Here is a late trip report of an epic weekend in Aotearoa. I had met this influx of nations at the Wairoa extreme race, and one of them Jono the Englishman was nice enough to let me live on his couch for a couple of weeks In Auckland. I had left Auckland to travel the north and south Island as well as a bit of Australia but on my return to Auckland I discovered they had a trip planned to run a couple of rivers that sounded good for gold.   

Espen on one of the many short North Island run.

Toni George on playing meters above a class four.

Toni in the thick of it.We hopped In Kiwi hair runner Toni George’s van with her canine friend Jezz. Toni had some of the worst directional sense I have ever seen, but it was a blast watching her try to find her way out of the city with little help from kiwi James Rae who would tell her the opposite direction and she would listen. Needless to say the trip took longer than expected but was more enjoyable because of it. We finally arrive at our place for the evening which was a road stop and set up our tents It was a chilly evening as winter was begining to set in. The next day we ran the Tongariro Which was a blast to run but was chocker (NZ word for full) of people. The river only runs two or three times a year, and when it does it seems most of the paddlers get on it. I eddied because as I was running a rapid there was a guy on the imediate left of me and one on the imediate out at one point and when I went to get back into the current I could not see a break in the paddlers running down the rapid. I have never experienced something like this before, out east ten people on a river is a huge group that you would rarely see, that doesn’t mean the boating isn’t good we have some world class boating out here but not many people. The run was mostly boogie water with a fun rollercoaster type rapid but at the bottom it ran into a section called tree trunk gorge which is a huge undertaking only the hombres with huge kahunas run this. After the trip down the river we met up with about 20 gorbies from the  Auckland Uni paddling club. This added to the entertainment factor which I will explain later. Next morning the gorbies joined us on the Rangitikei.

Turns out there was some war paint in one of the cars.

Jono Dropping in.

Jono does the backwards dance.

Jono Looks at his handy work.Which was a fun run that started of with a bang with some technical must make moves as there were sieved out spots which is Iconic of the New Zealand rivers. The spot had taken lives before but at the levels we paddled they were relatively easy to miss.  The rest of the run was pretty cruizy and there was a beauty classs 4 drop  that sepaerated a gorbies shoulder while we were there. The drop was fun enough to hike back up and run multiple times with two different choices of lines. The lines were a little boof drop on river right and a fun roller ride on river left

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Espen Running the goods.

Grassy boof.

James taking the roller line. Next we drove to Rotovegas And hopped into a natural hot springs which was very soothing. At the hot springs some of the gorbies recognized other gorbies and they had a run down shack they were sleeping in, Choice no more tenting. Theese new gorbies were of the very interesting type I had a good chat with them where the instructed me on the art of jumping into supermarket garbage bins to grab slightly older food after the super market shuts down. They saved heaps on food and they were kind enough to explain the logistics of it too me. Gotta love Gorbies. Rotovegas is home to a classic run called the Kaituna. The run started with some boogie water but picked up really quick with a meter boof then a little pourover a very short paddle through an incredible gorge and them a silly 5 meter drop where the aim was to boof onto a a pillow part way down. This was followed by some fun rapids with lots of play and a hole at the bottom that was good for looping creekers.

Author dropping in on the Kaituna.