Av gas taxi- Wanganui heli packrafting

By 2002 I was starting to form a love/hate relationship with rivers on the west coast. I had been commercially rafting and kayaking up to 12 rivers flowing into the Tasman Sea. These rivers are by a long shot the most challenging in NZ. Most require access by helicopter and flow off the main divide which catches the predominantly wet westerly flows meaning dramatically rising, and falling rivers and dynamic weather patterns. Riverplay was a business fully relying on these rivers to make a living. It was stressful, dangerous and financially marginal.

After the helicopter crash (link here), I steadfastly held onto my mental health and continued running trips even after I broke a leg taking a swim on the Styx River. An offer to learn the ropes on Melissa’s family farm presented itself and the regular income and lower personal risk was too enticing. We tried to sell the business but in those days there were over 5 operations doing heli rafting on the west coast and I ended up selling off some of the gear and keeping enough for my own trips in future.

The Wanganui river was one of the lesser run by Riverplay but I also contracted my services to another operator, Wild West Adventures, and they were…they ran the Wanganui in a variety of ways and it was appealing as there were two sets of hot pools and the river doesn’t go through the typical sheer walled gorge found on west coast rivers, meaning the river could handle higher flow margins.

The heli rafting trip started from the Lambert confluence and was sold as a class 4 trip. One trip in particular is memorable as I was almost drowned by a customer after a flip at high water.

We picked up a pair of Israeli guys from a Greymouth backpacker hostel, they were obviously very drunk. Maybe in hindsight as the trip leader I should have just cancelled them but it would have probably made the trip unviable and picking up drunk backpackers for class 5 rafting trips was normal.

The river was high, significantly higher than the flows in Av gas taxi. We portaged the Slip rapid the drunk guys no help with that and pathetically weak paddlers. After the Slip rapid the river is near continuous grade 3-4 for a while and finishes with a pretty decent rapid at Hendes Creek.

I misjudged the size of a hole and dropped in and instantly flipped. For a guide the worst case scenario is not staying with the raft to then commence re-righting procedures. This is what happened, the force of the water ripping me away from the boat. While I was under the water I bumped off one of my crew. I felt a hand grab me, then 2, then a person was holding onto me and flailing about holding me under water for a matter of 5-7 seconds, pushing me down. I totally freaked out. As soon as I managed to get my head above water, I screamed at him to let me go.

He came to his senses with a few breaths and my screaming profanities. We both swam to shore and the guide of the other boat had thankfully rescued the rest of my crew and managed to get my raft to shore. The fulla broke down on shore balled his eyes out. I was still in shock and screaming at him that he almost drowned me. He threatened to walk out and it took me a good while to convince him to get back in the boat. He sulked the rest of the trip. I’ll never forget it.

The Upper Wanganui as it eases off towards Poker Bluff

I had been looking for a decent packrafting mission for a while after being totally revitalized from packrafting white water free of the constraints of bikerafting on the Waingaro river in Golden Bay (link here).

After the heli crash I had a credit for the insurance excess, then I broke my leg. With my brother visiting I decided and still on crutches I decided to use the credit to fly into and out of Smyth hut in the Wanganui headwaters to check out what was reputed as the number one wilderness hot springs in NZ.

It was an amazing flight from Franz Josef over the gardens of Eden and Allah, massive ice fields and down into the eroded and steep country of the southern alps. We had a great night bathing under a hanging glacier, one of the highlights of the precious time with my only brother who lives on the other side of the world.

So I floated the idea of flying into Smyth hut for the night, hiking down river until the river was navigable and packrafting to Hunters hut for the night and then paddling out.

After putting out the mid week dates, Muel was keen as was a couple of others showed some interest but it was too hard to pull themselves away. Muel and I decided that we were happy with the risk of being a 2 person team and booked the helicopter.

Our put in on the first day instead of climbing over Poker Bluff

Matt from Precision Helicopters was a great pilot and did a great job of talking us through his landing process and before long we were outside the hut with the thumping of the heli noise disappearing into the distance but echoing of the towering rotten cliffs we were surrounded by. It’s a surreal feeling when the adrenaline is pumping flat out due to heli stress and then the endorphin hit of relief of having all the ducks in a row to be in the middle of wilderness with the tools required to negotiate your way out across a beautiful yet risky landscape.

A week prior to our trip had been a huge rain event and the rivers were not low, this was deprimental for the hot pools and they were completely silted up and still being cooled by streams of cold water. We returned to the hut to bask in the evening light a few beers, meatballs and spaghetti.

We didn’t move very quickly in the morning because we didn’t want to leave this amazing spot but aware of the 6-8 hour walk down some very rugged terrain. I had pored over the hut book and the general impression was it would be pretty hard but doable. We also had large packs with packrafts, dry suits, paddles and life jackets.

We got busy and the first 15-20 minutes were relatively good going and then it changed quickly to the eroded slip section on the film that had a consequence of falling 15-20 metres into grade 5-6! I realised now this would require intense focus and relaxation to negotiate and at times we commented that it was like chess moves.

At Devastation Creek the creek had pushed up a head wall of debris that we precariously climbed down and around. It was really rough going for a while. Meanwhile the river was thundering over and through large cataracts of rocks house size. As soon as the gradient eased I was eyeing the river but it was continuous grade 4 interspersed with more cataracts.

I had filmed and reviewed the flight and had a sense for when we would be able to put in given the exposed nature of a 2 person team. At the base of the valley the biggest slipped out section at Poker Bluff loomed and from the intel I wasn’t keen to hike up 200m vertical to be traversing across a fresh slip with the fatigue of the end of a big day.

This is the beauty of packrafts. Instead of that we blew up and put on. It was still steep and we walked 2 rapids early. Then we got a feel for it, I probed the one on the film and we then had about a kilometre of join the dots grade 3 under the cableway.

The second night at Hunters hut was great and I was amazed at the amount of packrafters in the hut book. Also the demise of deer by 1800 drop last March. There is array array of tramping routes from here.

We got going a bit earlier. It was the 3rd day of bluebird conditions, hot. I was sunburnt. We quickly reached the confluence of the Lambert and a milky, much bigger volume tributary swelled the flow considerably. The river became one big wave train skipping along at a good pace. We were ensuring we ran ‘truck and trailer’ meaning very close to each other for ability to help each other and good communication.

I remembered the Slip rapids from the rafting days and it arrived pretty quickly. We portaged on the right above some big drops and whilst scouting the bottom found a sneak (chicken) line around a meaty hole and through the tail of the rapid. Definitely grade 5 in the top but we managed to find a grade 3 line through the grade 4 tail.

We ran through the Hendes creek rapid and the hole I flipped on with the flapping customer was a big rock! We stopped at Hot Springs creek, but we were stifling and so was the water temp so we flagged that had some food and put back on.

We floated past the helicopter crash site. The river had changed significantly and I hardly recognised it. It wasn’t far to the take out but the white water didn’t let up. Big wave trains.

It was another epic bonding trip with my brother from another mother. I prefer to be in epic places with Muel than anyone else. We’ve done so many type 2 missions together we know exactly where each other is at mentally and physically, it just clicks.

On a side note I sleighed the demon of the crash…