Saturday 3 January 2015

Whanganui River and Tongariro Alpine Crossing

For our summer holiday 2014/15 we thought we'd tackle one of the DOC Nine Great Walks, the Whanganui Journey. We packed the car on Boxing Day night and headed South from Auckland to Taumaranui, where we met Karen and Ronny at Taumaranui Canoe Hire. We unloaded and set up camp at their place on Saturday night.
Fish and chips for dinner before we hit the river the next day 
Taumaranui Canoe Hire gave us a thorough briefing on how to navigate the river, paddle a canoe and stay safe.
A couple of cool dudes listen to the briefing
We put all of our gear into ten 20 litre barrels and a couple of dry bags. We split our big tent up into two bags to spread the weight.
After a bit of instruction and a couple of test paddles up and down the river at basecamp, we set off down the Whanganui.
We were in a convoy of two Canadian canoes, a kayak and a 'dickie seat' so that Benjamin and Joseph could take turns paddling and resting.
We successfully negotiated our first set of rapids about ten minutes into the trip. After about 45 minutes we hit the second set. Jules and I sped into the rapid and then swerved and the nose of our canoe hit the bank. We spun around 180 degrees and were backwards in the rapid; There was nothing else to do but paddle furiously backwards until we hit the calm water. Joseph capsized the kayak, but managed to get back in further down the river. We didn't realise at the time, but that was to be the most difficult rapid on the river - and we did it backwards!!
Our first day paddling was 36km and we finished in about 5 hours. We set up camp at Poukaria.

Dinner first night was sausages, powdered mash potatoes and dried peas. Surprisingly tasty!
Day two was 32km (another 5 hours) to Mangapapa. Just as we started putting the tent up, we heard booms of thunder. We got the tent up just in time to keep everything dry as the heavens opened and it poured with rain. It turned out to be quite a short storm and after an hour or so, dried up. We met five tourists from France, Germany and Canada who were travelling the Te Araroa Trail. They arrived in the middle of the rain... Dinner was tinned butter chicken and rice. 
We really started to get into our rhythm and learned how to swap Benjamin and Joseph from the kayak to the canoe while drifting down the river. 
My view for five days
The scenery down the river was spectacular. Day three was scheduled to be a six hour paddle, 36km to Mangawaiiti camp, however the river was flowing quite fast from the rain the night before, so we only spent about 4 /12 hours on the water which was quite good. We stopped for lunch at Whakahoro which was the last road access befor we entered the Whanganui National Park. Mangawaiiti camp site was up quite a steep track, but was very scenic, set in the bush. Pasta and tomato sauce for dinner.
Card game underway
There was a group of ten that joined us at Mangawaiiti along with our 'TA' friends.
Canoes parked up for the night
Day four saw us on the river again for a 19.5km paddle. The wind was in our faces a lot of the day which made some of the paddling feel a little 'uphill'.
The river was mostly in a canyon, with occasional streams and waterfalls flowing into it. The flat parts were relatively easy to paddle, but we had to 'follow the bubbles' to make sure we were in the fastest flowing water.
Duck!!
We stopped at Mangapurua landing and walked 40 minutes through the bush to the Bridge to Nowhere. This was built in 1936 for settlers, but by 1942 the valley was abandoned.
Our last night on the river was spent at Tieke Kainga. New Years Eve was a rainy affair (rice risotto with pumpkin for dinner), in bed by 10:30. We did however wake for fireworks from the lodge across the river at midnight.
Our last day was a short paddle to Pipiriki.
We had one stop at the 'mud caves' and the boys went for an explore.
The bus came and picked us up at Pipiriki and drove us back to base at Taumaranui. Fresh cupcakes and juice was a nice touch (camera battery flat, so no photos ...)
After some deliberation, we decided that we'd have another go at tackling the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We stayed another night in the tent at the Tongariro Holiday Park. A bus transfer took us to the start.
The Crossing is a 19.km hike through a spectacular volcanic plateau. It was very busy when we walked it on 2 January - there must have been well over a thousand people on the track so it was pretty crowded for the first hour - after that it spread out and walking became a little easier.
We walked through the South Crater and up the Devils Staircase to the Red Crater.
Anton and Thomas raced ahead to a side path to the summit of Tongariro. The rest of us carried on to the Emerald Lakes where we met them again and stopped for lunch.
We then walked past the Blue Lake and around the North Crater then descended to the Ketetahi Hut.
The hut was damaged in the 2012 Te Maari eruption
A walk downhill through the Totara forest saw us arrive at the Ketetahi carpark after a six hour walk.
Our week long adventure over New Year saw us take in some of the most spectacular and beautiful scenery in the North Island - highly recommended!