3-8 December 2023

Leader: Owen Cox

There were six of us on this trip so we had 3 Canadian canoes. We had five days on the river and paddled or drifted down 145 km of the Whanganui River from Taumaranui to Pipiriki.

Sunday 3rd – Two car loads of us drove to Ohakune so we would be ready to pick up canoes and barrels at 8am on Monday.

Monday 4th – Taumaranui to Poukaria campsite – 35.5 km. We started at Cherry Grove in Taumaranui. Bit of a delay getting started as one of the canoes was leaking badly. Fortunately there was a substitute canoe on the trailer. We had a smaller leak in my and Bryan's canoe. Some good rapids this day. About 30 minutes down from Taumaranui we were warned to walk our canoes around the corner past Herlihy Bluff. Once we were part way through the walk down, floating the canoes in the shallows, we were glad we did. The rapid had changed since I last did this section of the river over 10 years ago. What was a longish straight forward bit of fast water had, with gravel movement from the bottom section, turned into a nasty, narrow steep little shoot with big white water waves. The waves are way too big for open canoes. So we relaunched below the rapid and continued on down. Peter and Paul had a bit of wet excitement in a rapid sometime later. After lunch we passed the first campsite and reached our campsite late in the afternoon. I was getting a bit tired of bailing water from the leak by the end of the day. A fairly grey day. We shared this campsite with one other person. All the other campsites we had to ourselves.

Tuesday 5th – Poukaria to Ohauroa – 47.5 km. The day started with some work on the leak in our canoe. We had left the leak until morning so we had a dry surface to work on. Rex and I heated the leak area with a cooker, stripped off a leaky patch and then used a hot tent peg to mould plastic from the patch to seal the hole. I was half expecting this little exercise to be a daily event but it was nice to find the one session dealt with the problem for the whole trip.

This was a longish day. We passed the Ohura River with its short waterfall. This was clear which was another change on earlier years. The Ohura normally was very muddy. We then passed Whakahoro and entered the National Park stretch of the river. The river goes through a series of looping curves. Mangapapa campsite didn’t look very inviting. We ended the day with a fun rapid at Ohauora campsite.

Wednesday 6th – Ohauroa to Maungapurua – 31 km. This day was a bit more laid back than the 5th. After a couple of hours we stopped at John Coull Hut so this hut was bagged. We had a brew and a snack here. We then continued on the river past Tangarakau River and the gorge containing Mangawaiti campsite. We pulled up on a gravel bank downstream for lunch. Then is was a short paddle down to Mangapurua campsite. We set up tents and had planned to walk to the Bridge to Nowhere in the evening. However when we had pitched the tents it started drizzling. So we loitered about the picnic shelter for the evening.

Thursday 7th – Maungapurua to Ngaporo – 22 km. We started the day with a canoe crossing to the landing for the Mangapurua valley and the walk to the Bridge to Nowhere. After securing the canoes we headed for the 40 minute walk to the bridge. On getting back to the river we recrossed in the canoes and picked up our gear and then paddled a couple of hours down to Tieke Kainga and the DoC hut. It turned into a beautiful sunny day and we had plenty of time. The hut wardens made us a brew and we spent some time looking at the meeting house, the carving and generally chatting before lunch. Then back on the river for a couple of hours then another fun rapid just before our campsite at Ngaporo. This is a pretty impressive site. Also a good-sized boulder beach with heaps of driftwood. Good place for a campfire so we had one as it got dark.

Friday 8th - Ngaporo to Pipiriki and then home – 9km canoeing. This was only a short day. We started in a very placid river and checked out the ballroom overhang on the east bank and cave on the west bank at ‘drop scene’ (a favourite spot for postcards a hundred years ago). Then we headed down the rapid. The guy we got the canoes from called it the 50/50 rapid – about half the canoes manage to sink or capsize in it. Only 1 in 3 of us took a swim. The swamped canoe was in an eddy so it took a while to retrieve it. While we were there, numerous other boats got swamped. Good that the day was hot and sunny.

The last stretch has a few fast rapids in the last hour down to Pipiriki. We had lunch at the Pipiriki boat ramp. We were picked up about 1.30pm and taken back to Ohakune where we sorted our gear before the drive home. To sum up, if you weren’t there you missed a good trip.

Those on the trip were:

Bryan Wild, Kate Livingston, Owen Cox, Paul Michl, Peter Davis, Rex Benbrook

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.