Rangiteiki

So, a week ago, a few days before I (Sam) popped my shoulder on the Kaituna, we headed down to Murupara, just outside Rotorua, with the aim of paddling the Rangiteiki. Leaving the camp site at 9, a massive achievement for Doug, who wasn't quite fully conscious until mid day, we drove up to the get on. This was possibly the most dangerous bit of the day, as the section of the river that we were paddling (the Jeff's Joy run) was only accessible by private forestry roads. Private forestry roads are nuts. As we trespassed along, we encountered what the guide book describes as 'high speed logging truck death', characterised by the a generally liberal attitude to speed limits and driving on their side of the road from the fully loaded 45 tonne trucks, some of which have un cut trees hanging 30ft off the back of the trailers, which of course swing into your side of the dirt track whenever they negotiate a left hand bend.

We eventually made it in one piece, and parked the van a little way up the dirt track to the river, where we were relatively sure that we could get it back out. Getting on, we had 200m or so of flat water to warm up on before dropping right in to the class IV, the first bit of which was an easy, bouldery, narrow rapid called Rock A, which has killed people in the past (just don't hit Rock A). Rock B soon followed, before we dropped through Fan Tail and then Jeff's Joy. More Class IV. On Jeff's Joy, Doug tried to eat my boat.

Mostly intact, we proceeded down the rest of the river, 8km or so of beautiful, narrow read and run class III. We dodged all the trees, got to the rafting get off, and I began the 2.5 hr hike back up to the main logging road then back down to the river to the get on! Some fun off roading later, the gear was all back in the van, and we headed back up to Rotorua to get on the Kaituna! More on that later.

Catch you all soon.

Sam and Doug.