Packrafting

Rangitikei River packrafting

Date: 19 January 2020.
Trip type: Packrafting.
Location: Rangitikei River.
Author: Tony G.
Trampers: Illona, Megan B, Tony G. Assisted by Ian H.

Rangitikei River packraft

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

Packrafting Course 2019

Date: 2-3 March, 2019 .
Trip type: Pack Rafting Instruction.
Location: Hutt and Otaki Rivers.
Author: Henry Fisher.
Trampers: Richard House (leader), Fiona Millington, Yenfei Chan, Ashley Baxter, Tim O’Meeghan, Megan Banks, Henry Fisher.

Packrafting Otaki River

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

Packrafting the Ruamahanga River Gorge from Cleft Creek to Mt Bruce

Date: 8 June 2019.
Trip type: Packrafting.
Location: Tararua Forest Park.
Author: Jenny Cossey.
Trampers: Ben Kurtz, Andrew Esler, Jenny Cossey.

Packraft-Ruamahanga-River

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

Otaki Forks Packrafting

Date: 9 March 2019.
Trip type: Packrafting Day, Grade II, Flow 16-18m3/sec.
Location: Otaki River, Tararua Forest Park.
Author: Bart.
Trampers: Jenny (leader), Bart and Marie.

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

Packrafting safety instruction

Date: November 2018.
Trip type: Instruction.
Location: Hutt River, Otaki River Gorge.
Author: Andrei Zubkov.
Trampers: 15 keen bean participants plus instructors Arno and Andy.

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

Packrafting Instruction

Date: 27-28 October 2018.
Trip type: Instruction.
Location: Hutt and Otaki Rivers.
Author: Megan Sety.
Trampers: 14.

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

Packrafting Course – Interested?

Packrafting Training

I am organising a 2-day intro to packrafting course in 27-28 October 2018 and need an early indication of numbers.
If you would like to attend the course, email . If you need to know more, read on …

Read morePackrafting Course – Interested?