice to see others exploring and enjoying the river as it flow through the Red Zone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We passed a few other river users enjoying the sun and exploring the river (complete with pith helmet), plus the odd race boater out training. Lauri was somewhat surprised to find we had been out on the river for over an hour and was just a little tired when we made it back to the boat ramp near the Swans Road Bridge. We loaded Lauri’s boat on her trolley and then trundled off home before the sky grew dark and it rained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: \u00a0 \u00a06\/02\/2020River:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avon River, Christchurch, NZRiver Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.492 cumecs at Gloucester Street bridge. Water mostly clear. Grade 1.Weather Conditions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Warm, sunny, a few clouds & strengthening SW winds.Number on Trip:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02 people.Time on River: \u00a01.3 hours.Comments:\u00a0\u00a0Lauri’s new spray deck had arrived earlier in the week and going for a paddle on Waitangi Day seemed like a good idea. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":3729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3726","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\/3726","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=3726"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3726\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deltaprime.net.nz\/whitewater\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}