kayaking the pacific islands. - Canoe & Kayak

Wild Water and Fragile Craft-
Canoeing in the Fifties
Part 2
Following our first expedition on
the Waikato, a year later there was
still canoeable river to be explored.
At Easter, aboard our trusty bus, we
headed for the Mihi Bridge on the
Rotorua Taupo road. We would use
one of the clubs dinghies, a very
acceptable alternative to paddling
canoes to the Whakamaru dam.
There is something to be said for dinghy travel.
Most of the time you don’t paddle furiously, just
lie back to watch the ever changing river scenery
glide past. You can gossip with the crew and when
you get hot drop into the chilly water and be ready
for the sight of wild white waves leaping above the
surface of the river heralding some more white
water excitement .
The first day finished again at Orakei Korako. Just
in time for lunch up by the hot pools,
Written By Doug Phillips
I stripped off and sat luxuriating in the milky
steaming thermal pool eating my sandwiches
and relaxing. And then, a ten year old Maori lass
perched on the edge of the pool and chatted.
Which was all right at first, the milky water covered
my nakedness. But soon I was starting to cook
and wanted to get out and recover my clothes. My
young friend may have not been embarrassed.
But I, sure as heck, would have been. So I stopped
talking and thankfully she went away.
We had an appointment with the mighty
Whakaheke rapids. Once again we headed down
river and once again we hurtled through the
blood tingling rapids. We pulled our dinghy out
and shouted. “That was just something. Let’s do
it again”
But this time we came unstuck. Near, the end of the
rapid our dinghy started to deflate and by the time
we were nearly through we were swimming and
guiding our sinking craft to the shore.
That was OK as we were safe and there seemed to
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