Back in Murchison

After the rescue training, I packed up with the intention of heading back towards Invercargill, but I didn't get very far. I camped for the night just a couple of towns away from the Rangitata. The next morning, as I was about to leave the campground, I received a phone call. (Yes, I did get a cell phone here.) A number of kayakers that I'd met and paddled with previously were heading towards Murchison for the weekend. Since I'd been feeling a bit homesick to be spending "Thanksgiving" alone, I thought it would be nice to spend some time around a group of people I'd already gotten to know, so I changed directions and headed north towards Murchison for the weekend.

On Saturday, we paddled the Earthquake Section of the Buller River:

This gives you an idea of the scenery on the banks, but doesn't give you any sort of idea of what the rapids were like. I've recently noticed that I have this tendency to forget about my camera before, during, and after the rapids. Generally, I don't remember to take pictures until we get to a calm stretch where we're all just chatting and looking around at the scenery.

On Sunday, a group of us paddled the O'Sullivan's to Ariki Section of the Buller. Fascinating hydraulics. Huge boils, surges, and swirlies. . . and, yes, that is the technical term.

On Monday morning, I paddled with a couple of folks on the Matiri River. You may remember the Matiri as the river that a group of us ran while it was "out of it's banks, but not quite to the road." This time it was at a super low flow, which gave me a chance to see the huge rock formations that were mostly under water during flood stage. I'd never seen anything like it in a riverbed - massive rock slabs that were tightly touching on the bottom, but then further apart on the top. . . similar to when books on a shelf fall over to the side. . .V-shaped gaps.

That afternoon, we paddled the Lower Matakitaki. I didn't remember to take pictures as the boats were coming through the rapid (was a bit more concerned with their safety), but I finally took some pictures close to the rapids:


Little by little, I'll figure out how to get good kayaking shots.