The Clarence River Revisited

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The Clarence River Revisited Anita Benbrook Thei tripstartedi months before all hopped out and checked we left Wellington. First, we out the route. Rex said, "just hadi the subtle hints, then the follow me," SO we watched group discussions, then the him go down, then watched trial. I'm talking about the the DAGS do it backwards; "raft-buying saga". We all with nervesi racing we cast off hopped in the van one fine With some yelling from the weekend and headed up to front and barking from the visit Incept Rafts at Taihape to riverbank we shot through tryout a varietyofcrafts. After The Chute - easy really. The a day of splashing around in P&L L cruisedi through and we thel Rangitikei River and more had: soon reformed the flotilla discussions, the said beasts and headed down to were purchased: two 2.9 campsite no. 2, Tinline Creek. metre, self-bailing dog sleds, and one larger non-bailing The boys spent the night barge. The other craft Rex extracting eels from the river, already owned as part of his and some of US went for a extensive flotilla: one kayak. walk up behind the campsite to check out the view. hone calls were made, Amazing countryside: vast tickets purchased, and expanses of barren hilltops. barrels packed. The teams We decided it looks like the consisted of: leadingt from the sort of scenery you see in front, the "A Team" with Ashley American Western films. The Stevens and me; also known vegetation, or what was left as the "Dog Sled" due to of it, all seemed to have Captain Khan and First Mate prickles, from big thorns on Tess being on board with US "The Chute" Rex Benbrook thel briar bushes down to the too; followed by the "P&L", grass which Rex said had stately craft with red andblack "sputniks" - nasty little spiky decor and matching luggage; blunder and a good test of Rex's 4, x4 things that stuck to everything and captained byl Paul Driscoll, and crewed skills. The van decided it had had scratched your legs. byles Jones; bringing upt the rear, "The enough of its radiator and required a DAGS" consisting of Dale Parsons, new one by the time we reached the The next day, after a lazy start, we Austin, and Captain Geoff Crockford; Acheron Accommodation House. paddled on down the river in search of however, somehow they managed to another "AT" campsite. We found it! bei int thet front most off thet time, usually The next morning dawned crisp and This one we called "The Willows" as it cruising the rapids backwards; CO- clear. We rushed around, sorting out had a large fishing pool out front, ordinating the trip was Rex Benbrook how to put twelve day's food and gear shade under the willows during the in his "Follow Me" kayak, also known into three rafts. A short visit to the day, and rabbit hunting at night. Some as the "gunship" due to the armoury Acheron Accommodation House and ofthe guys went out rabbiting that night on board. we were on our way. and got snapped bigt time byi thel locals who considered all game to be theirs. We arrived in Picton on Boxing Day and The Clarence starts off small where we After hiding in some bushes andt being met up with Jamie Clelland who had hoppedin, so therewas abit of shallow sniffed out by the locals' pig dogs, they offeredt to do our shuttle run for US. He water for starters, but where the surrendered and told all Luckily the brought along a big trailer for all the Acheron River joins the Clarence it locals didn't mind their rabbit gear so wel had al bit more room in the doubles in size. The "A Team" spent population being shot at, as long as van. We drove through to Blenheim to most off the morning retrieving its crew they weren't after pigs. drop off Jamie's car and squeezed the who thought swimming and rabbiting nine people plus two dogs into the van was far more: fun, and after lunch, with We dined on trout and rabbit thatr night; and headed down to Hanmer: Springs. the captain firmly int the front, we spent Dale and Les had managed to catch a more time paddling forward. 4-pounder each. We duly arrived after suffering, numerous dog farts, and had some One of thel big rapids is during the first Two days later we moved on. That day fresh air and a hot bathe before day's paddling, so we needed to sort we paddled, paddled, and paddled heading over Jollies Pass. Yes, Jollies out our directional control early on. By some more. Rex had remembered not Jacks Pass: a little navigational 3pm we came across' "The Chute". We some great campsites from his TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING previous trip, but couldn't quite jet boater had once broken his jaw We paddled on downriver next day and remember where they were. The river there. We hopped out and had al look visited at few more derelict huts along had had some massive floods and at the route. This rapid has a lot of big the way. One rapid caught US some areas, according to Rex, had rocks in it, resultingi inl holesi in the river, unawares. The "A Team" only just washed away. Paul did a bit of food sO youl havet to pick your route to avoid managed to slip through without a gathering en route int thef form of goats getting stranded. Rex "Follow Me", problem, but not SO the P & L boat. New Year's roast and dog tucker. went down first with no problems; it After some frantic paddling from the Ashley had been lured on thet trip with looked easy. Thel P&Lcruised through front, the P& L capsized; however, a stories of pigs galore, SO roast suckling with afewlooks of panic on Paul'st face; few bruises later the crew was pig was meanti to be for dinner Never the "A Team", minus its support crew reinstated. The DAGS as usual did it mind, the goat tasted superb. hit some big waves but Ashley was So backwards. confident that he wasn't even holding We camped that night at Tytler Point onto his paddle; the DAGS followed We arrived at a likely campsite after a after many hours of battling through backwards over one of the big battle against a headwind. Ashley headwinds, and spent the next day bigger rocks. All together again at the saw his only pig on the trip that there as well. The great fishing battle bottom, we paddled on down to the afternoon while we were hunting for went on that day with everyone vowing next campsite. an old hut. He didn't know who got to get a bigger fish than Dale. After the biggest fright the pig who had abandoning Dale on the wrong: side of "It's just around the corner," said Rex. been asleep in the thicket, or Ashley, the river, Rex and Co raced off to catch Another campsite that didn't exist any who nearly stood on the pig. Needless the big one. Dale, in a determined more; what had oncel been grass was to say, there was no pork for dinner that mood, headed off the other way; she nowmud. On down thei river we went, night. This was our last night in the won again. Rex caught a goldfish and to the Oasis. The river was SO warm valley SO we called up on the radio to Dale caught the whopper! we hopped out and had al long swim leave a message for Jamie to come before: setting up camp. The campsite and pick US up. The next day dawned hot as usual SO had the perfect rabbit shooting area on down the river we went. Wer passed across the river the Oasis. It was an The last day turned out to have some several nicehuts alongthev way, but Rex areao of grass about 200 metres square. of the best paddling of the trip. Once said "paddle on. a Some of US thought you get to the swingbridge, it's very this was turning into a repeat of two After leaving Paul, Ashley and Les to exciting from there down to the road days ago until we came across Dead some goat shooting for dog food, we bridge. We hopped out and camped Moggy campsite, SO named after we headed back to the rabbit paradise. in the picnic area for the last night. foundi thel biggest, deadest cat wel had After missing a few we moved to the Jamie turned upt the next morning right ever seen. After giving it a decent other side ando got dive-bombedbyt two on time and off back to civilisation we burial, we set up camp. Rabbit hunting NZ Falcons. This was their hunting went after an excellent twelve days in and goat slaying were on the agenda paradise, not ours. the Clarence wilderness. again that night; Khan was the mosts successfull hunter with one d baby goat. The next day was 25 degrees in the shade at 9am so it promised tot be a scorcher. We set off with a tailwind and Captain Khan acting as a mast on the P& L ship. He sat on top of all the bags, upright, searching the banks for prey. First Mate Tess stood in the front of our craft, ready to leap ashore. We whizzed down to Ravine Hut and went for a nosy inside. Unlike all the other huts, this one had insulation and was relatively cool inside while the others were all heat traps. After a brief sit-down and a search through the magazine pile (reading material was running low), we headed off. Today had rapid no. 2 Jaw You can't beat a good book! Paul Driscoll Breaker so named because a TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING