Canoe help me please!

We were a classic case of all the gear but no idea.

Following a couple of relatively relaxed weekends, we decided to get adventurous. We had planned to climb Mt. Taranaki but with there still being snow on the peak it would have been too risky to attempt the summit (although with hindsight it might have been the safer option). Instead we decided to canoe the Wanganui River, which is classed as one of the 10 NZ Great Walks, although it's a paddle.
After a safety brief, which was, erm, brief, we loaded up the double Canadian canoe with our camping supplies and set off. The river is classed as Grade II, and immediately around the first corner we hit our first rapid. We bounced off a couple of boulders, took on a bit of water, and turned our canoe through 360 degrees before we popped out the other end. It took a couple more sections of white water to get to grips with controlling the canoe but we made it through the first day without too much drama.

We kept our fingers crossed that we didn't sleepwalk.

The campsite was right on the riverbank but we lugged our gear to highest spot and perched our tent on the top of the cliff with awesome views down the next section of braided river we'd have to tackle the next day.
The following morning we saw a scout group leader checking out the rapid just downriver from the campsite. He reckoned that it would be safer to go down the shallower section and risk scraping the bottom on the canoe in favour of the deeper channel where there was a submerged branch wedged under a boulder. We were pretty grateful for his advice, as we had decided over breakfast, with our bird's eye view of the river, that the best route would be the main channel.

Tea break.

After bumping our way down that first section we cruised along happily for a couple of hours, stopping for a snack, taking in the scenery, and watching a pair of kingfishers building a nest. It was all so nice and calm.
Then we came across an old car in the river and remembered that we'd been told about it in the brief. It was a landmark to remind us which way to navigate the next rapid, a particularly rough one. Only we couldn't remember which way it was meant to remind us to go. So, using our usual technique of following the main flow that we'd been taught we headed down the main channel. We could see a patch of white water ahead of us in the middle of the channel, which usually meant there was a boulder just under the surface, so aimed to the right of it. As we got closer, we realised that it wasn't a boulder but a log that stretched the entire width of the channel. The front of the canoe hit it and stopped, forcing the tale to swing round parallel to the log. In a split second, the downstream side of the canoe mounted the log causing water to rush in the other side, flipping us out and wedging itself under the log. Nat was swept clean under the log and floated downstream until she could swim to the shore. I held on to the canoe, and managed to pull myself on top of the log. I tried pulling the canoe free but it wouldn't budge.
I just stood there for a while wondering what to do, and I noticed it had started pouring with rain. Why does it always rain in a crisis? I thought that just happened in films. Once I'd got over the initial shock, part of me wanted to take a photo of the accident. The 18ft canoe was sticking up from under the log at a 45 degree angle in the middle of the river. It would have looked pretty funny to any passers by, had there been any. It then dawned on me that my camera was in a cheap drybag, which I hadn't tested, attached to the submerged end of the canoe, being battered by tons of water. My priorities went back to freeing the canoe. I clambered on top of it and used all my weight to lever it out. It worked, and I somehow managed to manoeuvre the canoe over the log and jump in it before it we were swept downriver. It was so full of water that by the time I had steered the canoe towards the shore it had almost completely sunk. A bit like Johnny Depp at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean, only I didn't step off the boat bone-dry, all cool and pirate-like...I was paddling like mad, sitting up to my chest in water, looking like a drowned rat.
As we sat on the bank, periodically bailing water out of the canoe with half a milk carton, the scout group appeared up river. Without hesitation they cruised down the other section of river and stopped to ask if we were okay, and offered us some gaffa tape for the crack in our canoe. We explained what had happened, and surprisingly they sympathised. Apparently the channel we took is usually the favoured route, just not after a storm has wedged a log across it.

With no mirrors for 2 days I was oblivious to how camp I looked.

From then on, every time we heard a rapid in the distance, we felt pretty nervous, but we had passed the worst. We had lost about an hour getting stuck so we paddled hard for 3 hours to make it to the pickup point in time. The relief when we pulled the canoe up the boat ramp was amazing. It had been a great couple of days, and we don't want to put any off doing it, but dry land had never felt so good.

At the beginning I was wheelie enjoying it!

I'm not sure if a 50km mountain bike ride is the best cure for post-traumatic stress but the following morning we were dropped off at the start of the 42 Traverse. Actually, it was six kilometres from the start because Grant (the guy from Howard's Lodge again) didn't want to get his car dirty.
There isn't actually a lot to say about the ride. Despite the rain we really enjoyed the first three, maybe even four, hours of riding really diverse terrain from technical sections over slippery boulders to long flowing downhill runs. But after a few hours we had had enough. Leg muscles were cramping, and the climbs just seemed to get steeper and steeper. After nearly 7 hours and an extra 2km climb to the pickup point, which we weren't told about, we were exhausted.

Took this photo of the sign at the finish but maybe should have paid more attention to it at the start.

Sorry about the negativity of this blog post but even after a couple of weeks the pain is still too fresh! On a positive note, we've just celebrated our Christmas early (Nat and I are both working on actual Christmas) with a few days in Hawke's Bay so will update with those fun times soon.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Charlie & Nat. xxx