A Paddle on the Mangahao River

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A PADDLE ON THE MANGAHAO RIVER Paul Critchley The Mangahao Gorge is a place the Club has not been for many years. TwiceayearTranspowerreleases water from the Mangahao dams for the pleasure of outdoor people and other foolhardy souls, giving a unique opportunity to see this neck of the woods. Thel river is classed Grade 4 on release and flows at 25 cumecs. Rivers are graded 1 to 6 (lis easy, 6 is very difficult). 1 cumec = 1 cubic metre of water per second, 1 tonne in weight he gates had already been opened dandthere were standing waves of about one metre. These seemed to be much higher when paddling into them for fun. "FUN", I thought, not having had much practise in this IK (Inflatable Kayak). "This is our practise", John explainedfromi thel back (just like my mother, back-seat driver). Thefirstrunintothewaveswashesitant, half-hearted by me. So we did it again; Paul pops up as John goes under Alastair Booth paddle upstream, "put the nose in the current", came the command from pumped lupthet two rafts the double IK John sat behind me saying "let's go", behind. "OK mum!" No, didn'tmake it, and single IK, then hot-footed it down "givehim somer room, holdback". Isaid tried again. On thet thirdtry, we made a the steep track to the put-in. Fifteen "ifllbe allright", itlooked: straightforward lot more effort. We were aiming to get cumecs (disappointing) of crystal clear and we were going down anyway. across the main flows when a kayak water running out from the dam, with Alastair had been pushed towards the shotby,it inspectingtheriverbed; he went standing waves only about 70cm high. true right by the force of the water, his alongwaybeforeherolledi up. Iputt the We launched our crafts and Phil and kayak was on edge, and we ranstraight nose into the main surging current Cliff (professionalriver guides) instructed into him. Alastair, poised helplessly coming out of the dam at 22 cumecs their respective crews. Alastair took the and waiting for a dunking, looked andaimedbetweentwostandingwaves single IK; John and carried on where aroundandrealisedi his goodfortune. I halfway across, unable to see over the we left off last May. "We'll practise on was half out of our kayakh hanging gonto top. Oh no "fudge", a view under the theway down OK?" Ididn'treallyfancy his, laughing at my precarious position. waves; white bubbles, which wayisup, being rescued by the "dolphins" again; John fell out of our kayak, then the huh? Spread-eagled under a boulder, there weren't any around yet but a kayakleftme. Iwent underandcorrected Ithoughtmysquealshadbroughtpurple squeal underwater would soon bring Alastair's position. John floated off on and red "dolphins" swimming by; them. his own, while I went down under our banging my knee on another boulder, craft, andA Alastair paddled on down the bobbed up to the surface and noticed We were off! Alastair had gone to the rapid. While this was going on, Phil had the "dolphins" had paddles. Down I other side off the river (true right) and set followed US down and arrived at the went again to inspect the riverbed. himself up to take some photos. pool below. As Phil's raft approachedi Bobbingupagain, the" "dolphins"helped Unaware of what he was doing, we thought, "Great, climb aboard before me ashore. After twenty seconds of carried on before he realised; Alastair the next drop". Scampering aboard, I adrenalin-pumping action, we set off was a little peeved at this. Casually thanked Phil and jumped back into my without any more practise. That was paddling, admiring the scenery; dense kayak which had pulled up at the side. the start of last May's trip bush, spring bloom, birds tweeting Now, to run a double IK on your own, overhead, chit chat among the punters. you turn it around and sit in the back Saturday 29 October saw the second Justsmellthosehills aah! - time passed half. Iwasonthetruel lefto andtorunthat release ofthe year. Ahair-raisingt tripby as we enjoyed the Tararuas. The first rapidishouldhavebeenontherightbut 20 seater bus from Taihape (a journey gorge was upon US a little sooner than trying to get over there was not easy. with its own story) sawus arriving att the we expected (Grade 3). Cliff was firstt to "Oh Nora", (a saying I have when the put-in below the second dam. We go down, Alastair followed, keeping a pooh is going to hit the fan). Going donned wetsuits, life jackets etc, space between his and Cliffs boats. down a drop on the left and digging TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING deep with my paddle, thel kayak's nose hit the resurging hole and spun 180 degrees. Nowlwast facing upriver with HUH, WHO NEEDS A thel kayak's nose being pulled under. I leanedback, frantically back paddling- KAYAK ANYWAY !! Oh! I turned turtle. The scenery down under was much the same at the next rapid; white and aerated; unable to tell up from down. floated down a pool andoverto asheerr rockf face ont thet true right bank where I tried to get a hand holdfor a rest. John had somehow got 5U - 6 back into our kayak and was shouting "jump back in!" My reply was, "l can't, l'm knackered!" S JAaR John drifted by and someone from another party threw me a line from the other bank. Thet first throw missed but the second throw was closer and I managed to dive for it. John grabbed best rapid and I missed videoing it (his bailingfloorwhent thelkisupside down. ther middle with thei idea ofpullingmeto video andmycomerowereinther ammo Puffing and panting on the bank, I thel kayak but when the guys on the far boxes tied to our kayak), The rapids resolved to stick to paddling jaraft next bankt begant to pulltherope, Johni joined were only Grade 2+ from now on. The timeasita doesn'trestrictmymovements me. in the water and the kayak floated others were disappointed, I thought in a sitting position. off down ther next rapid. John let go and there were some higher grades than followedi thel kayak whilelwas pulledto that. Wastheriverlevelrising? Inhalfan Thel kayak was upstream alongside the the far bank, shaking with exhaustion. hour ours sandyb beachhad disappeared raft and as John stepped in, it flipped So much for that idea. and the water had turned milky. and. John ended up under the raft. (He later described it as a dark room). There was a boulder as large as a Now that lunch had been munched, house blocking our view down the river and being as carefree as Popeye's A couple of rapids further down, Kris and a strange bloke standing on top sailors, wepaddledon: downriver. Some teamed up with John. The river colour giving a running commentary. Our nice small rapids, then a large rapid hadchangedalot, Grade2,huh? Grade kayak was going down ther next rapid(a beforel Igot a pinched nervei in myl back 4, morel like; it got bigger and bigger, it gnarly Grade 4, a good 100m long, with andwer paddledt to shorefor somet back was awesome. Our raft crew got the alargetreep partly submergedonthel left stretches. Not feeling very comfortable, overs right, saving any flips. At the near the bottom) alone again, as it did wep proceeded to follow the others. The bottom of one major rapid, a hard: shell the next four rapids with Alastair in injuryrestricted my movements and we kayak had wrapped around a large pursuit. John was out of the water, wrapped the kayak round a boulder boulder. Ourheartswerei in our mouths slowly making his way downstream on midstream. Being restricted, Ifelt was aswefrantically looked around, hoping the left and Alastair was about three letting John and myself down. "Don't to find the owner in the water or on the rapids further down. He took a pinball want to be here". "Fine time to decide bank. He was OK, not trapped. We canyon (which runs into a log on a 45 that", replied John, realising we were waited on the true right bank amusing degreel leani into ther right bank)s side on, last with no onet tohitcharide from. The ourselves watching John and Kris got dunked and went under the log on others had taken a good passage on navigating a very long rapid, in which his own, collected himself backi intol his the far right, but it was not possible for Kris was popped out of the IK at the kayak, and went on to catch our kayak. US to follow the same route. Back, bottom. Other kayakers came roaring Meanwhile, Phil and Cliff had parked buttocks, shin, andfoothurtingsittingin down and onet by onet they tumbled out theirr rafts upriver andi itt took me a while thelK.myconidencehodr dropped But when theyl hit one ofthet two boulders at to attract their attention (they thoughtl we had to go. We unwrapped the IK the bottom. was directing traffic). I jumped into from the boulder and launched Phil'sr raft andr ran all the rapids to catch ourselves. Paddling off to the left off the It took about 30 minutes to reach the up to Alastair at the end of the gorge. nextt boulder, we made ahardi rightturn take-out point from here. A BBQ and John had crossed the river to the true between two morel large boulders over refreshments were enjoyed before the right and was sidling around a rock ac drop. "OhNora!" Paddling across the busridebacktoTaihape. Later wer were face. Phil andIshoutedi to. John to jump flowf from the right, Iknewwhatl Ishould informedtheriverhadrisent to35 cumecs in as we screamed past; John's have done, but it was too late, and I during the course of our journey. expression was "you must be joking!" finished the next 30-odd metres under the IK. This tale is as accurate as remember. Allthe crewsstopped aroundthecorner The-storymaychange eachtimeitistold and hadl lunch with lots of jokes about It is surprising how you can hang on and I am not responsible for any the episode. Johnchirped "that wast the with onet fingeri in a 19mm hole of fas self- variations, OK! TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING