We had a great group of five for a Sunday morning beginners packraft paddle. The river had a great flow at 17 cubic metres, but the water was pretty cold! After a fairly smooth car shuttle ride, we had a briefing at the confluence of the Akatarawa and Upper Hutt Rivers and then jumped in. … Read more
A club packraft trip down the grade 1 and 2 sections of the Rangitikei River. Perfect conditions. 51 cumecs on Saturday, 40 on Sunday. Sunny and no wind!
The middle section of the Rangitikei River offers some scenic paddling with a few rapids up to Grade 2. These rapids are mostly straightforward fun in a packraft and the views on the way down river are quite spectacular especially where the river flows between high cliffs. Three of us paddled the 35 km from … Read more
INTRODUCTION Following the great success of the first WTMC packrafting instruction course our chief-guide Richard organised a second one – which helped to alleviate our feelings of envy. Packrafting is a very exciting way to travel down a river by using a special inflatable kayak weighing in at just over 2 kg and folding to … Read more
This trip was Marie Henderson’s idea. Walk into Roaring Stag on Friday night and sleep in the hut. Then packraft down the Ruamahanga River on Saturday to a Mt Bruce exit on the highway. But at the last hour Marie was called by SAR for four days assistance in the search for a tramper missing … Read more
The Otaki water catchment had little to no rainfall until Friday before our trip. On Friday morning, it started raining in various degrees from 1 to 5 mm per hour until Friday evening. Around midnight before our trip, it rained again 2 to 3 mm per hour, then the weather turned to dry and overcast … Read more
WTMC is once again organising a 2-day intro to packrafting course. The team from Packrafting New Zealand will be coming up to run the course with one day on the Hutt River and one day on the Otaki River (as weather allows). If tramping and paddling had a baby, it would be packrafting. Packrafts are … Read more
What a lark! Hooning down the Tararua rivers in a 1.6 kg inflatable dinghy—including all the kit (floatation device (PFD) and paddle). Welcome to the wonderful world of packrafting! Having had a very harebrained thought to do just the same thing by myself a few years ago, except with questionable gear, no training and no … Read more
This course was a first for the Club. Packrafting is a relatively new outdoor activity in NZ and while a few members had some limited experience, none had any formal training. As part of the schedule planning Richard House managed to get Packrafting NZ from Expedition X Ltd, based in Te Anau, to come up … Read more