We reached the put in at around 4.30 pm expecting a ‘leisurely’ two or three hour paddle back to Scone Hutt. Being the only person to have done the two day Perth, I knew most of the lines so the word was, “just read and run, there are two bigger rapids that you might want to look at.” As we paddle down I contemplate to myself, ‘shit a lot of stuff has changed in here.” I’m starting to get a few odd looks from the boys and clearly as courteously mentioned by Trent “This shits not f**King read and run.” CLICK! and whoops! It appears we had been kindly dropped a lot higher than the normal 2 day Perth run. This top section has only been done a handful of times and I have heard it had taken a generous six hours to Scone Hut. We did not have 6 hour to spear neither did the disappearing sun. Needless to say we got the skates on, and just like Tiger, we went for it.
Trent Granham classy as always
If you are flying in the morning this section would be a sick addition as there are copious amounts of long class five rapids that are all good to go. Arriving at the Hutt at around 8.30 pm to find five DOC workers in a six man hut wasn’t what we were hoping for. So under the stars it was. Day two is nothing but class right down to the confluence of the Whataroa. After an enthralling trip we were looking forward to cracking open an ale. Murphy then had the grim task of informing his severely dehydrated (beerdrated) crew that he had in fact given away his dozen to the American who had kindly lent him his spray deck.
Sean Manchester getting it done on day 2
Apologies about the shithouse pictures. All I had was my wee point and shoot. My SLR has craped itself.