Home / About the NZRCA River Guide

About the NZRCA River Guide

Submitted by jonathan on Sat, 2008-08-30 16:03.

Background

One of the important lessons learned during the work to obtain protection for the Buller River is that a documented history of use of a river is a key element in preserving recreational amenity from threats such as hydro, irrigation and lack of access.

The NZRCA River Guide is intended to be an authoritative guide to the sections of rivers used by kayakers in New Zealand/Aotearoa. By referencing a robust, stable index of sections, paddlers, authors, photographers, researchers, planners, bloggers, and students can compare notes, share knowledge and enhance understanding.

With permission from Graham Charles, the NZRCA River Guide has been seeded with sections from New Zealand Whitewater (4th Ed.). Graham's scholarship has been supplemented by additional information from Matt Barker, Alan Bell, Mike Birch, Glenn Murdoch, Jonathan Hunt, Guido Wassink and Tony Ward-Holmes. The software behind the guide has been developed by Jonathan Hunt based Drupal.

We have additional features in the pipeline, including comments, ratings, photo galleries, maps, incident and trip reports and more.

Linking to the NZRCA River Guide

The guide is structured as a simple containment hierarchy. At each level, a report shows the sections contained in the parent location.

Depending on your needs, you can reference a region, or a river, or a specific section.

If the section changes name, the URL may change and we'll try and issue an HTTP 301 redirect. Otherwise, expect HTTP 404.

Sorting

Clicking a column heading can sort the Sections by Region, River, Section or Class. Clicking the column heading again reverses the sort direction. The region sort is geographical (North to South and West to East). River and Section are alphabetical. Class sort is based on a decimal equivalent to the class description (e.g. III = 3.0, III+ = 3.25, etc.).

How you can help

  • Tell your kayaking companions about the NZRCA River Guide.
  • If you have river information, please write it up in the style of the current entries and sent it to us at guide@rivers.org.nz.
  • If you note an error or have new information, please post it in our Access and Touring forum.
  • Keep a logbook, take photos and video, be prepared to share.