In my return I haven’t been up to much as people would know in Cali I had an addiction to “ candy” ( pain killers) for my should that was playing up from the pasted rugby session. At the time I thought it was just muscle injury so when I got back I decided to go get it cheeked out. After getting X amounts on injections to pump my shoulder full of roids I finally went for an x-ray and low and behold there it was a broken collar bone and also a small dislocation. Bugger! So after 6 months with it broken and 3 of those months paddling nonstop in Cali I thought what the hell what’s another week worth. So Trent Garnham Andy England and myself headed to the far south of the West Coast to check out what the Makawhio and the Moeraki had to offer.
The Makawhio is situated 30mins South of Fox and Moeraki about an hour from Fox . First on the list was the Moeraki with the boats strapped to our back you start walking through amazing beach forest, putting in off the side of the Haast-Paringa Cattle Track, directly underneath the swing bridge, 400m before you get to Blue River (Blowfly) Hut was the plan. But we ended up walking another 45min up the valley to find even more fantastic white water.From where we put on you could see even more white water upstream but as time was against us. From here it starts off with some read and run class four right down to the swing bridge, here on is where the action starts with some steep 4+ 5 white water some previous teams had described the run as followed …”
“We then had a few km's of steep, busy, grade 4, with 3 rapids that we had to portage, 2 of which will likely not be run, least defiantly not by me for sure on that one. They sieve out to hell and back, the third portage could be run, a 4m drop, if we had a bit more water through the river, the rest is beautiful boulder gardens, lots of tight lines and good fun boating, down to a flat water paddle past a river wide choke of trees for half a km, before one last rapid and the take out on the side of the State Highway 6, by Boulder Creek, a couple of km before the river hits Lake Moeraki”.
From this description the river seemed to have changed as all good rivers on the coast do, there were few trees but still lots of sieves and lots of gradient. I managed to run everything but one sieved out heap of crap rapid as some of the portages looked harder and the rapid as Andy and Trent shins found out. All and all the Moeraki river is a must do if you are coming up from down south or you’re a just keen to for a bit of a mish it is well worth the effort and u will not be let down. From here we head back to Fox for a well-deserved beer and some fish n chips.bro !.
The Makawhio is a river that has only seen to other team in there before us according to James Scott. We flew into just below the main gorge were after dropping the boats we few up to check it out from the air. It looked very steep and that’s saying something if it looks seep from the air. Most of it looked like it doesn’t go as yes u guessed it, it flows into sieves but there is a bit here and there that douse run and might be worth a look. The Makawhio river isn’t the hardest river in the world with it starting off with quite a bit of class four and then heaps of class three. There is enough to keep you entertained. But what makes this river so cool is that you can only get down this valley this by kayak, there is no tracks and no sign of people what so ever .This landscape will is mine blowing and it will keep you
From this description the river seemed to have changed as all good rivers on the coast do, there were few trees but still lots of sieves and lots of gradient. I managed to run everything but one sieved out heap of crap rapid as some of the portages looked harder and the rapid as Andy and Trent shins found out. All and all the Moeraki river is a must do if you are coming up from down south or you’re a just keen to for a bit of a mish it is well worth the effort and u will not be let down. From here we head back to Fox for a well-deserved beer and some fish n chips.bro !.The Makawhio is a river that has only seen to other team in there before us according to James Scott. We flew into just below the main gorge were after dropping the boats we few up to check it out from the air. It looked very steep and that’s saying something if it looks seep from the air. Most of it looked like it doesn’t go as yes u guessed it, it flows into sieves but there is a bit here and there that douse run and might be worth a look. The Makawhio river isn’t the hardest river in the world with it starting off with quite a bit of class four and then heaps of class three. There is enough to keep you entertained. But what makes this river so cool is that you can only get down this valley this by kayak, there is no tracks and no sign of people what so ever .This landscape will is mine blowing and it will keep you
