Kaituna/Wairoa - November 1996

Well known economist (and even better known paddler) Paul Calcott enjoys paddling the Wairoa (near Tauranga) and the Kaituna (near Rotorua) so much that he will even go as far as organising a trip to get to paddle both in a weekend. So he did, and I went, and this is (some of) what happened.

Paul, Timon and Andrew set off around mid-day on the Friday and headed for Ngaawapurua for a spot of surfing. I was taking Mark and Rohan in my car, and since Mark and I both had to put in an honest days work, we couldn't leave until 5:30ish. I'm not sure what Rohans reason for not leaving earlier was, but it probably wasn't work!

When I arrived at Mark's flat both the others were already there. Rohan was playing some awful music very loudly on his car stereo, which irritated one of Mark's neighbours enough to make him complain. Just as well - if the neighbour hadn't I was going to. Instead I just told him that he wasn't bringing that tape in the car with him. We loaded the gear into my car and set off.

The drive up to Ngaawapura was uneventful -- at least, I can't remember anything about it -- with us arriving around mid-night, to find the others already asleep. We pitched Mark's tent and did the same.

Next morning we headed off to the get-in for the Kaituna at Okere Falls store near Rotorua. I had only done the top section of the Kaituna once before, and had had a little difficulty at a rapid known as ``The Weir'' so I was feeling pretty nervous. The section has a good warm us spot at the very top where there is a slalom site so after a bit of playing there, we were off.

A few easy rapids follow before you get to the Weir, which announces itself with what looks like an old disused dam with a gap in it. A few metres past the dam is the first drop after which you need to immediately eddy out. This is because the main current pushes into a bluff and you need to position yourself properly to get a good line for the second drop. Getting this good line was the bit I screwed up last time, resulting in me being pushed into the bluff and going over the drop partly capsized. Very ugly! I did it much better this time (maybe I'm getting better, but more likely the lower flow made it quite a bit easier) and as far as I remember no one else had problems either.

Next up is Okere Falls - a 10 or so metre waterfall with shit-loads of water pouring through a narrow gap (featured in an old Bluebird Chips TV advert with boogy boarders). There is apparently a move you can make here involving boofing off a buffer wave to almost guarantee that you don't capsize. I've been told that if you do it properly you won't even get your face wet! I don't even think about doing it that way -- I just make sure I've got a good grip on my paddle so I've got something to roll up with when I get to the bottom upside down.

From the top of the falls, it's impossible to see what is happening below, which is probably just as well, because it meant that I didn't see the trashing that Andrew was dealt. I was later told that he had been stuck underwater at the bottom of the falls for a good thirty seconds or so. His boat, paddle, spray-deck and he all came out seperately and he received quite a beating on some rocks at the bottom of the falls. He later showed us a beautifully coloured, swollen bruised hip to prove it. I later read that this is a known feature of this waterfall at low flows. Maybe it's time to practice that boof move!

The remainder of this section consists of a series of 1-2 metre drops (I guess maybe ten or so), with short flat pools between each. These are all fun, but not particularly intimidating compared to the falls. At the very end of the section there is a brilliant play hole that has been known to keep some people (ie, Paul) occupied for several hours. Some don't even bother paddling the section -- instead driving directly to the get-out and hopping straight into the hole! I had a few goes, but got tired quickly, and also decided I didn't want to show myself up in front of the various demi-gods of the river that had started gathering there.

In terms of bang for your buck this is a great section. It's only a couple of km's long, and can be paddled in a very short time if you want to. We were off the water by 1pm, so Mark, Timon and I left the others to the play hole and drove to the luge track in Rotorua, where we had a few goes at seeing who could manage the most dangerous overtaking manueovres. I think Timon won. After that we met back up with the other car and drove to McClaren Falls at the start of the Wairoa section.

The Wairoa is dammed by the local Tauranga electricity supply company, but a condition of the damming, negotiated by the Kaimai Canoe Club, is that there be 26 recreational water releases each year. When water is not being released it completely bypasses the McClaren Falls and the next few km's of river, leaving them practically dry. The water release starts at 9:00am on the Sunday of each release weekend, and Paul, Timon and I were up in time to watch it happen. The sight of the almost dry falls slowly turning into a raging torrent of water is pretty awesome.

Once the others were up (and Paul had finished chatting to some old mates) we drove the shuttle and got on to the river. At this point Andrew decided that his bruised hip was hurting too much and so decided not to paddle.

The rest of us set off down the first couple of easy rapids until we got to the first of the trickier ones called ``Mothers Nightmare''. This consisted of fifty or so metres of water, containing several drops and a number of inconveniently placed rocks. Mark, Rohan and I got out of our boats to look at it, but Timon just ran the rapid without problems. He was followed by a woman from the Auckland University Canoe Club who got herself pinned right at the top of the rapid. Although she wasn't in any particular danger (her head was well out of the water) she wasn't going anywhere fast either. We couldn't get to her from our side of the river but Timon had meanwhile walked back up from the bottom of the rapid on the other side, and with a couple of impressive jumps from one rock to another, made it to the rock she was pinned on. He was able to push her free, and then lunge onto other rock to avoid having to swim down the rapid. All very exciting stuff.

There are only a few other bits of the section that I can remember now. I walked the two hardest rapids on the river (Waterfall and Rollercoaster) although looking back at it I think I would have been happy to have paddled the Waterfall. Rollercoaster looked pretty nasty -- it can wait a while.

I do remember another two or so metre waterfall towards the end of the section because I went over it with almost no forward speed and ended up with the tail of my boat caught in recirculating water. I was stuck there trying to use my paddle to brace at the same time as pull myself out. I eventually managed to do this after what seemed like forever but was probably only ten or fifteen seconds.

I also remember a very strong whirlpool that all five of us ended up rafted up together in, going round in circles. We couldn't get out because with us all in there together it was difficult to paddle properly, and also because we were pissing ourselves laughing. We went round quite a few times before we manged to get out. It would have been a good one for the video camera.

The Wairoa is another relatively short section, and I've heard that some make up for the fact that it can only be paddled 26 times per year by running it several times in one day. But we had taken a good three or so hours to do it, and with a long drive back to Wellington facing us, once was enough for me.

The original plan was for just Mark and me to return to Wellington, with Paul, Timon, Rohan and Andrew coming back on Monday. But Andrew decided he wouldn't want to paddle the next day either, so came back with us as well. We checked the map before driving off because we figured we should be able to head directly to Taupo rather than going back via Rotorua. It looked pretty simple, but it obviously wasn't. As we saw Lake Taupo in the distance I thought the road didn't look very familar. Then we realised we were actually looking at Lake Rotorua! We could have done without the extra hour or so that this detour added to our journey, but I guess you've got to learn these things the hard way.

Duncan




Last update: Wed Mar 12 16:54:00 NZDT 1997

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