NZ Whitewater: Foreword (2002)

Hi there. If you are lucky enough to be buying this New Zealand guide for the first time then rejoice. Its packed with up to date information: new runs, new cartoons and new photos. Check them out. You might be the star! There is even a 'park 'n' play' section for those of you paddling boats the same size or even smaller than yourself.

Graham has been out there relentlessly garnering fresh information and revising the previous two editions. You can all be thankful for his type 'A' personality and hopefully this book will entertain you and more importantly get you to the right put in on the right river at the right flows.

But after that its up to you. Lots of these runs, by the very nature of their isolation and the denseness of the bush (a New Zealand euphemism for jungle) are considerably more serious than their numerical grade would suggest! I've stood at the take out of the Whakapapa at Owhanga and watched two of my friends get stuck in giant, killer blackberry bushes. The river was in big flow, they were tired and cold and elected to walk the last big rapid. Unfortunately the short portage on river right was through the aforesaid jungle. We had time to get dry, dressed and drink coffee all the while being amused by the mysterious shaking of the bushes on the far bank. Eventually the team re-emerged (and I won't mention the team leader David Bailey's name in this context) at their entry point and after a short committee meeting they put in again and ran the huge rapid rather than deal with the 'bush'.

In the South Island a very short helicopter flight takes you into an instant Himalayan environment but without the back up of porters and chai houses! Be conservative on your first fly-ins. The Hokitika River is one of the 'Cathedrals of Kayaking' but its deep gorges are also some of the more inaccessible places on the planet. We have already been treated to a 'Kayaks from Hell' scenario where a mixed team of Americans and Australians (no I am not xenophobic) created the ultimate fiasco. The leader and presumably the best boater ran the entry rapid into one of the gorges and swam. His team mates then elected to portage... a serious decision since at the time it had never been done before and subsequently took them 5 hours or so. Our hero meanwhile is sitting on a rock in the class V gorge musing on his fate: To wait for help, (forever?) to die of hypothermia or to swim the rest of the gorge on his own!! He elected to swim and survived to become a legend in his own lifetime but it probably cost him a few years of his life. Quel Horreur!

To make the most of this book you have to become your own meteorologist. Parts of the West Coast of New Zealand get 600 inches of rain! By and large its best not to be in one of those tight little gorges when it's raining! When it eventually stops raining you can go out make the first descent of lots of new rapids on the same old rivers! As ever, look to your rescue gear, your rescue team (you are paddling with them!) and your skill level. Then try and make it an equal battle when you pitch yourself against some of the magnificent rivers in Graham's book.

Mick Hopkinson
Murchison 2002