Day 2 The Kaituna river (still in Rotorua)

The Kaituna river was fantastic one of the only class IV and V river in the Northern Island that is commercially run. I found a company Kaituna Kayaks who would rent me a boat and send a guide with me to give the beta on each rapid. My guide’s name was Joe and he looked to be about 18 years old, already sponsored by bliss stick kayaks and on his way in a few months to the freestyle kayaking world championships. I guess talent develops quick when you have a class V river in your back yard.

The river was beautiful, flat and scenic at the beginning with trees creating a canopy over the river then narrowing down into a gorge for a stretch of about 5 miles. So the run of rapids was only about an hour, but involved about 10 major rapids with horizon lines and significant drops. The biggest rapids were a couple of 3 meter falls and one 7 meter falls. The height of the water falls were just enough to feel a bit weightless and as you dropped over the edge you were enveloped in the water even if you boofed (using a paddle stroke at the top of the falls to flatten your trajectory) at the top to prevent penciling in. I got to practice surfing on the front pillow of a rock to help maneuver through the rapids, which was a bit scary at first thinking I might get pinned but a great way to let the river do the work for you once you get used to it.

We had time to run the rapids twice. The first time through we took the safe lines the second we took more risky lines. On the second run I got stuck at the bottom of the first three meter drop and had to side surf for a couple minutes before it flipped me around a few times and decided to spit me out.

At the end of the run was an exceptional play hole (a place where the water flows over a submerged rock and creates a back flow of water that is perfect to do kayak acrobatics and tricks). I tried to learn to do a cartwheel in the air after burying my nose for and endo. Briefly to sink the front nose of the boat and as you shoot vertically out of the water you throw your body weight forward and try to whip the back end of the boat around to go into the hole again getting a reverse back endo. I got close and got some of the biggest air I have ever gotten in a kayak. Though as is the nature with play holes and trying new tricks I got extremely water logged and my sinuses took a couple days to drain out all the water.

We also met another kayaker from England on the run, Tim, who had finished law school 6 months ago and was on a year holiday before heading back for work. Both Tim and Joe invited me to boat some of the other rivers if I wanted to hang out for a few more days. I wish I had more time, but felt like I should see other parts of New Zealand. The day was exceptional and made me rediscover the fun and challenge of kayaking since I hadn’t been in my boat in 6 months. I can’t wait to go again when I get to Africa. Incidentally, Joe is also heading to Uganda in a few weeks to kayak the White Nile so I will probably run into him again.