Date: Thursday 2nd August
Location: Hurunui
Duration: 1 day
Group memebers: Jimmy Jarvie, James Sadler, Myself
Weather: Rain and cold
Flow: 180cumecs
Accidents/Incidents: Heading into the gorge (Maori gully) I had a swim. Got tipped getting pushed under a slightly undercut/overhanging rock, losing my paddle so couldn't roll . Lost the paddle, so had to walk up the steep bank out of the gorge onto the road, haul the kayak up the bank and walk it to the take out. Not ideal.
So we headed to the Hurunui thinking the 180cumec flow was gunna bring something exciting, but all that we got was a washed out, faster flowing river. It was very boily and lots of lateral waves, buffer waves off the rocks on the side of the river so not as fun as it gets at a lower flow. Boils got the better of me a times, rolling alot but the one time i happen to roll over and lose my paddle, it was as we headed into the gorge so my swim was not ideal. Made a very hard walk out but all went well with communication with Jimmy and James. Once i got onto the road we blew our whistles to locate where each other were. Met them at the take out and drove the 4wd motorbike (As our shuttle) to the truck at the put in. We got changed, drove back to the take-out, loaded the kayaks and headed home. Not the best of days but a good learning experience. Maybe i need to get a hand roll locked down!
