ANATOKI

I'm pretty sure Anatoki means "steeper then @!#%" in Maori. Ben, Johno, and I flew up the Anatoki and had our self quite the mission. The run is 15 km's long and chimes in at 80 m/km (500+ fpm) for a large portion of that. The "right" flow is in the 9-12 cumes (200-600 cfs) range. The biggest issue for us was daylight, the fastest a group had done the run was around 11 hours. knowing we were not going to be able to get down in one day, we had the chopper drop off our over night gear at the bottom of the steep stuff. All things added together we still had to move fast and efficiently down the run to make camp before dark. All in all it was quite the adventure. We endured some very hard work ( i.e. portaging a lot of 500 fpm mank) for some very classy drops (i.e. clean 20 footers) and made it out in all in one piece.

If it looks huge from the helicopter you know your in for a big day out.

Our ride of choice for this trip. Of note is that fact that there are no doors on the chopper...sweet

Ben getting off to a good start. Taking pictures was third to staying alive and trying to make camp before dark, so the quantity and quality are somewhat low.

Looking back up at some of the early and most manageable steep stuff. Capturing the steepness of the run on film was hard.

Johno hits the boof and some sunshine.

Johno on one of the best drops on the run.

At one point we got to the hard to scout, harder to portage, 20 footer that the guide book spoke of. Ben nutted up and dropped in first.

Our camp on the river was awesome, complete with a fire, dry clothes, warm food, and knowing that we had completed the hardest portion of the run. After 9+ hours on the river we all slept quite well.

Jono gets into it early on day two.

Ben pulls out a good morning boof

All smiles at the take out.

Drying gear and eating ice cream, life was good and the Anatoki was complete.

"You don't go kayaking in New Zealand, you go on an adventure and bring a kayak along." The Anatoki fits the mold of NZ adventure boating completely. The run was most definitely the hardest mission I have been on in New Zealand.... so far