Hurunui River and Rangitata Gorge

One of New Zealand's greatest treasures is its rivers. Last weekend I was lucky enough to paddle two of them in as many days.

Saturday March 15 was the last day of the University Canoe Club's intro to kayaking course. I was helping to instruct for this course, and for this last day we paddled down a beautiful grade II section of the Hurunui River. This river is about 1 1/2 hours north of Christchurch, and is beautiful. Unfortunately, Didymo is present here, as of just 6 months ago. This algae is spreading exponentially throughout NZ, and is a serious threat to its river ecosystems. See http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pest-and-disease-response/pests-and-diseases-watchlist/didymosphenia-geminata for more info.

Below is a picture of a spring coming out of the moss just above the Hurunui. This spring water was much colder than the river water...

On Sunday, I went up to the Rangitata Gorge with a few guys. This short, grade III-IV run is about 2 hours SW of Christchurch. The water on this river was ice cold--I flipped doing a seal launch at one point and had instant brainfreeze, probably the worst I've ever experienced --and ice blue. It was also clean enough to drink!
There was a series of grade II and III rapids in the gorge, and two IV's. I walked both the IV's, and was very glad I did. Dylan and Andy are about my level skill wise and decided to give the second (and longer) one a shot...both flipped and broke their paddles, and Dylan swam about 200m of grade IV water...no fun at all. Both were okay though. Maybe next time I'll give it a shot!

James Litchwark running the first class IV drop...
Sunset from the top of the gorge...