Arahura

With much anticipation we pulled in to Hokitika the home to crazy rivers, a notorious pub with the name poo, and heaps of boaters. About 30 min after arriving we ran in to Tim and Greg from Australia and before we knew it we were making plans for the next day. The plan was to do the Arahura. The helicopter was to arrive at 9 the next morning so we made a huge dinner with all four of us and then went to bed.

I could go on and on about how cool it's for a helicopter to just come out of the sky and pluck you up and take you to the put in and then just fly away leaving you with a feeling of both excitement and fear, knowing that the only way out is down the creek you just flew up, but everyone that kayaks should just put it on their to do list.

Well, all four of us had cameras on the river and in total we had almost 400 pictures from the day. Below are the top 25, enjoy!

Up up and away. Look close and you can see that the Kayak Shed is well represented on the chopper.


The put in


This gives you some idea of the character of the river. Tons of large rocks in the river making boat scouting hard. we spent a lot of time scrambling to get on top of a rock just to look down stream.


Amy on one of the first picture worthy drops.


Take two


Tim on the same drop


Tim Take Two


Richard on the same drop just different angle


Lot of good moves and fun lines.


Curtain Call is one of the most photographed drops in NZ we were told and it is for good reason.



AMY! hitting one of the sweeter boofs out there



Greg lining it up


BOOF


Pretty


Fun stuff


Dent Falls is the largest single drop on the river. It gets its name due to the shallow landing and the damage it will cause. A well placed and agressive boof is the key to success.


Greg about to find out why it is called Dent Falls.


Ouch, Greg was fine and the boat seemed to take the hit rather well.


Tim preparing for take off.


Tim landing nice and flat


Here is a drop we all walked around due to the sieve on the left and the large hole above it. The river had many bad looking sieves but this was the first one that you really had to get close to in order to run the drop. The fun factor was not quite high enough to give this one a go.



We scouted a lot.

The run cools off a bit about 2/3's of the way through and stays easy for about 2 miles and then kicks back up for Cess Pit and the final gorge.

Tim looking for a line at Cess Pit


Cess Pit starts off with a solid 10 footer that has three doors to choose from (see pic with Tim scouting) then curls around the massive rocks we are standing on and drops into some big holes before pooling up at the lip of the final gorge. Add in some undercuts and big cave/room-of-doom and you have a classic west coast NZ class V drop.


We had been on the water for about 6 and a half hours at this point so we all chose to portage. to do so you seal launch off a very tall tower of rock and quickly get in to the large eddy above the final gorge


Pretty waterfall


This is all you get to work with. Scouting had to be done from the rocks before the seal lauch


Greg dropping in


Tim and Greg mid way through. The huge rock that has a sloped top to it in the way back of the pic is the one we slid off of to do the portage


In it to win it. The final gorge was amazing, good rapids, great scenery


AMY!


Tim waves has we exit the gorge. The take out was another 10 mins of flat water downstream.

All told the day took us about seven and a half hours from take off in the chopper till we were back at the car, a long day by any standards. We all went for yummy Indian food once back in Hoki and slept very well.